Mevlüde Genç lost five family members in a right-wing arson attack in Solingen in 1993. Shortly after the assassination, she called for reconciliation and received the Federal Cross of Merit for her efforts. Now the peace ambassador is dying at the age of 79.
The peace ambassador and survivor of the right-wing extremist arson attack in Solingen in 1993, Mevlüde Genç, has died at the age of 79. This was announced by the North Rhine-Westphalian State Chancellery on Sunday. According to information from the German-Turkish magazine "Merhaba" in Berlin, Genç is to be transferred to her Turkish hometown of Amasya after Tuesday's funeral service in Solingen and buried there.
Mevlüde Genç and her husband Durmus Genç lost two daughters, two grandchildren and a niece in May 1993 after right-wing extremists threw incendiary devices into their house in Solingen. On the night of May 29, 1993, the four right-wing extremists set fire to the house of the Turkish family in Solingen. 17 family members were seriously injured. Four perpetrators were sentenced to long prison terms in 1995.
Shortly after the assassination, Genç called for reconciliation. In 1996 she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her efforts. The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia also donated the Mevlüde Genç Medal in 2018. This is awarded to individuals or groups who work for tolerance, reconciliation between cultures and the peaceful coexistence of religions. The award is presented annually around the anniversary of the arson attack.
With her, "our country loses a great example of reconciliation," said North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, according to the announcement. "Like few others, Mevlüde Genç embodied the belief in the good in people." She always put peace and reconciliation first. "She knew how to transform the immeasurable pain that was inflicted on her into strength to stand up for other people." She returned the hate, violence and resentment she was met with as generosity and tolerance.
Solingen Mayor Tim Kurzbach said he was deeply saddened to receive this sudden and unexpected news of his death. "Just as we are all sad in Solingen because we always remember her as the woman who called on us to be friends in the darkest hour of our city after the Second World War," he emphasized. "And when this great woman left us with her big heart, which has now stopped beating, there is a feeling of great emptiness and also great sadness in me and in us," emphasized the mayor.
He praised Mevlüde Genç as the epitome of a mother. "But she was also a great woman because she also transmitted this motherly manner, even where the worst happened to her family, to shake hands with everyone. And that deeply distinguished her," explained Kurzbach.
Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir said he was "deeply saddened" by the death of Mevlüde Genç. "She will always be my great role model," he wrote on Twitter. The president of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, André Kuper, emphasized that she had "confronted hate and violence with forgiveness and love. He announced a minute's silence in parliament for next Wednesday.
The North Rhine-Westphalian SPD parliamentary group leader Thomas Kutschaty emphasized that Genç had always stood for "respect, tolerance and appreciation between all people". "She impressed a lot of people with that." In connection with Genç's death, the Turkish mosque association Ditib spoke, among other things, of a "sorrowful reminder for social cohesion" and an "unshakeable symbol of reconciliation".
