Autor/Autorin
Fritz Bauer was a lawyer and social democrat who resisted National Socialism from the very beginning. He survived the concentration camp and years of exile, fought for democracy and international law. As Attorney General, he campaigned for the rights of Holocaust survivors, brought Auschwitz, the crimes of the Wehrmacht, Nazi justice and Nazi medicine to justice. This commitment to democracy and human rights now has a place.
Rendering ©Dovydas Petruitis, planplus gmbH
The city of Bochum is transferring a fascinating, particularly suitable building and property to the non-profit BUXUS STIFTUNG under heritable building rights: the former Havkenscheid mourning hall with the associated former municipal depot. The forum already exists digitally (www.fritz-bauer-forum.de) and construction is now underway. The library in the former mourning hall can be used from 2022. The depot will then be converted for workshops and seminars, film and art, discussions and events. Rooms for open dialogue, a café and garden will round off the Fritz Bauer Forum.
„The location is ideal,“ says Dr Irmtrud Wojak, Managing Director of the BUXUS STIFTUNG and founder of the Fritz Bauer Forum, „because the former Havkenscheid funeral hall was not tied to a religion. Fritz Bauer also described himself as non-believing.“
The city of Bochum is setting an example with the transfer of ownership. „Particularly in times when democracy and civil liberties are being challenged in many places, open anti-Semitism and anti-Islamism are on the rise and right-wing extremists are making inroads, action is needed that is based on human rights,“ says city councillor Dr Markus Bradtke.
Created without any religious symbols, the former Havkenscheid mourning hall is a symbol of the prospect of dialogue and peace. The hall was designed in the architectural style of Brutalism by Bochum city architect Ferdinand Keilmann (1907-1979). He became a member of the NSDAP in 1932 and was involved in the planning for the southern railway station of Hitler’s „Germania“. After 1945, Keilmann underwent the denazification process twice, after which he was appointed to the Bochum Building Department.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute to Fritz Bauer and declared: „Democracy demands vigilance. And it does not allow retreat, it wants interference for its own sake, not for the sake of outrage. Fritz Bauer would have wished for this attitude from us – no, he would have expected it!“