Mehmet Kaymakçı
Mehmet Kaymakçı came to Hamburg from Turkey with his uncle in 1980. The 24-year-old hoped to build a new life for himself as a bricklayer. He found work on construction sites and married a German woman. He later lost his job due to a chronic illness. One evening in July 1985 he got into an argument with three skinheads in a pub in Hamburg-Langenhorn. Afterwards the three followed him home to "finish off the Turk". They attacked him on Hohe Liedt Straße, punching and kicking him until he was unconscious. Then they dragged him to Kiwittsmoorpark and beat him to death with a concrete block. A passer-by discovered the body in the early morning hours of 24 July 1985. Mehmet Kaymakçı was only 29 years old when he was killed.
Mehmet Kaymakçı was born on 10 October 1956 in the Turkish town of Haymana, south of Ankara. He grew up in a farming family with five brothers and two sisters. Money and work were scarce. Before coming to Hamburg, Mehmet Kaymakçı sold fruit and vegetables at the market and did construction work.
Mehmet Kaymakçı’s nephew Yener Kaymakçı describes him as a loving uncle:
"I was 6 years old when my uncle was murdered. Whenever he came back to Haymana during his short life, he would bring me chocolates, sweets, and toys. One day during the summer, the family was talking about Uncle Mehmet coming back. I was so happy. But instead of my uncle, who had given me so much life and joy, it was a black coffin that arrived from Hamburg in Haymana."
From a speech at the dedication of a memorial for Mehmet Kaymakçı in Kiwittsmoorpark on 23 July 2021
Mehmet Kaymakçı was buried in Turkey. The three men who beat him to death received juvenile sentences ranging between 7 and 8 years. For 35 years there was no public memorial for him. In 2019 the Hamburg-Nord district council voted unanimously to erect a memorial in his honour. It was dedicated in the presence of his family and loved ones in 2021. In the previous year, the families of other victims of far-right violence, such as Faruk Arslan and Gülüstan Avcı, together with the Initiative in Memory of Ramazan Avcı, held the first public memorial service for Kaymakçı.
At the memorial service in 2023 Yener Kaymakçı expressed how important public memorials are for victims of far-right violence:
"However much we condemn this vile racist murder, in the strongest possible terms, the erection of a memorial at the scene of my uncle's murder gives us comfort and at the same time fills us with a bitter joy. The mere knowledge that there is a memorial to him brings us some comfort."
Speech by Yener Kaymakçı in memory of Mehmet Kaymakçı, 2023
A website launched by activists in honour of Mehmet Kaymakci. It tells of his life, the racist attack, and the efforts to memorialize him.
