Terror cell
Ten years after NSU: Critics see room for improvement
The NSU terrorist cell’s mobile home is in the evidence chamber of the Federal Criminal Police Office. Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
On November 4, 2011, the right-wing extremist terrorist cell NSU was exposed. Critics now criticize a lack of reappraisal and structural racism in the police. Interior Minister Seehofer holds against it.
Even ten years after the right-wing extremist terrorist cell NSU was exposed, critics of the reappraisal still see room for improvement in the authorities.
A changed attitude of the police towards right-wing motivated crimes, for example, is not able to recognize the accessory prosecutor from the NSU trial, Seda Basay Yildiz. “In order for something to change, you first have to see that you have made mistakes,” she told the editorial network in Germany. However, this processing never took place at the police station. “The many racist chat groups in the police have shown that racism is apparently perceived as normal.”
Right-wing extremism researcher Gideon Botsch from the Moses Mendelsohn Center at the University of Potsdam sees it similarly. “There are still blind spots in the police, including structural racism,” he told the “Passauer Neue Presse”. The recognition by the investigative authorities that there is right-wing terrorism has increased. “But we’re only halfway there.”
Mehmet Daimagüler, who was also a representative of the secondary prosecution in the NSU trial, said on Wednesday evening at an event organized by the Amadeu Antonio Foundation that if Seehofer said that the problems had largely been resolved, it would be “extremely dangerous”. “Maybe you have to be Horst Seehofer to say that there is no such thing,” said the lawyer, referring to the debate about so-called racial profiling. Racial profiling is the term used to refer to unprompted identity checks on people based on external characteristics.
Seehofer: Consequences have been drawn
In contrast, the acting Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) stated that the necessary consequences had been drawn from the failure of the authorities at the time. It was not possible to answer all questions completely, he told the dpa. “But the recommendations for action in the areas of police, justice, intelligence services and the promotion of democracy have largely been implemented.”
The National Socialist Underground (NSU) was blown on November 4, 2011, with the deaths of Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos. Only then did the police discover that it was neo-Nazis who had killed nine businessmen with foreign roots and one policewoman between 2000 and 2007. For years after the attacks, investigations had been carried out in the wrong direction.
For Seehofer, right-wing extremism is “the greatest threat to security in Germany”. The acting Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) said: “Right-wing extremism is the greatest threat to our free democracy.” She also told the RND: “We must better protect and support those affected by right-wing extremist and racist acts of violence.” Awareness of inhuman acts must be further sharpened. That remains a permanent task in training in the police, judiciary and security authorities. “At the same time, we have to strengthen social cohesion.”