Status: 10/29/2022 3:19 p.m
First 120, then at least 30 years, Hesse wanted to keep secret a report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution on the NSU. Now the ZDF Magazin Royale made the report publicly available, which does not reflect well on the work of the service.
According to their own statements, the “Ask the State” platform and ZDF Magazin Royale by Jan Böhmermann have published classified Hessian files on the terrorist group NSU. “We believe the public has a right to know what exactly is in those documents that were originally meant to remain classified for more than a century,” it says on the dedicated website.
In order to protect the sources, the files were completely typed up and a new document created so as not to leave any digital traces, Böhmermann wrote on Twitter.
In the opinion of the left, the published files obviously correspond to the original. “They seem to have been transcribed completely and with the same content,” said the left-wing spokesman for domestic affairs in the Hessian state parliament, Torsten Felstehausen, of the dpa news agency. The texts were placed next to each other and compared. The MPs would have had access to the original files in the state parliament’s investigative committee.
The Left Group welcomes the publication. From the point of view of the victims’ families, that was a long request, said Felstehausen. “The public can finally get their own picture of how the so-called secret service for the protection of the constitution has dealt with indications of right-wing terror over the years.”
When asked by the Evangelical Press Service, the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Hesse stated that the “documents created in connection with the program and published on the Internet” were being checked. In particular with regard to “personal data contained and affected state welfare interests”, the state office is “in exchange with the police and constitutional protection authorities”.
“More than dubious picture”
According to “Frag den Staat” and ZDF Magazin Royale, the files reveal a “more than dubious picture” of the work of the Hessian protection of the constitution, especially during the 1990s. “At that time, the service was collecting extensive data, but it had neither an overview of its inventory, nor did consequences always follow from the information collected.” According to the report, more than 500 files from the area of right-wing extremism had simply disappeared.
According to the cover sheet, the document that has now been published is a final report on the examination of files in the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Hesse in 2012. The report is dated November 20, 2014.
“Zeit online” already had access to the report last year and evaluated it. “The testimony that the agency gives itself is devastating,” the article says. First of all, the report states that the office did not find any information about the NSU that had been overlooked. On the other hand, possible references to the environment of the NSU core trio and indications of “violent behavior and indications of possible terrorist approaches” appeared.
Originally classified as secret for 120 years
There has been a dispute over the so-called NSU files of the Hessian Office for the Protection of the Constitution for years. The authority had checked its own files and documents for references to the NSU. However, the result was initially classified as secret for 120 years, later the time was reduced to 30 years.
Interior Minister defended secrecy
Tens of thousands of people had petitioned for publication. They hoped to gain new insights into the murders by the right-wing extremist terrorist cell NSU and possible connections to the murder of Kassel’s district president Walter Lübcke.
Hesse’s Interior Minister Peter Beuth defended the decision not to publish the files in May 2021. “It is inherent in the work of our security authorities that they cannot disclose their working methods to everyone,” he said in the state parliament at the time.
“Otherwise, the enemies of the constitution could themselves use this information to fight our common values or to endanger people in a targeted manner.” He referred to the parliamentary control body, whose task it is to control the protection of the constitution.
Racist murder series
The NSU had been able to murder through Germany for years without being recognized. The victims: nine traders of Turkish and Greek origin and a policewoman. One of the murders was committed in Kassel in northern Hesse in 2006.
The right-wing terrorists also carried out two bomb attacks, injuring dozens of people, and a number of bank robberies. The two terrorists Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt killed themselves in 2011 to avoid arrest. As the only survivor of the NSU trio, Beate Zschäpe was sentenced to life imprisonment as an accomplice.