Timelines

On the night of November 23, 1992, 19-year-old Lars Christiansen and 26-year-old Michael Peters set fire to two family homes in Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein. Minors Yeliz Arslan and Ayşe Yılmaz, as well as their grandmother Bahide Arslan, were killed in the attack. The perpetrators were sentenced to ten years and life imprisonment, respectively. Both were released before the end of their sentences. About six months later, on May 29, 1993, four youths set fire to the Genç family's house in Solingen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Gürsün Ince, Hatice Genç, Hülya Genç, Saime Genç, and Gülistan Öztürk were killed, and many other family members were seriously injured. The perpetrators were sentenced to ten to fifteen years in prison, but all have since been released. The two arson attacks marked the climax of a series of right-wing extremist acts of violence following German reunification. They were preceded by a polemical, emotionally charged debate in the media and politics about the right to asylum and followed by a legal restriction of this right through the so-called “asylum compromise” in 1993.