GERMANY’S FAR-RIGHT TERRORISM AND THE TIMID NSU CASE VERDICT
Authors: Tulun Teoman Ertuğrul 
Published: December 2021

As we have explained in detail in our analysis of last year, the Nationalist Socialist Underground (NSU) far-right terror group, between 2000 and 2007, murdered ten people in Germany . Eight of the victims belonged to Germany's more than three million Turkish community. The last victim was a German policewoman who was gunned down in 2007. This terror cell carried out also several robberies and bombings in this period. Between 1998 and 2011, they robbed 11 banks in Saxony towns of Chemnitz, Zwickau, one bank in Stralsund, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, and two banks in Arnstadt and Eisenach in Thuringia . As it was given the details in our mentioned last year's analysis Beate Zschäpe, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt were the nucleus of the National Socialist Underground. Only a couple of hours later, the third member of the group, Beate Zschäpe, set fire to the group's flat in Zwickau, left the scene, and mailed about twelve prepared envelopes containing copies of DVDs claiming responsibility for their acts to newspapers, mosques, parties and one right-wing extremist mail order company, and stayed hidden for several days before turning herself in to the police, accompanied by her lawyer. Searching the debris of the flat, investigators found more weapons, among others the pistol of the first nine murders, and a laptop containing copies of the video claiming responsibility. As a result, the last surviving member of the NSU Beate Zschäpe was charged with co-founding a terrorist organization and the complicity in ten murders, two bombings and fourteen bank robberies .The NSU trial began on 6 May 2013 in the 6th Criminal Division of Munich's Higher Regional Court and Beate Zschäpe together with the four suspected accomplices deemed to be in the "close periphery" of the NSU trio, including Ralf Wohlleben and André Eminger, were tried. Zschäpe is accused of 10 murders, arson, forming a terrorist organization and membership of a terrorist organization. After nearly a five-year trial, the Munich Higher Regional Court has issued the verdict on 11 June 2018. Beate Zschäpe was found guilty of being complicit in 10 murders, 43 attempted murders, 2 severe bombing attacks and 15 bank and other robberies, and sentenced to life in prison . Carsten Schultze, a juvenile at the time, was found guilty of handing the pistol and silencer to the NSU, and was sentenced to three years. Last but not least, André Eminger was given only two years and six months for helping a terrorist group and was released, having already served his prison time during the trial . Meanwhile, many held a minute of silence for NSU's victims before the verdict was read out . The verdict of the Munich Court has been widely criticized, especially for the light sentences given to the already very limited number of accomplices of these serious crimes. The Munich court, almost after two years of its verdict, published the reasoning of its judgement on 21 April 2020. According to the report of Deutsche Welle, the lawyer of one of the plaintiffs whose father was killed by the NSU suggests that the main purpose of the case was not only to convict the only surviving core member of the NSU. Per the report, the BfV identified 32,080 right-wing extremists in Germany in 2019, up from 24,100 the year before. The BfV classified 13,000 of these cases as prepared to use violence, 300 more than in 2018. The report underlines the increase in racism, right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism in Germany, and considers these areas as the biggest threat to security in Germany. There is no doubt that the German government and a large segments of the German society are fighting seriously against terrorist acts that started to emerge in parallel with the rise of the far-right. At this point, it is necessary to add the serious rise in Islamophobia to the list of threats to security in Germany mentioned by the German authorities. In this context, it is also possible to name Islamophobia as anti-Muslim racism. A video titled "Anti-Muslim racism on the rise in Germany" prepared and broadcasted by DW News on 17 September 2020 is a useful start in studying this issue.In the light of the foregoing, as a concluding remark, the following question comes to mind: Did the timid verdict of the Munich Court on the NSU case play a role in the recent increase of number of right-wing extremists and rise in far-right terrorist acts in Germany? It is considered that investigating an answer to this question through an academic research can contribute to elucidating the reasons for the recent rise of the far right in Germany. On the other hand, recent revelations of confirmed infiltration of right wing extremists into the police force as well as the military structure and intelligence units is a most worrisome development that necessitate an even more scrutinizing follow up to this article.