Lies and Trivialization, Part 15 – the non-violent 1990s Nazi scene in Thuringia

Today the court heard only one witness, who had been active in the Nazi party NPD, its youth organization JN and the “Thuringia Home Guard” in the early 1990s. The witness had not been questioned by the police, maybe because he had moved to Kuwait ten years ago. He was summoned based on a motion by the Wohlleben defense who wished to use his testimony to disprove certain incriminating evidence concerning Wohlleben’s role in supporting Zschäpe, Böhnhardt and Mundlos.

However, his testimony did not contain anything relevant concerning this issue. The witness was obviously still deeply engaged with Nazi ideology and terminology, did all he could to exculpate Zschäpe and Wohlleben, but it quickly became clear that he played fast and loose with the facts in order to do so, as well as garnishing his stories with a hefty dose of neo-National Socialist ideology.

He tried to leave Zschäpe out of his recounting, referred only to Böhnhardt and Mundlos going underground. When questioned about this, he stated that Zschäpe had probably only accompanied them out of solidarity or a thirst for adventure. As to the Nazi scene in Thuringia, he tried to describe it is a totally non-violent victim of attacks by police and anti-fascists. The Thuringia Home Guard had been” the mother of all organizations”, no organization at all, some form of “umbrella organization”, there had been no structures at all, just regular “Wednesday meetings” and in turn “Sunday meetings” to prepare the Wednesday ones.

The witness did accidentally relate that there had been at least one meeting to which Blood and Honour and White Youth had been invited and which they had attended. Even if accused Wohlleben may not have taken part in the meetings, it is clear that the leading cadres of all “national organizations” knew each other. Wohlleben thus had contacts to the organizations whose Saxonian sub-units later took over the support of the NSU. The witness also reported on the influence of “leading cadres” from the “Community of Conviction for the New Front” (see the report of 30 September/1 October 2014) on the founding and leading of the East German organizations.

He also confirmed that there had been several concerts where money was being collected for the trio, first claiming that there had been signs at the entrance noting this, later claiming instead that everybody had been told so when entering. Obviously all visitors knew exactly that Zschäpe, Mundlos and Böhnhardt were being supported.

The testimony of this witness showed once more that almost all witnesses from the Nazi scene are still true to their old convictions and try to show their solidarity with the accused by lying, making excuses and telling stories.