Wohlleben statement brings up the role German domestic intelligence plays in the “right-wing scene"

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.

"I always felt a sense of national pride, which was an integral part of life in the GDR," Wohlleben said on Wednesday. "I didn't see any reason to give that up.”

At that point in the early 1990s, Wohlleben began visiting concerts, speeches, demonstrations, and other events associated with the right-wing scene and eventually became a member of the National Democratic Party (NPD), which has survived attempts by the government to see it banned on the grounds that it is a neo-Nazi political entity.

In Jena, he got to know Zschäpe and two of her friends, Uwe Mundlos und Uwe Böhnhardt. He described Zschäpe as "someone you could talk to," and said he found her to be quick-witted, funny, and friendly toward him. […]

When Zschäpe, Mundlos and Böhnhardt went into hiding at the end of the 1990s, Wohlleben said he had no reason to suspect they were capable of violence. He also admitted that he kept in contact with them.

Intelligence connection

Wohlleben said Tino Brandt was often pulling the strings of various right-wing organizations. He also said it was Brandt who pushed him to join the right-wing NPD. Brandt was a paid informant of the Thuringia state branch of Germany's domestic intelligence agency at the time, and when this was revealed, he was cast out of the right-wing scene.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency has come under fire for allowing the NSU to operate for so long despite an apparently large network of informants in the right-wing extremist scene.

After Thursday, the NSU trial goes into a three-week winter break, which means it should resume sometime after Jan. 7, 2016. Merry Prison Christmas to Beate and Ralf. (I guess this would be the fourth one?) The intention with this is to scare the population from getting involved in anything right-wing. Stay on the left and you'll be safe.