On everyday life in Zwickau

The court only sat for a half day today due to ill health of accused Beate Zschäpe. Accordingly, only one witnessed testified, a former neighbor of the NSU in the Polenzstraße in Zwickau who recalled her contact with Beate Zschäpe, known to her as “Lise” or “Lisa”. She only had contact with Zschäpe, one of the men was supposed to be her boyfriend, but he was often absent “for work.” Several times, the witness saw mobile homes in front of the house, “Lisa” said that they were going on vacation.

Zschäpe also came for visits after she had moved to the Frühlingsstraße apartment. The witness found her a genial conversational partner – one who had, however, mostly listened and not told much about herself. During one of the last visits, Zschäpe had argued with a neighbor about money and had become very aggressive: “I thought she is just about to her”. During her final visit, about two weeks before the explosion in the Frühlingsstraße, she had appeared very stressed and had drunk a lot more than usual, but had claimed that everything was alright.
It seems that this witness did not witness the “German normalcy” between Zschäpe and other neighbors (see the reports of 3 February 2014 and 9 to 11 November 2013). She stated that Zschäpe had never made political statements – “otherwise I would not have continued talking to her.”

The Zschäpe defense asked the witness a number of questions, but without a discernible strategy and without any concrete results.