There will be no new trial in the Erlangen double murder of publisher Shlomo Lewin and his partner Frida Poeschke on December 19, 1980. After press reports about an undercover agent who had paid a visit to the founder of the paramilitary “Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann”, Karl-Heinz Hoffmann, a few days before the crime, a new investigation was examined. But this has no consequences for Hoffmann. Upon request, the Nuremberg public prosecutor’s office confirmed corresponding SZ information. After a thorough examination, “no new facts” emerged that would justify resuming proceedings, said spokeswoman Heike Klotz Bücher.
The informant had reported in detail to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution about his visit to Hoffmann on December 13, 1980. As a result, he observed Hoffmann tampering with pipes that were “obviously sawed off at both ends.” It was striking that Hoffmann cleaned the material so carefully “that no fingerprints could be found anymore.”
A home-made silencer is said to have been used in the double murder. However, as the state government announced in 2023 in response to a request from the state parliament’s SPD, investigators assumed that the murder weapon was equipped with “a silencer made from a spray can.” The informant denied that the “containers” seen at Hoffmann’s were similar to a can. The informant’s information was also received and acknowledged in investigations and court proceedings.
In 1986, the Nuremberg regional court chose Uwe Behrendt, who had already died at the time and was a former member of the “Hoffmann Military Sports Group”, as the sole perpetrator.