Background: One-phonon mixed-symmetry quadrupole excitations are a well-known feature of near-spherical, vibrational nuclei. Their interpretation as a fundamental building block of vibrational structures is supported by the identification of multi-phonon states resulting from a coupling of fullysymmetric and mixed-symmetric quadrupole phonons. In addition, the observation of strong M 1 transitions between low-lying 3 − and 4 + states has been interpreted as an evidence for one-phonon mixed-symmetry excitations of octupole and hexadecapole character. Purpose: The aim of the present study is to identify collective one-and two-phonon excitations in the heaviest stable N = 52 isotone 96 Ru based on a measurement of absolute M 1, E1, and E2 transition strengths. Methods: Inelastic proton-scattering experiments have been performed at the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory (WNSL), Yale University, and the Institute for Nuclear Physics (IKP), University of Cologne. From the acquired proton-γ and γγ coincidence data we deduced spins of excited states, γ-decay branching ratios, and multipole mixing ratios, as well as lifetimes of excited states via the Doppler-shift attenuation method (DSAM). Results: Based on the new experimental data on absolute transition strengths, we identified the 2 + and 3 + members of the two-phonon mixed-symmetry quintuplet (2 + 1,ms ⊗ 2 + 1,s ). Furthermore, we observed strong M 1 transitions between low-lying 3 − and 4 + states suggesting one-phonon symmetric and mixed-symmetric octupole and hexadecapole components in their wave functions, respectively. The experimental results are compared to sdg-IBM-2 and shell-model calculations. Conclusions: Both, the sdg-IBM-2 and the shell-model calculations, are able to describe key features of mixed-symmetry excitations of 96 Ru. Moreover, they support the one-phonon mixedsymmetry hexadecapole assignment of the experimental 4 + 2 state.