Clan leader's appearance at Left Party victory party throws Berlin into turmoil: who are the Remmos, from Mardin to Neukölln?
The Remmo family, known in Germany as a "Lebanese clan," traces its roots to Mardin. When patriarch Issa Remmo turned up at the Left Party's (Die Linke) victory celebration on Berlin election night, the city's incoming government found itself at the center of a "clan" controversy within its first week in office.
RastinewsThe Left Party, which won the most seats in Berlin's state election for the first time, was plunged into an unexpected crisis by a visit on election night. Issa Remmo, patriarch of the Remmo family, showed up uninvited at the victory celebration held by the party's Neukölln district branch. Party leadership moved quickly to distance itself from him.
During the celebration, Remmo praised the Left Party's win and that of mayoral candidate Elif Eralp, saying it was the first time he had felt support from a Berlin party.
"He wasn't invited — he was removed"
Eralp told ZDF that same evening that Remmo had not been invited and was asked to leave the venue. The Neukölln branch said the event had been open to the public, including uninvited guests.
Outgoing Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner, a member of the CDU, wrote on X that any party seeking to govern the city needed to make unmistakably clear it had no ties to organized crime structures.
Row reaches the Bundestag
The controversy deepened days later when messages surfaced. Ferat Koçak, the Left Party's newly elected Bundestag member for Neukölln, apologized for contact with Issa Remmo's son, Firas Remmo, and said he would step back from public activity for a period.
Koçak confirmed the authenticity of messages Firas Remmo had previously published, posting about it on Instagram. The messages show no direct contact between Koçak and Issa Remmo himself, but they do show the lawmaker sending greetings to the father.
In late January, Koçak had criticized a Bundestag debate on "clan crime," arguing that people were being treated as suspects merely because of their surnames.
From Mardin to Beirut to Berlin
The Remmo family belongs to the Mhallami community and traces its origins to Mardin province. Beginning in the 1930s, Mhallamis migrated to Lebanon for economic reasons, where they lived stateless, tolerated but never fully accepted, at the bottom of the social ladder.
The Mhallamis' identity remains disputed. The community speaks Arabic, but there is no consensus on its origin or ethnic background; sources variously describe them as Arab, Assyrian or Kurdish. Some accounts trace the migration to Lebanon to the suppression of the Sheikh Said Rebellion in the 1920s, and describe their culture as Arab in character but bearing Kurdish influences.
Criminal records — and a patriarch with none
Various members of the extended family have faced prosecution for theft, money laundering, extortion, protection racketeering, drug trafficking and illegal weapons possession. The family drew nationwide attention in 2017 after the theft of a 100-kilogram gold coin from Berlin's Bode Museum.
Issa Remmo himself, despite repeated detentions, is still considered a citizen with no criminal record. According to a Tagesspiegel report citing security sources, he is not currently under police surveillance.
Fleeing Lebanon's civil war
Issa Remmo was 17 when his family fled Lebanon's civil war in 1985. Part of the family had already crossed into West Berlin via East Germany in the 1980s.
German authorities have long faced criticism for failing to make headway against the Remmo family and similar clan structures.