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Accused Alexander M. with defense attorney Ulrich Baumann (r.)
Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa
Hatred, agitation and disparagement are part of everyday life for many people who are in the public eye through their work in politics, journalism or the judiciary.
They have to endure defamation, which is often unacceptable.
The news that circulated in Germany from August 2, 2018 and found its way into various electronic mailboxes was not just disgusting;
they were terrifying.
Your author gave the names and birthdays of relatives, private addresses and personal data of the recipients.
This made the threats more concrete, more real, more frightening.
They ended with the inhuman triad: 'Heil Hitler!
NSU 2.0 The Leader.«
The man who is said to have sent the emails is in custody.
This Wednesday morning he enters room 165 in the Frankfurt am Main district court: Alexander M., 54 years old, a tall man in a gray jacket with a neon-colored insert.
When his defense attorneys turn away, he points the middle finger at the prosecutor's office.
When the photographers take pictures of him, he follows up: He holds up two middle fingers.
»No private data«
Alexander M. is otherwise self-confident.
He refuses to give his last address.
Presiding judge Corinna Distler asks why.
"I don't give any private data," says M., that's none of the press's business.
"The address is in the file." He speaks with a Berlin accent.
You can already guess what caliber is sitting in the dock: an unpredictable client who is not easy to keep under control.
At his side is public defender Marcus Steffel, an experienced lawyer who brought in his colleague Ulrich Baumann.
The two still seem relaxed.
But what if M. wants to comment on the allegations himself?
Within almost three years, most recently on March 21, 2021, he is said to have sent "NSU 2.0" letters 116 times, full of racist, vulgar insults and with a high potential for violence.
Primarily to women from politics, the judiciary, journalism, but also to the Prime Minister of Hesse, Volker Bouffier, and the satirists Jan Böhmermann and Carolin Kebekus.
Senior Public Prosecutor Sinan Akdogan and his colleague Patricia Neudeck read out the charges for 162 minutes.
They accuse M., among other things, of threats, insults and incitement to hatred.
more on the subject
116 Right-wing extremist and racist messages: How the police found out about the threatening letter writer "NSU 2.0" By Matthias Bartsch
Suspect in the "NSU 2.0" case: The hate story of Alexander Horst M.
Right-wing extremist threatening emails: How the suspect in the "NSU 2.0" case mocked the investigatorsBy Matthias Bartsch, Jörg Diehl, Roman Lehberger and Sven Röbel
Alexander M. follows the explanations mostly leaning back, arms crossed.
He put on glasses.
After 81 minutes, without consulting his lawyers, he asked for a short break, saying he had to go to the toilet.
Sitting across from him are the lawyers Antonia von der Behrens and Kristin Pietrzyk.
They represent recipients of the threatening emails and faxes.
Among them Seda Başay-Yıldız, a Frankfurt lawyer, committed against right-wing extremism.
In the NSU trial, she represented the family of the first victim, Enver Simsek.
Başay-Yıldız received the first accused message three weeks after the verdict in the NSU trial, on August 2, 2018. The author knew the child's name and the family's home address and threatened the lawyer viciously: »You'd better fuck off while you're here get out alive, you pig!"
Hard to imagine, but his aggressiveness increased.
Two and a half years later, in a threatening letter dated February 20, 2021, the author referred to an appeal on the Internet for the lawyer to be publicly killed.
The author threatened the addressees "in the name of the German people", announced explosive devices and called himself "Obersturmbannfuhrer".
He juggled official language formulations, seemed well-versed and eloquent despite vulgarity.
Garbage filled one room apartment
When the SEK stormed Alexander M's one-room apartment in Berlin on May 3 last year, the investigators found an unemployed, convicted, single man without many social contacts in a cluttered booth with the windows hung up.
On a bookshelf was specialist literature on targeted manipulation, deception and rhetoric.
M. was in possession of a firearm.
He was born in East Berlin as the son of a teacher and worked as an IT specialist at the East Berlin bank.
The turnaround seems to have been a turning point in his life, since then he has been living on social benefits.
His father died in GDR times.
During the Second World War, the father was a member of the Totenkopfverband »Thüringen« of the Waffen-SS, stationed on the grounds of the Buchenwald concentration camp.
Did that shape Alexander M.?
He called a bank in 1992, pretended to be a police officer and asked for personal information about his former English teacher.
Two years later he was convicted of misappropriation.
If Alexander M. is the author of the letter, where did he get all the private details from?
The public prosecutor is convinced that M. obtained the data alone;
that he pretended to be a police officer and tricked people he was talking to at police stations and residents' registration offices by telephone in order to obtain confidential data.
There is no evidence of this.
For the investigators, the case is clear: Alexander M. is a lone perpetrator.
Those affected have doubts.
"In my opinion, the investigation was not carried out with the necessary meticulousness," Martina Renner, a member of the Left Bundestag, told SPIEGEL.
She also received "NSU 2.0" threatening emails.
As soon as it comes to the fact that police officers are also affected by investigations, gaps arise that can only be explained by “a lack of interest in clarification”.
"The fact is that there were Hessian police officers who illegally gained access to personal data, and it's also a fact that there were threatening messages via fax that were sent from Hessian police stations," says Renner.
17 views in one day
Together with Seda Başay-Yıldız, ldil Baydar, Anne Helm, Janine Wissler and Hengameh Yaghoobifarah, Renner explains that there are indications of "at least targeted data transfer from police circles".
In their opinion, the author must have had contact with these circles.
The data of Başay-Yıldız, Wissler and Baydar had been accessed via official access to police computers in Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden for non-official reasons.
Other data used in threatening letters came from police inquiries in Hamburg and Berlin.
On August 2, 2018, when the message was sent to Başay-Yıldız, her and her family's details were accessed 17 times in three different police databases.
In fact, investigators came across a right-wing chat group in Frankfurt's first police station, there were house searches, disciplinary proceedings and internal investigations.
Two procedures against a policewoman and an officer from the 1st district are still ongoing.
»I am highly motivated«
In this process, it must be clarified whether M. wrote and sent these messages.
The joint plaintiffs will particularly insist on finding out as well: How did he get the details from the police computers?
Were members of the police involved?
Were there connections between M. and police forces on the dark web?
And: How dangerous is Alexander M.?
Did he plan to carry out his threats?
He is free to express himself, says Judge Distler.
Regardless of his defense attorneys, Alexander M. presses the button on his microphone: “I have a comprehensive statement.
Gladly now, because I don't want to leave this without comment.« Attorney Baumann intervenes and suggests a break.
M. remains stubborn, he wants to start now.
The judge interrupts him: "I'll decide when you present your statement!" M. adds: "But I'm highly motivated to say something about the matter now."
The judge has the last word.
M. may explain himself tomorrow Thursday.