Status: 10/15/2021 9:22 a.m.
In November 2011, the right-wing extremist terrorist cell NSU was exposed. Ten years later, according to the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Haldenwang, not all questions have been resolved. At the same time, he considers a repetition of such a series of murders to be impossible.
Ten years after the exploration of the right-wing extremist terrorist cell NSU, the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, still sees unanswered questions in dealing with the series of murders. The role of the undercover agent Andreas Temme is still unclear, as is the motive for the murder of the policewoman Michèle Kiesewetter. “In the end, this very, very uncomfortable feeling remains,” Haldenwang sums up at a discussion event in Berlin.
During the murder of the Kassel internet café operator Halit Yozgat in 2006, Temme stayed in his café, but said he didn’t see or hear anything.
The right-wing extremist cell National Socialist Underground (NSU) had carried out a total of ten murders, two bomb attacks and more than a dozen robberies over the years. The connection between the crimes only became known after NSU members Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt were found dead on November 4, 2011 and videos of confessionals appeared.
Study on right-wing extremists in security agencies
The federal and state security authorities then found themselves exposed to massive criticism. On the one hand, this related to a lack of cooperation, on the other hand, there was also the accusation that the problem of right-wing extremism in one’s own ranks was not taken seriously.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the series of murders becoming known, the information platform “Mediendienst Integration” has now set up one Study on right-wing extremism in the security authorities before. Accordingly, more and more suspected cases have been registered in recent years. Since the beginning of 2017, there have been 319 such cases in the authorities of the federal states alone. At the federal authorities there were 59 incidents, in the area of the military counterintelligence service and the Bundeswehr a total of 1064, according to the publication.
The situation reports of various authorities on the subject today showed that the security authorities are taking “the subject more seriously than before,” according to the media service’s study. “And they take a closer look when it comes to right-wing extremists in their own ranks.” However, the study authors see further need for action.
Haldenwang sees errors in NSU investigations
Haldenwang admitted that many mistakes had been made during the NSU murders and the reappraisal of the series of murders. Although there are successes, the security authorities are “still a long way from the end of the improvement process.” His authority will continue to deal with right-wing extremism with the highest priority and take vigorous action against the scene.
As far as the organizational deficiencies in the cooperation and exchange of information between the security authorities are concerned, Haldenwang saw decisive progress since the NSU series of murders. The joint anti-extremism and terrorism center that has now been created will bring all federal and state police authorities and all constitutional protection agencies to one table. “Something like NSU could not be repeated with today’s methods and working methods of the security authorities”, Haldenwang was convinced.