On the NSU’s guns, on the robberies and once more on secret service informer Degner.

Today the court first heard reports from expert witnesses concerning the NSU’s guns. Above all, this concerned ammunition found in the NSU apartment in the Frühlingsstraße in Zwickau. Several bullet casings, all caliber 6.35mm Browning, had been fired from four different weapons of which only one was found – apparently the NSU had even more guns. Some of the casings had been fired from the gun used in a robbery in a supermarket in Chemnitz in December of 1998, likely the first robbery committed by the NSU, during which they had shot at a young man who had tried to follow them.

The next three witnesses reported on other robberies committed by the NSU. A police officer who had investigated robberies in Chemnitz detailed the investigations in these cases, two witnesses reported on a robbery in a post office in Chemnitz in November of 2000.
Victims’ counsel moved that an officer of the domestic secret service in Thuringia be heard as a witness. He had “led” informer Marcel Degner, head of “Blood and Honour” Thuringia. As reported earlier (see the reports of 11 March 2015 and 20 May 2015), Degner has denied working as an informer. Large parts of his file in Thuringia have been destroyed, but copies of some documents have been found in the files of the federal secret service. A former officer of the service, who had recruited Degner, had already testified on the issue – somewhat indifferently (see the report of 22 April 2015). Given Degner’s refusal, the information he provided to the service back then are now to be introduced via his former contact officer. This information shows the extent to which “the Three” were integrated in the “Blood and Honour” scene in Saxony as well as the number of people involved in supporting them who had knowledge of their whereabouts, their activities and their ideology.

At the end of the trial day, the presiding judge announced that the court would continue to sit only two trial days per week in June out of consideration for Beate Zschäpe’s health – psychiatrist and expert witness Nedopil is on vacation and thus unable to determine whether a reduction in the trial schedule was still called for.