Abstract

This video from April 2013 reports on the violent crimes committed by a group calling themselves National Socialist Underground (NSU) and the police and intelligence failures during the investigation. The group consisted mainly of three members, all right-wing extremists from the eastern city of Jena: Uwe Böhnhardt, Uwe Mundlos, and Beate Zschäpe. Between 2000 and 2007, they murdered ten people (nine victims had migrant backgrounds, one was a female police officer), carried out two bombings and several bank robberies. The authorities assumed that the murders were related to Turkish gang crime and initially did not investigate a racist motive. After police finally caught on to the trio following a failed bank robbery in 2011, Böhnhardt and Mundlos committed suicide while Zschäpe gave herself up to the police. The trial against her and four others accused of aiding the terrorist group began in Munich in April 2013 and ended in 2018 with Zschäpe being sentenced to life in prison. As the video details, reports about the failed investigation on the part of local and federal police and domestic intelligence services raised questions not only about their methods but also about a potential racist bias.

The Failed Investigation of the Right-Wing Terrorist Group NSU (April 12, 2013)

Source

Source: Beate Zschäpe and the NSU Quagmire, Deutsche Welle, April 12, 2013.

 

DW