Fotografie
17. March 2024 - 16. June 2024
Paula Markert: A journey through Germany. The NSU serial murders

Eine Reise durch Deutschland. Die Mordserie des NSU. Foto Paula Markert
Beate Zschäpe with her Attorneys, Anja Sturm and Wolfgang Heer, 2015, March 25th
© Paula Markert
The trial of the crimes committed by NSU (National Socialist Underground) ended six years ago. Beate Zschäpe, the last surviving member of the trio, was sentenced for life on ten counts of murder. In the middle of last year, the last court of enquiry of the Bavarian Landtag published its final report.

Still, some questions remain unanswered: Questions by the victims’ relatives, who want to know how this could happen, questions for the state, its secret service, and for our society. It is necessary to keep the memory alive and to keep looking for answers.

For over a decade, the members of extreme right-wing terrorists NSU operated under the radar. Between 2000 and 2007, they murdered nine people with a migration background and one female German police officer, they executed numerous robberies and bomb attacks.

Paula Markert worked on this series from 2014 to 2018. With her photographs and selected text fragments, the photographer explores the events and interrelations. 

Anklagebank, Schwurgerichtssaal 101, Oberlandesgericht München © Paula Markert
Schwurgerichtssaal 101, Oberlandesgericht München
© Paula Markert

Markert tries to understand the failing and disinterest of a state, and her findings. She is driven by the question of how this series of murders could happen despite the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the question of the German authorities’ complicity due to ignorance, cover-ups, or negligence, but also by questions of the state of society in a country, in which terrorists were able to murder people over such a long period of time without being caught.
Although the individual photos appear to be objective observations and documents, they call on a common responsibility, the responsibility of a country, where the political climate keeps shifting towards the right.

Eine Reise durch Deutschland. Kassel. Foto Paula Markert
Holländische Straße 82, Kassel. Here, Halit Yozgat was murdered in 2006 in his dad's cyber café.
© Paula Markert

Paula Markert (*1982)

Paula Markert studied photography at the University for Applied Sciences in Hamburg and at the University of Barcelona in Spain. Today, she lives in Hamburg. Her photographic long-term projects deal with societal, often political questions. ‘A Journey Through Germany. The NSU Serial Murders’ was published in 2019 by Hartmann Books.
The work of Paula Markert is in the photography collection of Museum Folkwang Essen and the photography collection of Münchner Stadtmuseum. She has received multiple awards for her work and exhibited both nationally and internationally. Since 2020, Paula Markert is a lecturer, and was professor of photography from 2021 to 2023 in the Faculty of Design at Hochschule Darmstadt

Curator: Robert Pupeter

Opening (in german language): Sun, March 17th, 2024, 11.30 a.m.

Guided Tours in german language with Robert Pupeter:
So, 14.4.2024, 14:30 Uhr

Thanks to Münchner Stadtmuseum for loaning us the exponats!