Enlarge image
Confessing neo-Nazi André E. 2014 in court: When the verdict was pronounced, his comrades applauded
Photo: Peter Kneffel / picture alliance / Peter Kneffel / dpa
The NSU trial ended with applause from neo-Nazis. When the Senate lifted the arrest warrant against André E. in July 2018, his comrades applauded in the audience. André E. was acquitted of allegations of complicity in attempted murder and of almost all other allegations. Hardly anything remained of the twelve years imprisonment that the federal prosecutor had demanded for him. The Munich Higher Regional Court only sentenced the staunch National Socialist and close confidante of Beate Zschäpe, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt to imprisonment of two and a half years. The neo-Nazis among the spectators hooted. André E. was able to leave prison on the day of the judgment.
It was the only judgment in the NSU trial against which not only the defense, but also the Federal Prosecutor General took action.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has now announced that there will be an oral hearing in Karlsruhe on December 2nd in the André E. case.
The decision on the verdict is expected to be announced on December 15th.
Gaps and contradictions
The Federal Prosecutor wants the judgment against André E. to be overturned if he was acquitted.
That emerges from a letter that SPIEGEL has received.
The prosecution is calling for a new trial before another state security senate of the Munich Higher Regional Court.
The so-called partial acquittal of André E. is legally flawed, the assessment of evidence shows gaps and contradictions.
André E., 42 years old, is a staunch neo-Nazi.
He has his hatred tattooed on his body.
"Die Jew Die", "Die, Jude, die", is written on his stomach.
Including an 88, the Nazi code for "Heil Hitler".
More tattoos have been added over the years.
André E. is a "National Socialist who stands by his political convictions with skin and hair," said his defense.
But political convictions are not enough to prove that the crime has been committed.
The defense had demanded acquittal.
more on the subject
NSU: Best friend of Maik Baumgärtner and Julia Jüttner
NSU terror: "Brothers are silent - until death" By Julia Jüttner
André E. himself was silent.
Neither in the preliminary investigation nor in the process did he provide any information.
He apparently expected something similar from others.
When a witness from the right-wing scene was summoned, André E. wore a sweater with the inscription "Brothers are silent" in the dock.
"What do you actually live on?"
André E. met Zschäpe, Mundlos and Böhnhardt shortly after going into hiding in 1998.
They stayed in close contact until the very end.
When the two men committed suicide in 2011 and Zschäpe set fire to the last hiding place of the NSU, André E. helped her escape.
The crucial question is: when did André E. know about the murders, bombings and robberies of the NSU?
When did he know his friends were terrorists?
The OLG and the Federal Prosecutor's Office came to very different answers.
"Seriously, you can't believe it," said Jochen Weingarten - then senior public prosecutor, now federal prosecutor - in his closing lecture in the NSU trial: You couldn't believe that André E. trotted along next to Zschäpe, Böhnhardt and Mundlos for years «,» Meets with them regularly, addresses them by different names than before, whose camouflage legends know, never see anyone working «, sometimes receives expensive gifts from them,» but never, never, never asks: 'What do you live on, why underground, and what do you guys do all day long? ‹«
The fourth member of the NSU?
The Federal Prosecutor's Office sees André E. as the fourth member of the NSU, even if it cannot prove it to him. André E. set up a kind of altar for the dead terrorists - with a self-drawn portrait of Mundlos and Böhnhardt and the old German word "Unforgotten". The picture was in the living room, just above the television and under photos of his children. For the Federal Prosecutor's Office, this is a "living room design that equates to a confession".
The OLG Munich, on the other hand, was convinced that André E. actually "trotted along" for years, largely unsuspecting, next to Zschäpe, Mundlos and Böhnhardt. Although André E. found the three of them an apartment early on, helped them with a health insurance card and rented three mobile homes for them, with which Böhnhardt and Mundlos drove to two robberies and an explosives attack in Cologne's Probsteigasse. It was not until 2007, years later, that he was said to have found out about the NSU's actions. Even if he knew about the racist attitudes of his friends and shared them, he could not have expected until then that they would kill people as terrorists.
The court was convinced that contact only intensified from 2006 onwards. André E.'s wife became Zschäpe's best friend.
When Zschäpe had to testify in January 2007 because of a burst water pipe, André E. passed her off as his wife and gave her his wife's ID.
Without his help, the NSU might have been blown at the time.
Only then did Zschäpe, Mundlos and Böhnhardt inaugurate André E.
Only then did he find out about the murders and bombings.
It was only afterwards that he made himself liable to prosecution for supporting a terrorist organization when, from 2009, he had Bahncards issued for Böhnhardt and Zschäpe with their photos, but in his name and the name of his wife.
Zschäpe was also able to use the Bahncard as a kind of replacement ID.
The OLG only condemned André E. for this support.
"He knew everything"
For the Federal Prosecutor's Office, André E. was definitely not the unsuspecting assistant.
"He knew everything," said Weingarten in his plea.
“Mr. E. knew exactly who he was helping and what their criminal intentions were.
And he agreed to it because of his own right-wing extremist attitude. "
According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, there is a lot to suggest that André E. expected the possibility that Zschäpe, Mundlos and Böhnhardt would use the motorhomes he had rented for robberies and an explosive attack.
When André E. got out of prison on the day of the judgment, he got into a woman's black jeep. It was Susanne G., a right-wing extremist alternative practitioner from Franconia. The Munich Higher Regional Court recently sentenced her to six years in prison for preparing a state-endangering act of violence. According to the judges, she was on the verge of carrying out a bomb attack on politicians, Muslims or police officers.