![Conny Wessmann Gedenkskulptur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Conny_Wessmann_Gedenkskulptur.jpeg)
Cornelia "Conny" Wessmann was a 24-year-old student who died on 17 November 1989, during a
police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...
raid in
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
,
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
.
Events
On that day,
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
s rioted in the city centre of Göttingen. At that time, it was often the case that neo-Nazis attacked
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
institutions or refugee centres.
Antifa groups and other people tried to stop the attacks of the Nazis by mobilizing people with
telephone chains. As Wessmann was part of such a group. When her group arrived at the scene, the neo-Nazis were already stopped by the police and brought out of town. The police then followed her group which planned to dissolve near the
university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
campus. Close to the busy ''Weender Landstrasse'', the group was attacked by police forces. Trying to escape over the street, Wessmann collided with a car and died.
Aftermath
Left-wing groups then blamed the police because of the sudden attack at this dangerous location. The incident got some attention in the media and the
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
put forward an inquiry in the
Parliament of Lower Saxony
The Lower Saxon Landtag () or the Parliament of Lower Saxony is the state diet of the German state of Lower Saxony. It convenes in Hanover and currently consists of 146 members, consisting of four parties. Since 2022 the majority is a coalition o ...
. To the criticism of the police contributed the fact that the police discussed over radio before the raid whether they "flatten them" (German: ''plattmachen''). The meaning of this term was debated in the period immediately after the death and into the investigation.
The official investigation concluded that neither the police nor the car driver could be held responsible for what happened that day.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wessmann
1965 births
1989 deaths
Autonomism
People from Göttingen
Road incident deaths in Germany
Murdered anarchists
German anarchists