The Hanau Terror Attack: The Emergency Exit

On 19 February 2020 in Hanau, Germany, nine people were murdered in a racist terror attack. The victims were Said Nesar Hashemi, Sedat Gürbüz, Gökhan Gültekin, Mercedes Kierpacz, Hamza Kurtović, Vili Viorel Păun, Fatih Saraçoğlu, Ferhat Unvar, and Kaloyan Velkov. After the attacks, the perpetrator, Tobias Rathjen, fled to his house, where he killed his mother, Gabriele Rathjen, before killing himself. Forensic Architecture, together with its Berlin-based sister agency FORENSIS, has been commissioned by the Initiative 19. Februar, and by the lawyer for the Gültekin family, to investigate a range of issues relating to the attacks, and to produce material for a range of purposes, across legal, political, and cultural forums, as well as media, activism, and advocacy. -FA