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Defendant Stephan Ernst (in July): How active was the alleged murderer Walter Lübckes still arrested in the scene?
Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa
The foundation of their long friendship was once their racist beliefs.
Stephan Ernst and Markus H. stop looking at each other in court.
The two men, who met in the right-wing scene in Kassel, are charged with murder and accessory to the murder of Walter Lübcke.
This Tuesday, Chief Inspector Markus Pape is invited as a witness.
After the fatal assassination attempt on the Kassel regional president, he was a member of the special commission "Liemecke" as an official of the Hessian state criminal investigation office, named after a brook near the place of residence of the CDU politician.
In room 165 of the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court, Pape explains how valued and recognized Walter Lübcke was, always joking.
A "popular boss" and "transparent person", whose clear commitment to refugee policy remained present after a citizens' meeting in Lohfelden: through a video recording on YouTube, filmed and posted on the Internet by Markus H.
"The ball is ready for you"
In February 2019, the tweet from the former CDU politician Erika Steinbach, now chairwoman of a foundation close to the AfD, charged Walter Lübcke with criticism of the "facts", says Pape.
Insulting and threatening "hate mail" had been secured on the office of the district president.
One said: "The ball is ready for you."
On the night of June 2, 2019, the politician was shot on the terrace of his house in Wolfhagen-Istha, Hesse.
Stephan Ernst admitted the fatal shot at Walter Lübcke and accused H. of complicity.
In an earlier confession he had even accused him of firing the shot himself - allegedly, according to his current position, at the insistence of his former lawyer Frank Hannig.
The public prosecutor's office in Kassel is now investigating because of the initial suspicion of inciting false suspicion.
Hannig's lawyer Alfred Dierlamm told SPIEGEL that the accusation had not yet been officially announced to his client.
"We have already contacted the public prosecutor's office in Kassel and offered our cooperation in clarifying the facts. We will only comment on details to the investigating authorities."
Markus H., on the other hand, is silent, the burden of proof against him is so thin that the Senate overturned the arrest warrant against him.
That day, the 44-year-old is walking into court as a free man for the third time, he has swapped his baggy corduroy trousers and hoodie for a black suit, white shirt and black tie.
Pape, the invited police officer, gives an insight into the life of Markus H., the father of a daughter;
Trained baker, industrial mechanic and a neo-Nazi known to the security authorities.
Markus H. acted on the Internet under the pseudonyms "Professor Moriatti" and "Stadtreiniger" (meaning the cleaning of "foreign infiltration").
H. only made one statement to the investigators: when he was arrested on June 26, 2019. At that time, H. admitted, according to Pape, that he had known Stephan Ernst for many years from the right-wing scene, but had distanced himself from him.
And H. admitted to having put Walter Lübcke's video on the Internet.
Relief and bust of Adolf Hitler
Since H. is otherwise silent, Pape counts the evidence in the court that were found during the search of his home.
Many confiscated items speak for themselves: a relief and a bust of Adolf Hitler, a swastika, the PDF version of "Mein Kampf", the party program of the NSDAP;
a bunch of miniature soldiers, most of them in NVA uniform, but one with a swastika armband performing the Nazi salute, and the book "Umvolkung: How the Germans are quietly exchanged" by the author Akif Pirincci, in which on page 90 with a orange highlighter with the name "Dr. Walter Lübcke" marked.
H. has written down his childhood and youth on 21 pages.
Pape sees it as an autobiographical report that documents H's early enthusiasm for weapons.
A passion that rubbed off on his buddy Stephan Ernst, as he himself described in court.
And which they both acted out in target practice.
Ernst, who at the age of 15 wanted to set fire to a house in which several Turkish families lived;
who rammed a knife in the back and chest of a Turkish imam at the age of 19 and a year later deposited a pipe bomb in front of an accommodation for asylum seekers, was classified as "highly dangerous" by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in 2009.
After that, Ernst was no longer conspicuous, says Pape.
Nazi films and Nazi literature
But how active was the alleged murderer Walter Lübckes still arrested in the scene?
How obvious was his xenophobic attitude?
During the search of Ernst's house, officials found music files of the right-wing singer-songwriter Frank Rennicke, whom the NPD put up as a candidate for the election of the Federal President.
In addition, an autograph card from the Nazi rapper "plot" with a dedication, Nazi propaganda films and anti-Semitic books in which certain lines of text were also marked.
Swastikas, NSDAP badges and SS runes were stored on his cell phone, and manipulated image files on his laptop, such as a photo of the Reichstag with a gallows in front of it or one that Angela Merkel showed during a troop visit in 2016 next to an armed soldier with a thought bubble over his head floats: "I could become a hero now."
The officials also provided instructions for making bombs and explosives, as well as dossiers on local politicians and members of the Jewish community.
It contains names, addresses and newspaper articles.
Much of this evidence comes from the noughties, admits Pape when asked by Ernst's defense attorney Mustafa Kaplan.
But according to the investigations, according to Pape, Ernst was active in the NPD, took part in the AfD's get-togethers in 2018 and helped with the election campaign.
He also donated three times 100 euros for the "Identitarian Movement".
And he ran with the funeral march of the Chemnitz AfD for the murdered Daniel H. in September 2018.
Together with his friend Markus H.
Icon: The mirror