Cumbersome questioning regarding Böhnhardt

The first witness today was Matthias Dienelt, who over a period of seven years had rented apartments for the NSU in Zwickau, first in the Polenzstraße, then in the Frühlingsstraße. Dienelt is subject of a criminal investigation charging him with providing support to the NSU; it was no surprise that he relied on his privilege against self-incrimination and refused to testify.

Accordingly, the court instead heard a police officer from Chemnitz who had questioned Dienelt shortly after the fire in the Frühlingsstraße. Back then, Dienelt had stated that his friend André Eminger had introduced him to a Max Florian B and that the latter had asked him to rent the apartments for him, stating that he was unable to sign the leases due to old debts. He has also stated that he had had a room in both of the apartments, but had seldom used that room, having last spent the night in the Frühlingsstraße apartment months earlier.

Dienelt had described Mundlos, Zschäpe and Böhnhardt as “Lise, Mac and Gerry”. Apart from this aspect, his testimony is hardly believable, making his refusing to testify a smart move. It rather seems more than plausible that Dienelt knew quite well why and for whom he had rented the apartments. Dienelt had been an active part of the Nazi scene in his hometown of Johanngeorgenstadt, together with André Eminger.

The next witness was Uwe Böhnhardt’s brother. He described his relationship to his brother Uwe, which apparently had not been all that close, his brother’s identification with the Nazi scene and his going underground. It seemed that, to the extent the two had had a somewhat close relationship at all, this had been the case during their childhoods. Lateron, the witness had apparently seen his Nazi brother wearing the SA uniform mostly as a strain on his own life.

At the end of the trial day, victims’ counsel brought an extensive motion for the taking of evidence regarding the connections of accused André Eminger to the “Hammerskins”, an organization which, similarly to “Blood and Honour”, used music and concerts to propagate Nazi ideologoy and terror concepts. Together with his brother Maik, Eminger had built up a group called “White Brotherhood Ore Mountains” which had close personal and ideological ties to the Hammerskins and for whom the “14 words” established by American Nazi terrorists (“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.”) served as a quasi-religious motto.