20 years after the NSU nail bomb attack, Federal President Steinmeier visited Keupstrasse in Cologne. Meral Şahin, spokeswoman for an initiative in the district, is pleased. But she expects more than an apology.
Her cell phone is constantly ringing: Meral Şahin, owner of a wedding decorations store, is on the phone with the Federal Criminal Police Office about security measures for the guest of honor on Sunday, the Federal President. Then friends report problems with the banners they want to hang for the big street festival “Birlikte” over Cologne’s Keupstrasse: “We’ll sort it out!” The 53-year-old businesswoman, herself a child of the district – the Veedel, as the people of Cologne call it – takes care of everything here for the “Keupstrasse Interest Group” initiative. And finds time in a corner of her shop to talk: about the NSU terror that raged here 20 years ago, about the long years in which the police suspected the attackers were among the residents. And about what she now expects from Frank-Walter Steinmeier.