1 The men–Maik Wotenow (nicknamed ‘little Adolf’), Heiko Patynowski, Rene Burmeister and Dirk Techentin–were picked up in the early hours of the morning near the scene of the fire. In a statement, Wotenow claimed that he burnt his hair when he set fire to a dog before hacking it to pieces. The police made no attempt to find the mutilated dog. Techentin claimed that he burnt himself lighting an oven. Burmeister claimed he was singed when he used a lighter to look into a gas tank. Patynowski had no burn marks. Samples of the men’s singed hair taken by the police have since disappeared.
2.
2 Andreas Juhnke has written an excellent book on the contradictions of the Lubeck investigations. See his Brandherd. Der zehnfache Mord von Lu Èbeck: ein Kriminalfall wird zum Politikum (Berlin, 1998). See also, Geoffrey Bindman ‘Murder in Lubeck’ in Race & Class (Vol. 39, no. 1, July–September 1997).
3.
3 Leonhardt, who was tending the slightly injured people at the fire, says that Safwan Eid told him ‘We did it’, adding that gasoline had been poured outside the door of a ‘family father’ on the first floor as an act of revenge for an earlier quarrel. For Leonhardt’s story (which he revised on several occasions) to be true, petrol would have had to run up a slope. Furthermore, the only possible ‘family father’ denied that there had ever been such an argument. In the final analysis, Leonhardt’s claim defies common sense as it would have meant that Eid deliberately set fire to the house in which he lived with his family and then went back to bed on the upper floor after doing so.
4.
4 Although I refer to the ‘Lubeck fire’, this is shorthand. There have been numerous fires in Lubeck, both before and after 18 January 1996.
5.
5 This is only a sample of some of the more representative responses of the press to the Lubeck fire. For more detailed analysis of the press, see Wolf-Dieter Vogel, ed., Der Lu Èbecker Brandanschlag (Berlin, 1996), especially Miriam Lang’s essay, ‘Denn sie wollen nicht wissen, was sie tun’ and J. K. Langford, Spirit of the Past/Borders of Today (Kiel, Echos, forthcoming).
6.
6 From Right to Left, this includes the following mainstream papers: Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Die Woche, Focus, Stern, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, Frankfurter Rundschau, Freitag and Die Tageszeitung. The local and regional press (Lu Èbecker Nachrichten and Kieler Nachrichten, for example) followed the conservative pattern. The exceptions in the mainstream media were Bo Adam’s coverage in the Left-wing Berliner Zeitung and the WDR ‘Monitor’ television reports.
7.
7 Jasper von Altenbockum ‘Lu Èbeck fuèrchtet um seinen Ruf ’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) (19 January 1996). The term ‘alien unfriendly’ (fremdenfeindlich) is the mainstream press’s euphemism for racism. The assumptions packed in this term are made manifest in the 1978 Langenscheidt German-English dictionary definition of ‘feindlich’ (unfriendly, antagonistic, hostile) which provides the example, ‘feindlicher Ausla Ènder’ (i.e., ‘enemy alien’).
8.
8 Jasper von Altenbockum, op. cit.
9.
9 Die Woche (26 January 1996).
10.
10 Johann Georg Reiûmuller, in FAZ (22 January 1996).
11.
11 Reiûmuller was, in fact, popularising a theme predominant in police circles. Under public pressure to address racist police brutality, the 1994 Interior Ministers’ Conference initiated a study on ‘foreigner antagonism’ in the police, published under the title Fremdenfeindlichkeit in der Polizei? Ergebnisse einer wissenschaftlichen Studie (‘Antagonistic or overburdened? The social and structural burdens borne by policewomen and policemen in dealing with aliens’) (Schriftenreihe der Polizei Fu Èhrungsakademie, 1995).
12.
12 FAZ (23 January 1996).
13.
13 Vera Gaserow‘Tru Ègerische Selbstheilung. Der rechte Spuk geht nicht von selbst vorbei’ (‘Deceiving self-healing: the right-wing spectre won’t leave on its own’), Die Tageszeitung (19 January 1996).
14.
14 This Left discourse has set the tone for discussions of fascist history and racism in the FRG for almost thirty years and is discussed at greater length in J. K. Langford, op. cit.
15.
15 Konrad Adam, ‘Lu Èbeck als geistige Lebensform: das Volk der Taèter sucht nach Ta Ètern’ (‘Lubeck as a way of life: the perpetrator Volk looking for perpetrators’), FAZ (26 January 1996).
16.
16 K. Kampe, ‘Der Mo Èrder kam nicht von drauûen’, Die Tageszeitung (22 January 1996).
17.
17 In order, the headlines are from ibid; Sabine Ruckert and others, ‘Anschlag aus dem Innern. Treibt doe Asylpraxis in Deutschland die Fremden zur Verzweiflung?’, Die Zeit, Dossier 9–12 (26 January 1996); Peter Glotz, ‘Zwischen Wut und Anklage–die Reaktionen auf die Brandkatastrophe von Lu Èbeck offenbaren das deutsche Trauma’, Die Woche (26 January 1996).
18.
18 ‘Kollektive Mitverantwortung’ (‘Collective responsibility’), Die Tageszeitung (24 January 1996). Hilgers’ article was just one of many written during these weeks warning of the dangers of herding people of different cultures into refugee hostels.
19.
19 ‘Nightmare alien-hate: between rage and indictment–the reactions to the Lubeck fire catastrophe make the German trauma manifest’, Die Woche (26 January 1996).
20.
