The lives of nine young people were extinguished on the night of 19 February 2020. Nine unique individuals who were part of our community. Who belonged with you, their friends and relatives. Who belonged in your town, with you, the people of Hanau. Who belonged with us all in our country, in our shared homeland.

Their place was here with us. They were:

Kaloyan Velkov.
Fatih Saraçoğlu.
Sedat Gürbüz.
Vili-Viorel Păun.
Ferhat Unvar.
Mercedes Kierpacz.
Gökhan Gültekin.
Hamza Kurtović.
Said Nesar Hashemi.

Nine special individuals, with widely varying biographies, dreams and plans. Nine people, who were at home in Hanau – in the town where they had been born, or to which they had moved. Germany was their home.

Five years ago today, on that terrible night, they were brutally murdered here in this town. Their lives were abruptly ended by the bullets of a right-wing extpremist. The perpetrator shot them in bars, at a kiosk, out on the street. He knew nothing about his victims. In his racist hatred, he targeted people with an immigrant background. People who in his eyes had no place in Germany.

Their death has left a gaping void and endless sorrow. For five years you, the relatives, have missed your loved ones, who were so suddenly torn from your side. For five years, you have grieved for your partners, your daughters and sons, your mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins. For five years, nothing has been as it was.

Nine people are gone. Their absence is felt by their friends and colleagues. Their absence is felt here in Hanau and in Land Hesse. Their absence is felt in Germany and in the countries where they had relatives, in Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and elsewhere. No, they are not coming back. But we will not forget them. They live on in our memory.

My dear relatives of the deceased, Germany, the country that is home to us all, shares today in your pain and your grief. We remember with you. We grieve with you. We can see and hear that the nightmare of 19 February 2020 is not over for you. Since that day, many of you have carried deep physical and psychological scars. And on this anniversary, the memories can be particularly overpowering. Today, our thoughts are also with the many other people in our country with an immigrant background, who were shaken to the core by the attack in Hanau.

On this day, we all feel weighed down by these memories, but hopefully also feel the power of remembrance. It is a day of sorrow, but also a day to recall that while the perpetrator did not that night point his weapon at us all, his attack is of concern to us all. The Hanau murders, motivated by right-wing extremism, were an attack on peaceful coexistence in our country. They were an attack on open society, on our liberal democracy – just like the series of attacks of recent months with an Islamist motivation.

We remember these attacks, and we are aware of our responsibility for the present and the future. It is up to us to combat racism and right-wing extremism, Islamism and all other forms of hatred. It is up to us to ensure that we coexist peacefully in our country, that we look out for each other anew every day. That is the message we should send today from Hanau!

Much has been done in the past five years to keep alive the memory of the Hanau attack. And that is due in no small part to you, the relatives. You have all achieved a great deal in the fight against forgetting!

The vigils and the rallies which are taking place again here in Hanau and in many other cities are just one example. So, too, are your interviews and appearances, the theatre plays and documentary films about the attack and its aftermath. Said Etris Hashemi, Çetin Gültekin, you have written books about the attack.

Of course, another prime example are the places of remembrance that now exist here in Hanau. The graves and Ehrengräber (graves of honour) that are so close to your hearts. The memorial to Vili-Viorel Păun, who demonstrated heroic civic courage by chasing the attacker in an attempt to stop him – while trying, in vain, to contact the emergency services. Mr Niculescu Păun, it is in my opinion not only you who can be proud of your son. We are all proud of Vili.

I know that the location of the central memorial remains a matter of debate, and at times a cause of contention. It is a difficult, emotional issue. But I urge all sides to reach out to each other and keep talking to each other! After all, it is important that a place of remembrance, which aims to strengthen cohesion, can in fact be jointly inaugurated by all concerned. I also believe it is a good idea that you want to set up a "House for Democracy and Diversity". We need places like that where the many diverse members of our society can meet and exchange opinions, stories and ideas. Places where trust can grow. For without trust, there can be no cohesion.

The memory of the nine victims of the Hanau attack is also kept alive in many other cities, thanks not least to the Say Their Names movement. Their names and faces are to be seen everywhere, on stickers and posters, on traffic light posts and walls. Today we can say that they are not forgotten. This has not come automatically. It is a major achievement. And it is above all your achievement here in Hanau. I ask all of you to continue your good work so that their memory can live on in the future!

My dear relatives, I also know that there are questions which have troubled you to this very day. How could this happen? Why didn’t our state manage to protect your loved ones? And last but not least, what have those in charge learned from the attack?

These questions are of concern to us all. Nobody is infallible, even the politicians and officials in charge. But they do have a duty to investigate the circumstances surrounding any such crime, to admit if mistakes have been made, and to take any actions that may be necessary as a consequence. I profoundly regret that, after the attack, some of you had the impression that you had to force the state to investigate. And I profoundly regret that your trust in our state, in your state, was damaged as a result.

