It's been 10 years since the NSU extreme-right terror cell was uncovered. DW answers five key questions from one of Germany's most high-profile neo-Nazi cases.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Kneffel
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Closing arguments begin in neo-Nazi murder trial – DW's Michaela Küfner reports
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The date November 4, 2021, marks 10 years since the murder and robbery spree of the extreme-right terrorist cell "National Socialist Underground" (NSU) came to an end. The case shocked Germany and led to a public re-examination of right-wing extremism.
As details of the NSU's crimes came to light, numerous intelligence failures were revealed.
What was the NSU trial about?
The trial was one of the biggest in Germany's postwar history. The extreme-right terror cell known as the National Socialist Underground (NSU) murdered 10 people, carried out two bombings and robbed banks in various German states between 2000 and 2007.
The NSU consisted mainly of three people: Uwe Böhnhardt, Uwe Mundlos (both dead) and Beate Zschäpe. The trio came from the eastern German city of Jena, where they were active in the right-wing extremist scene.
Most of the murder victims had an immigrant background, the only exception being a German policewoman who was gunned down in 2007. The NSU is also said to be responsible for the nail bomb attack that left 22 people injured in a Turkish neighborhood in Cologne in June 2004.
Investigators initially attributed the murder attempt to the local Turkish gambling mafia. Years passed before authorities shifted their suspicion to the right-wing extremists. In the early years of the investigation, family members of the victims faced allegations that their husbands, sons and brothers had been involved in criminal activities, thus making them targets for criminal groups.
The NSU trial began on May 6, 2013, in the 6th Criminal Division of Munich's Higher Regional Court. Beate Zschäpe and four suspected accomplices were tried.
She and co-defendant Ralf Wohlleben, a former official of the right-wing extremist National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), were first taken into custody in 2011.
The court heard 815 witnesses and interviewed 42 experts.
Zschäpe was found guilty in 2018 for her role in 10 counts of murder, arson, the formation of a terrorist organization and membership in a terrorist organization. She was sentenced to life in prison.
The NSU proceedings began in 2013 - Zschäpe and four suspected accomplices are on trialImage: Reuters/Michael Dalder
Who were the NSU members?
In the mid-1990s, the trio was active in the "Thüringer Heimatschutz" neo-Nazi organization, based in the eastern German state of Thuringia. Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos took their lives in November 2011, as an arrest was imminent after botching the latest in a series of bank robberies.
After their deaths, Zschäpe made a video confession before setting the trio's home on fire. She turned herself in to the authorities four days later.
Böhnhardt had already managed to avoid capture before: In January 1998, Böhnhardt’s garage in Jena was searched by police after a tip-off. They found enough explosives to cause a major explosion, but Böhnhardt managed to flee the city before an arrest warrant was issued.
Between 1998 and November 2011, Zschäpe, the main NSU trial defendant, lived a clandestine life with Mundlos and Böhnhardt. Nationwide, 160 police officers were tasked with the murder investigation.
The NSU trio, however, had remained unknown.
It was only after Zschäpe's video confession that the relationship between the crimes began to materialize.
Among other things, police found a gun in the burned-out apartment that was the one used in nine of the murders, giving them concrete evidence of the NSU's involvement.
Mundlos and Böhnhardt committed suicide in 2011, Zschäpe turned herself in to authorities four days laterImage: dapd
The relatives of the NSU murder victims hoped Zschäpe would explain why their family members were killedImage: Reuters/M.Rehle
What role did the government play?
The Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, and many state parliaments set up investigative committees to shed light on the security authorities' failures in the NSU case. In the Bundestag's inquiry, members of parliament accused the prosecutor in charge, Herbert Diemer, of not having investigated evidence in order to protect domestic secret service agents and informants who may have had prior knowledge of crimes.
One major unresolved mystery remains that of Andreas T., an intelligence officer for the state of Hesse who was sitting in the internet cafe in Kassel on April 6, 2006, when the owner, Halit Yozgat, was shot dead. He at first failed to come forward and, when his presence there was disclosed, he claimed to be unaware that the shooting had taken place. His case awakened further fears that German intelligence agencies may have in some way colluded with the NSU.
The role of informants, who were often high-ranking figures in the neo-Nazi scene, has also come under particular scrutiny. Several of them received large sums of money from the state, some of which actually went toward supporting the neo-Nazi scene, and they were also often warned in advance of house searches.
It also remains unclear to what extent German intelligence authorities acted on the information they provided, or whether this information was really useful.
Zschäpe's defense team will present their closing arguments in September, a verdict could come later this yearImage: picture alliance/dpa/A. Gebert
Other criticism leveled at the investigation of the NSU's crimes, apart from allegations of systemic racism on the part of German authorities, revolved around the lack of cooperation between the various intelligence agencies and state interior ministries, which are responsible for police in the respective states.
More than 30 official bodies in all were involved in the probe, often getting in each other's way owing to local loyalties rather than working together.
It also emerged that shortly after Zschäpe's arrest, an official at Germany's domestic intelligence service, the BfV, had shredded several files pertaining to informants involved with the NSU. Other state agencies followed suit by destroying some 400 files and documents connected with the case. Officials said at the time that the files were destroyed to protect informants and stop state secrets from becoming public.
The victims' survivors and their attorneys pressed intelligence agencies over their questionable role in the affair but failed to get answers.