20 The word ‘capitulation’ which Vogt uses here axiomatically connotes the Nazi capitulation to the Allies in 1945. ‘Brandspuren. Gewalt als Symptom einer Gesellschaftkrise’, Freitag (26 January 1996).
21.
21 ‘Die Empo Èrung der Gerechten’ (‘Indignation of the righteous’), Tagesspiegel (22 January 1996).
22.
22 Christian Semler, ‘Urteile und Vor-Urteile’ (‘Judgements and prejudices/prejudgements’), Die Tageszeitung (23 January 1996). Semler is here criticising the supposedly hasty judgement that the Lubeck fire was a racist attack.
23.
23 Robert Leicht, ‘Die Lehre von Lu Èbeck’ (‘The lesson from Lubeck’), Die Zeit (26 January 1996).
24.
24 Ruckert and others, ‘Attack from the interior’, Die Zeit (26 January 1996).
25.
25 Hans-Jurgen Wolter was the Eids’ lawyer at the time. Gabriele Heinecke and Barbara Klawitter took the case on later.
26.
26 Bindman, op. cit.
27.
27 For detailed accounts of the facts of the case and the Lubeck trial, see the weekly trial reports of Lubecker Bundnis Gegen Rassismus, press releases and other texts from the defence, reports from the Independent International Commission, and court publications (http://www.gaarden.net/hafenstr); Juhnke, op. cit.; Prozeûgruppe zum Fall Hattingen/AG zu rassistischen Ermittlungen; Die Brandanschla Ège in der Barbarisierung der Gessellschaft Hattingen-Lu Èbeck (Berlin, 1998). Survivors of the fire also issued a number of statements in support of Eid as well as against their own treatment and criminalisation by the authorities. These, and a statement by Safwan Eid, are printed in Prozeûgruppe (1998). See also Heinecke’s article on the evidence against the Grevesmuhlen men, ‘Modell Lu Èbeck. Die juristische Bewaèltigung von Brandanschla Ègen’, in Roxana Mahdavi and Jens Vandre, eds., Wie man Menschen unterscheidet: Praktiken der Diskrimination, illegalisierung und kriminalisierung (Hamburg, 1998).
28.
28 Leonhardt had various explanations as to why it took him so long to come forward–Hippocratic oath, self-doubt, disbelief. Some commentators pointed to the fact that president Heidi Simonis had offered 50,000DM for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator or perpetrators. Others noted that there was absolutely nothing to substantiate the police account of how Leonhardt contacted them and that a lack of normal procedural documentation suggested that channels of contact between Leonhardt and the police may have already existed before the Lubeck fire.
29.
29 The uncorroborated confession ‘we did it’ became fact in the written verdict which asserted that the fire was set from within on the first (not ground) floor with the assistance of a gas-like substance; that Eid showered surreptitiously and disposed of his kaftan in secret and, of course, that he confessed to Leonhardt. Eid and his brother actually showered in the hospital at the request of a nurse, and left their smoke-ruined clothes there. Their clothes, like those of other survivors, were found in a hospital garbage bin.
30.
30 Wilcken’s written verdict (Landgericht Lubeck, Urteil 27 Oktober 1997, 702Js 2026/96//2a KLs (29/96)).
33 Martin Klingst, ‘Das Asylrecht la Èsst sich nicht halten. Wie umgehen mit Flu Èchtlingen und Einwanderern? Was tun gegen Kriminelle’ (‘The asylum law is untenable: how to deal with refugees and immigrants? what to do against criminals?’), interview with Otto Schily, Die Zeit (28 October 1999).
34.
34 Now imprisoned for theft, Wotenow made his first official confession, to Lubeck police, in February 1998 while in prison in Neustralitz, that the original Grevesmuhlen suspects were indeed guilty of causing the fire. Three days later he retracted his confession. In July 1998, in an interview with Der Spiegel, Wotenow claimed that the others did the planning and set the fire–he only stood guard. Wotenow then retracted this published confession (Der Spiegel (13 July 1998)).
35.
35 For a detailed analysis of court proceedings see reports by the groups Echos (Berlin) and Gegenwind (Kiel) at www.gaarden.net/hafenstr 36 'Tatverdacht von Lu Èbeck per Lauschangriff er haèrtet ', Die Tageszeitung (2 March 1996).
36.
37 In order to appreciate just how convoluted the court proceedings were, one must note the mixture of languages at play here. The original taped conversations were spoken in a Tripoli dialect; the translators were native ‘high’ Arabic speakers (translating into German). Yachoua’s German was so shaky that he mixed up pronouns and articles (which can change meanings). He did not recognise colloquial expressions and he confused words which had no relationship to one another.
37.
38 Bindman, op. cit.
38.
39 Technical defect has become a catch phrase indicating ‘alien’ inability to deal with technology; hot-plates and stoves are too much, it is believed, for those who actually prefer to build fires. The ‘criminal dispute’ argument is also used to explain baseball bat attacks, shootings and other forms of attack. For more on this pattern see Prozeûgruppe, op. cit.; Elke Spanner, ‘Die Ta Èter-Opfer-Wende in der bundesdeutschen Ausla Ènderpolitik’ and Gaby Hommel, ‘Feuer in einer kleinen Stadt ’in Vogel, op. cit.
39.
40 Echos (Berlin) and Gegenwind (Kiel) are groups which are mobilising around this case. Echos' documentation of the second trial will be available in February 2000. Echos is at echos@sireconnect.de or telephone 49+30+6185396.