It was therefore only right – and indeed important – that the Parliament of Land Hesse established a committee of enquiry, in no small part because of your perseverance. Thanks to this committee’s work we now know that before the attack, on the night of the attack and afterwards, there were various shortcomings and errors on the part of the authorities and the police which never should have happened, not even on the night of 19 February, which was of course also stressful and out of the ordinary for the emergency responders.

Dear relatives, it was for this reason that the Land Parliament, Land Hesse and the police force apologised to you last year. I know you would have also liked those responsible at the time of the attack to have reached out to you in a more meaningful way. But as your Federal President, let me say today that it pains me deeply that our state was unable to protect your families and friends. And it also pains me that, after the attack, you felt that you had at times been neglected or treated with disrespect – as you have told me in person many times, here in Hanau in years past, and when we met in Berlin. On behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany, I therefore would like to state today that it is our responsibility to ensure that the victims of such acts of violence receive the sympathy they need. And the respect to which they are entitled!

And it is true that there are to this day questions that have not been answered, which perhaps never can be answered. What would have happened if...? I can understand how that must torment you. But I wholeheartedly urge you not to let anger and bitterness prevail! Please do not close your eyes to the goodwill that can be found in the town, at Land and federal level. Please do not close your eyes to the many people here in Hanau, here in Hesse, and across Germany, who actively foster cohesion in our society.

Nobody can undo what has been done. But policymakers and the security forces must learn from the attack. Our democratic state based on the rule of law must be vigilant and observant, it must do more, it must do everything to protect everybody who lives here – regardless of where they come from, what they believe in and who they love. That, too, is a lesson from Hanau!

The state has an obligation – but so do we, as citizens of Germany. It is up to us to take a firm stand against prejudice, hatred and violence!

The Hanau murders did not come out of nowhere. The perpetrator did not develop his racist worldview in a vacuum. Resentments against Muslims, Jews, Sinti and Roma existed prior to his attack. And prior to his attack, hatred was also being spread, above all online and in social media, with the aim of poisoning the atmosphere on the streets and increasing the marginalisation and exclusion of people with an immigrant background.

The horrific attacks in Magdeburg and Aschaffenburg, the presumably Islamist-motivated attacks in Mannheim, Solingen and now in Munich, all of these crimes in which so many people lost their lives for no good reason, have additionally created a climate of fear, which has made it tangibly more difficult for people of different backgrounds to live together. Many people with an immigrant background are experiencing this now in their own lives, facing greater distrust and exclusion, and coming under suspicion just because of their background. This is exacerbated when politicians use these deaths to their own ends – or, as the Minister-President has said, when hatred is made into their business model.

After a mother and her two-year-old daughter died from injuries sustained in the Munich attack, their family published a moving plea, urging that this death and loss not be used to foment hatred and instrumentalised for political ends. In my opinion, this plea from the victims’ family not only deserves our respect. We must all take it to heart!

It is the state’s job to guarantee our security. It is the state’s job to hold perpetrators to account. But we must not permit people in our country to be treated with suspicion simply because of where they come from or the colour of their skin!

We have to do more, together, especially now, to strengthen solidarity in our diverse society. For this reason, I urge you to consider this day of mourning and remembrance to be also a day of encouragement.

That you, in particular, the friends and families of the Hanau victims, are leading by example in this quest, after all that you have suffered, is a great gift to our country. Saida Hashemi, you and Ajla Kühn are active in local politics here in Hanau. Serpil Temiz-Unvar, you have established an education initiative that bears your son’s name. Many of you are active in the Initiative 19. Februar, and you have just told me about all your efforts to foster coexistence here in Hanau and to strengthen cohesion in our society. Thank you all very much for your valuable work!

Happily, you are not alone. There are millions of people throughout our country who are actively tackling racism and right-wing extremism, Islamism and all other forms of hatred. I am – and will remain – convinced that the vast majority of people in our country want to live in freedom, and in a diverse society. But this majority must make itself seen and heard, everywhere! All of us can help make this happen, every single day.

Let us speak up whenever people are singled out just because of their origin, their religion or their colour! Let us stand at the side of those who are looked at askance, insulted or threatened! Let us make the language of respect the lingua franca of our debates, also in social media! And last but not least, let us be sure to vote! Let us strengthen the democracy enshrined in the Basic Law – a democratic system in which the dignity of each individual is to be respected and protected! Let us use our vote to combat hatred!

We remember today nine unique individuals, who were brutally torn from our midst by a right-wing extremist five years ago here, in Hanau. Our grief, pain and compassion serve only to strengthen our resolution: We stand together. We stick together. We want to live together. That is and remains the message of Hanau.

• - https://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Reden/EN/Frank-Walter-Steinmeier/Reden/2025/250219-Hanau-memorial.html