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Guilty verdict upheld
The Zschäpe's conviction has been challenged from both sides — and questions about the involvement of informants as well as potential cover-ups remain the subject of heated debate.
In August 2021, Germany's Federal Court of Justice dismissed an appeal lodged by Zschäpe, and two others connected to the neo-Nazi terror cell, over the convictions.
Chronicle of the NSU murders
The crimes of the neo-Nazi terror cell and the way state authorities dealt with them, still reverberate today. DW gives you the background to an affair that has shaken Germany.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
A mysterious string of murders
For years, neo-Nazis of the right-wing organization National Socialist Underground (NSU) killed people across Germany. The suspects: Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt (center) and Beate Zschäpe. Their victims: eight people of Turkish origin, one Greek man and a German policewoman. Their motive: xenophobia. Until 2011, the German public was not aware of the scope of their crimes.
Image: privat/dapd
Unsuccessful bank robbery
The murder spree was uncovered on November 4, 2011, when Mundlos and Böhnhardt robbed a bank in the east German town of Eisenach. For the first time, they failed. Police officers surrounded the caravan in which the two men were holed up. A later investigation concluded that Mundlos first shot and killed Böhnhardt, then set the caravan on fire and killed himself.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Zschäpe turns herself in
Shortly after the death of Böhnhardt and Mundlos there was an explosion at Frühlingsstraße 26 in Zwickau, in the state of Saxony. Beate Zschäpe lived at that address together with the two bank robbers. Zschäpe allegedly set the house on fire to destroy evidence. Four days later, she turned herself in to the police. The terror suspect has been custody since that day.
Image: Getty Images
The truth comes out
In the ruins of the Zwickau flat, police officers found a self-made video in which the terror cell claimed responsibility under the name of the NSU, the National-Socialist Underground. The 15-minute video shows crime scenes and pictures of the victims killed by the right-wing terrorist group between 2000 and 2007.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
NSU claim responsibility
Famous cartoon character The Pink Panther hosts the amateur video, which is full of slogans of hatred against people with an immigrant background and which mocks the murder victims. Before her arrest, Zschäpe allegedly sent out copies of the video in which the NSU claimed responsibility for the crimes.
Image: dapd
Verbal slip-ups
Until 2011, the term "döner murders" was frequently used when reporting about the killings. Nothing was known about the connection between the individual cases, nor about the motive. There were rumors the victims were linked to the drug scene. But the NSU's video left no doubt. The term "döner murders" was chosen as Germany's "Unwort des Jahres" (doublespeak of the year) in 2011.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
NSU also behind Cologne pipe bomb
"The findings made by our security authorities so far show no indication of a terrorist background, but of a criminal milieu," said German Interior Minister Otto Schily on June 10, 2004. A day earlier, a pipe bomb explosion in Cologne left 22 people injured and many shops damaged. In 2011, it became clear: the NSU’s right-wing terrorists were also behind the Cologne bombing.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Memorial service in Berlin
On February 23, 2012, Germany commemorated the victims. At the ceremony at a Berlin concert hall, the focus was on the relatives of the victims. Semiya Simsek (right), the daughter of the murdered flower stand owner Enver Simsek, gave an emotional speech. German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an official apology to the victims and promised them that all questions would be answered.
Image: Bundesregierung/Kugler
Memorial for Mehmet Kubasik
"Dortmund is a colorful, tolerant and welcoming town – and opposes right-wing extremism!" This statement was made by mayor Ullrich Sierau at the unveiling of the memorial stone for NSU victim Mehmet Kubasik in September 2012. The memorial was set up just meters away from the kiosk in which Kubasik was killed on April 4, 2006.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Solidarity with the victims
On November 4, 2012, exactly a year after the terror cell was uncovered, people in many German cities staged solidarity demonstrations against right-wing extremism. The protesters called for thorough investigations into the racially motivated murders - which in their view was not happening fast enough.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Beate Zschäpe lone survivor
Believed to be the last survivor of the NSU trio, Beate Zschäpe went on trial in May 2013.Over 800 witnesses were heard. Zschäpe did not speak for the first two and a half years of the trial.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Schrader
Life sentence
Beate Zschäpe was given a life sentence. She was found guilty of joint complicity in 10 counts of murder, arson, robbery, extortion, the formation of a terrorist organization and membership in a terrorist organization. Though there was no evidence that she herself was present at the scene of the crimes, the judges felt that the "particular severity of guilt" required for a life sentence applied.
Image: Getty Images/A. Gebert
The co-accused
Ralf Wohlleben received 10 years for procuring weapons for the NSU, co-accused Holger G. got three years for providing false identity papers. Another co-accused, Andre E, received two and a half years for providing the NSU with rail passes in his and his wife's name. He also allegedly rented a mobile home which the cell drove to Cologne to carry out a bombing.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/C. Stache
Long lasting impact
When conservative politician Walter Lübcke was murdered by a neo-Nazi activist in 2019, his name was also found on the 'list of enemies' for targetted killings. Lübcke had come under attack from the far-right following a speech he made in 2015 defending the decision to take in refugees from the Syrian war.
Image: Swen Pförtner/dpa/picture alliance
Securty agency failings
The federal and the state parliaments launched investigations to shed light on the security authorities' failures in the NSU case: The role of paid informants, the lack of cooperation between the various intelligence agencies and state interior ministries, which are responsible for police in the respective states, and allegations of systemic racism on the part of German authorities.
