1984 Duisburg arson attack

The Duisburg arson attack was an attack on a Turkish house in Duisburg, Germany in 1984. It was the first arson attack on a Turkish migrant family in Duisburg and Germany.

In the 1980s, there was several attacks on migrants in Germany.

It was reported in local and regional media that the fire spread quickly throughout the building from the ground floor through the wooden staircase of the old building. Seven members of the Satır family died, and 23 people were wounded. Only the two daughters of the family managed to flee by jumping out of the window, and were seriously injured. The father Ramazan Satır, who was not at the house, was unharmed. The victims were Döndü Satır, (40), Zeliha and Rasim Turhan (18) and their son Tarık Turhan (1 month), Çiğdem Satır (7), Ümit Satır (5) and Songül Satır (4). The family was originally from Adana, Turkey, and they were buried in the village of Köprülü in Ceyhan.

The case was closed in 1996 when Evelin D. was identified as the perpetrator. She was the perpetrator of another previous attack in Duisburg in 1993 on a migrant family as well. She was a pyromaniac, which caused the court to drop the possibility of the attacks being racially motivated. However the victims and activist organizations have claimed that the attack was caused by xenophobia.

The short film Made in Germany 3 was inspired by the event. The “Initiative Duisburg 1984” organization founded in 2018 has the aim to bring the forgotten arson attack back into the public consciousness. The attack was commemorated in 2019, and a podcast was made with the survivors.