Shutdown Program #13
Mehmet Daimagüler, Chana Dischereit, Neue Radikalität, alte Ressentiments im Ländle
(New Radicalism, Old Resentments in Ländle)
ONLINE LECTURE + TALK
With Mehmet Daimagüler, Chana Dischereit and Ülkü Süngün
Language: German, Platform: Zoom
Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 7 pm
the course of event series
On Local and Global Structures of Antiziganism
curated and moderated by Ülkü Süngün
The current exhibition Actually, the Dead Are Not Dead. Una forma de ser at the Württembergischer Kunstverein addresses the criminalization and stigmatization of Sint*izze and Rom*nja in film and image and shows the continuity of these conditions. But what about the current reality of life for Sint*izze and Rom*nja in Baden-Württemberg?
Only since 2017, antiziganistically motivated crimes have been recorded. [1] Their number is still relatively low in statistics, but it is increasing. This is also due to the fact that racism against Sint*izze and Rom*nja is often not recognized or reported, as it is part of the everyday life of those affected and their trust in authorities is low.
The racist arson attack on Rom*nja in a meadow near Erbach-Dellmesingen in Baden-Württemberg in May 2019 is one of the cases that went to court, ending in September 2020 with guilty verdicts for the five people after juvenile court. Mehmet Daimagüler is a specialist lawyer for criminal law and was the representative of the Nebenklage. Chana Dischereit accompanied the trial on behalf of the VDSR-BW (Verband deutscher Sinti und Roma, Landesverband Baden-Württemberg). Together, Daimagüler and Dischereit will reflect on the case and its legal and civil society reappraisal against the background of further racist attacks in Baden-Württemberg in an online conversation with Ülkü Süngün.
The reappraisal of institutional and official racism against Sint*izze and Rom*nja is a very slow process and often the result of bitter civil rights struggles of those affected and associations, which continue into the present: When in 2007 the policewoman Michèle Kiesewetter was murdered in a (neo-Nazi) attack on the Theresienwiese in Heilbronn and the policeman Martin A. survived seriously injured, this led to years of anti-gypsy investigations by the police, which involved mass genetic analyses and gained sad notoriety as the "cotton swab affair". This further contributed to the stigmatization and discrimination of Sint*izze and Rom*nja through police registration, a practice that dates back to the 19th century. The Heilbronn murder has since been attributed to the right-wing extremist terrorist group the NSU.
[1] For 3 years, antiziganism has been recorded as a separate category in the statistics of politically motivated crime (PMK) (case numbers: 2017: 41; 2018: 63; 2019: 78) and the case numbers show a steady increase. See here)
Dr. Mehmet Gürcan Daimagüler
Dr. Mehmet Gürcan Daimagüler is a German lawyer, university lecturer and book author. He was a member of the federal executive committee of the FDP from 1997, but resigned from the party in 2007. As of 2012, he was a representative of the Nebenklage in the NSU trial. With seven mandates, he represented the most joint plaintiffs in the trial. Since then, he has regularly represented victims of human rights violations and racist violence. He is a commentator in the renowned Münchner Kommentar zur Strafprozessordnung (Munich Commentary on the Code of Criminal Procedure). In the fall of 2021, his next book will be published: Das rechte Recht. This book is about the failure of justice in the fight against right-wing extremist activities.
Chana Dischereit
Chana Dischereit, M.A., studied at the universities in Heidelberg and FU Berlin and earned her degree in futurology. She is a consultant at the VDSR-BW for the areas of education, press and science. The VDSR-BW represents the interests of the families who were expelled in Erbach-Dellmensingen. Chana Dischereit also accompanied the trial at the Ulm Regional Court scientifically and wrote about it the article Antiziganismus im Ländle. Ein Bericht aus dem laufenden Prozess am Landgericht Ulm (Antiziganism in the Ländle. A Report from the Ongoing Trial at Ulm Regional Court) published in the Leipzig Authoritarianism Study 2020, Autoritäre Dynamiken. Neue Radikalität–alte Ressentiments (Authoritarian Dynamics. New Radicalism, Old Resentments).
On the event series
The online conversation The Selective Gaze is the third part of the four-part event series curated by Ülkü Süngün, On Local and Global Structures of Antiziganism, which explores questions raised by the current–unfortunately currently closed - WKV exhibition Actually, the Dead Are Not Dead: Una forma de ser in depth and contextualized locally. The focus is on an examination of the emancipation of the Rom*nja and Sinti*zze in the face of the current forms and practices of their discrimination.
In the current WKV exhibition Actually, the Dead Are Not Dead. Una forma de ser, curated by María García and Pedro G. Romero, artistic-political articulations, especially of the Sinti*zze and Rom*nja living in Spain, are variously addressed, alongside works about their resistant practices and emancipation. Central to this is the festival, flamenco and the kris–a political form of assembly. Based on and inspired by the artistic works in the exhibition, I would like to address some of the exhibition's questions regarding housing, criminalization, and persecution and extermination with the four-part program series On Local and Global Structures of Antiziganism. In particular, resistant practices within civil rights work will be addressed and these will be brought into a context with local events.
In Germany, resentment and prejudice against Sinti*zze and Rom*nja are often projected into the Nazi era and thus externalized, although antiziganism has a long history and has continued to have an unbroken effect even after the end of the war due to a lack of reappraisal. Even today, it can be found in competing policies of remembrance of those persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime. It can be found in forms of ongoing criminalization and extensive police registration as well as in connection with migration and flight, especially from the Balkans. - Ülkü Süngün
All dates of the event series On Local and Global Structures of Antiziganism
Radu Ciourniciuc, filmmaker
Acasa, My Home
STREAMING
7–10 December 2020
ONLINE TALK
Monday, 7 December 2020, 7 pm
With Radu Ciorniciuc, Lina Vdovil, Ümit Uludag and Ülkü Süngün
Language: English
Verena Lehmann, co-founder of the Sinti-Roma-Pride initiative
#dasdenkmalbleibt (The Memorial Remains)
LECTURE + TALK (ONLINE)
Friday, January 29, 2021, 7 pm
With Verena Lehman and Ülkü Süngün
Language: German
Frank Reuter, Research Center Antiziganism, Heidelberg
The Selective Gaze
LECTURE + TALK (ONLINE)
Wednesday, February 10, 2021, 7 pm
With Frank Reuter, Robert Gabris, Ülkü Süngün
Language: German
Mehmet Daimagüler, lawyer (among others NSU victim advocate), Chana Dischereit, Verband deutscher Sinti und Roma, Landesverband Baden-Württemberg
Neue Radikalität, alte Ressentiments im Ländle
LECTURE + TALK (ONLINE)
Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 7 pm
With Mehmet Daimagüler, Chana Dischereit and Ülkü Süngün
Language: German
