NSU trial

Tino Brandt covers his face as he testifies in the Munich Higher Regional Court about his interactions with the so-called National Socialist Underground.

THE PROCEEDINGS CONTINUE, NOW IN THEIR 287TH DAY, centered around the testimony of 41-year-old Tino Brandt, who is currently serving a prison sentence for sexually abusing minors. He is being questioned as the possible supplier of the money to buy the Ceska 83,7.65 mm Browning pistol that was allegedly used in the 9 murders of Turkish nationals in Germany between 2000 and 2007.

Brandt is a former police informant who was forced to give testimony by lawyers for Ralf Wohlleben. Wohlleben is one of the defendents, who is accused of supplying the pistol to the two accused murderers, Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos. Wohlleben denies he played such a role and, when he broke his silence earlier this year, implicated Tino Brandt. Wohlleben said or suggested that Brandt had organized the money to buy the Ceska pistol.

A still from the TV miniseries shows actors portraying Beate Zschäpe sitting between Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt watching a television report on a murder.

By Carolyn Yeager from media reports

AFTER THREE YEARS of trying to prosecute Beate Zschäpe for her  participation in 10 racially-motivated murders that occurred between 2000 and 2009, the German state is losing the interest of the public they are trying to influence.

The trial is so ponderous and slow-moving that there is little for the newspapers to write about, and indeed the readers are not interested in it anyway. This week a much-hyped television miniseries on the alleged crimes and their aftermath met with low viewership. The ratings were poorer than any other thriller, drama or comedy aired by public broadcaster ARD in prime time for the last 10 years – less than 3 million viewers watched any one of the three parts, according to Deutsche Welle.

NSU trio member Uwe Mundlos is now discovered to have worked for a company owned by an informant of the German intelligence service.

According to an article in Die Welt (The World), a team of journalists led by editor-in-chief Stefan Aust reported that two of the three alleged National-Socialist Underground members worked for a  company in Zwickau after “going underground” in 1998. From 2000 to 2002 Uwe Mundlos worked under a false name at a building demolition service company owned by “neo-Nazi” Ralf Marschner. The authors of the Die Welt report say Marschner was an informant who was delivering information about the right-wing scene to the intelligence services. Marschner is believed to have worked under the code name Primus for the BfV, Germany's domestic intelligence service. There is now speculation whether Mundlos himself was also supplying information to the BfV.

Ralf Wohlleben  (entering court above) is a second defendant in the so-called NSU (National Socialist Underground) trial in Munich, along with Beate Zschäpe. He also provided a first statement to the court which was read today, Wednesday, Dec. 16.

Wohlleben is charged with providing weapons to Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Bohnhardt which were used to carry out nine murders of immigrants. According to an article in today's Deutsche Welle, Wohlleben denied providing such weapons.

Wohlleben's said he never had anything against foreigners but instead took issue with government policies that allowed so many immigrants to come to Germany. After spending some time in Frankfurt, he got the impression that there were areas "where no Germans lived anymore." Wohlleben said he didn't want to see the same thing happen to his own town of Jena in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany), and that's how he found his way into the right-wing scene.

Beate Zschäpe appears relaxed and at peace after her statement is read in court on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015.

Beate Zschäpe acknowledged in her statement to the court in Munich today that Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt committed the ten murders the “National Socialist Underground” trio has been charged with. But she denied prior knowledge, saying that in every case she only found out some time afterwards, when they told her. She describes herself as being "speechless and stunned."

She denied that the NSU was an organized group or that she was or is a member, saying it was entirely Mundlos's idea to call the group such and that Böhnhardt is the only other person who could be considered a member.

Her newest defense attorney, Mathias Grasel confirmed this today, with the request that any questions by the court be given in writing. Any answers will also be given in writing after Grasel and Zschäpe [pictured right] consult over the weekend. It is my understanding that no one can be forced to answer questions in court.

The farce of this case

A previous article by Deutche Welle summing up the case so far had some strange sentences. Here are a few:

“Throughout the two and a half years of the trial over the NSU murders […] the trial itself has produced some answers, but by no means all.” Notice that it's called “the NSU murders” but sufficient evidence for this has still not been found in 2 ½ years (actually 4 years).

Beate Zschäpe enters the courtroom in Munich on Sept. 2, 2015. She is typically gazing down, avoiding eye contact.

Update: Court adjourned for one week - see comment

After remaining silent for two and a half years, more than 240 days of court sessions, on the advice and even insistence of her lawyers Wolfgang Heer, Wolfgang Stahl and Anja Sturm (with whom she has been on the outs for awhile), Beate Zschäpe will break her silence. 

She has said: I have not asked to remain silent.

It is reported that she has worked out this new stratagy with the help of her newest lawyer, Mathias Grasel, who may read Zschäpe's statement in court without her actually speaking. She may possibly submit comments on individual acts. Criminal lawyer Hermann Borchert, of the same law firm as Grasel, is said to have been active in the background. Reportedly, they have been working on the statement for weeks.

My last post on this favorite subject was on Oct. 16, 2013. The reason for that is because there's been no news in English. Thus, I let it slip my mind. However, I just talked to a German friend and thought to ask him about what was happening in the trial. "Lots," he answered, and proceeded to clue me in. In the end, he sent me two articles in German and I Google-translated them. This is information the English-language outlets are not publishing ... such as Der Spiegel Online and The Local and Deutsche Welle.

So the following is my synopsis of the most interesting development in the trial to date. I wish I had more than just the bare bones, but this will have to do for now. The "two Uwe's" are Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boehnhardt, who are accused of murdering 9 people.

*    *    *

The impression of many lawyers is that Judge Götzl [right] wants to protect the system, thus he cannot find the real killer.

What has been clear for a long time to any reasonably clear-thinking person, is now officially confirmed: The autopsy of the two Uwes found no soot particles in the lungs, which means the official account of their death - "setting fire to their van, followed by a murder-suicide" - cannot be correct. The dead do not breathe.

The autopsy result best matches other testimony that:

1) The two Uwe's were shot somewhere else (which is why the residents did not hear any shots);

2) The camper with the two bodies in it was driven by a third person, who started the fire to cover his tracks (this explains the witnesses who saw a "third man" whose DNA has incidentally been found in the camper).

Dorothea Marx of the SPD (Social Democrat Party) and NSU Committee chairman referred to the latest findings as "very doubtful" which would be a clear lie. She says this because, with these findings, the official story is completely impossible!

I will be reporting more as I am able to find it. My German friend will no doubt pass it on to me. -cy

Nov. 23, 2013

Watercolor (21 x 25 inches) by Hans Christoph, one of the “artworks” that poor,  persecuted Jews are fighting to get their hands on. Called German Expressionism, how is this different from ordinary cartoons or caricatures that thousands of run-of-mill artists can do?

More of the art in the Cornelius Gurlitt collection has been put online, while a task-force, under Uwe Hartmann, has been set up to investigate the provenance of each one. Organized jewry is howling in protest because this could take a long time, and could prove much of their tale of “Nazi theft from Jews” to be wrong.  Cornelius will immediately get back over 300 of the artworks as rightly belonging to him, bringing more criticism from jews.