Nazi cell: “Actions not words!”

“How do you like your Turks? Do you like them well done?”
Böhnhardt, Mundlos und Zschäpe came of political age in the early 1990s, a time of many racist murders in Germany. Eastern and western Germany were confronted with a groundswell of violence against migrants committed by Neo-Nazis and racists. A prominent example occurred in Rostock-Lichtenhagen in August 1992. For days, hundreds of Neo-nazis besieged a home of Vietnamese workers and eventually set fire to the building while up to 3,000 neighbouring residents applauded. Nobody was killed in Rostock, but only a few months later three Turkish migrants died in an arson attack in Mölln. The victims were two children and their grandmother. Others were seriously injured.

Worse was to come. In mid-1993, only a few days after a tightening of German asylum laws, five Turkish migrants died in yet another arson attack carried out by neo-Nazis, this time in Sollingen.

The dead of Mölln and Solingen were ridiculed in many neo-Nazi circles. Incendiary attacks and murders sometimes sparked celebration. Song lyrics of bands connected to the “Blood and Honour” network expressed what neo-Nazis of the Böhnhardt-Mundlos-Zschäpe generation thought about such deeds. One of the most notorious contemporary songs was “Barbecue in Rostock”, which asked: “How do you like your Turks? Do you like them well done?” The CD cover showed a drawing of a caricatured Turk on a skewer, being roasted over fire by a neo-Nazi.

In 1987 Blood and Honour, the most significant international neo-Nazi music network until today, was founded in Great Britain. Ian Stuart Donaldson was its mastermind and founder. Before his death in 1993, he had been the lead singer of the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver, which had a pioneering role in extreme right-wing rock music.

The slogan “Blood and Honour” dates from the time of National Socialism in Germany, and was engraved on the knives of Hitler Youth. The symbol of the network, B&H, resembles a triskelion. The number code 28 is prevalent. It symbolizes the 2nd and 8th letter of the alphabet and stands for Blood and Honour. Nowadays B&H organizes concerts in a number of countries, produces CDs and DVDs and publishes a magazine. In the early 1990s, a German offshoot was established, but was prohibited in 2000.

In 1998, the trio of Böhnhardt, Mundlos and Zschäpe were part of this network and the environment surrounding it. Investigators at the Thuringian State Office of Criminal Investigations said the three belonged to the “hard core” of Blood and Honour.

“Ali Bastard, we hate you”
In January 1998, investigators searched the flats and garages of Böhnhardt, Mundlos and Zschäpe. At that time they were suspected of involvement in sending dummy letter bombs. In the raid, pipe bombs (1.4 kg of TNT), propaganda material, weapons and computer media were confiscated. On a floppy disk, the police found a “poem”, possibly written by Uwe Mundlos. The poem read: “Ali Bastard, we hate you! […] Those who say that this is too mean should see the Turkish swine! He raids, robs and is obnoxious, yet today he is gonna die – what a shame!” (“Ali Drecksau, wir hassen dich. […] Wer sagt das wäre zu gemein – der soll es sehen das Türkenschwein! Er plündert, raubt und wird dann frech, doch heut noch stirbt er – ‘so ein Pech’).

While police were carried out their investigation, the three became fugitives.

There are indications that other participants in the German neo-Nazi scene may have been aware of the NSU’s existence. In 2002, the introductory page of a neo-Nazi magazine contained the sentences: “Many thanks to the NSU, it came to fruition. The struggle goes on.” In May 2012, having discovered this 10-year-old reference to the NSU, police searched the flat of a state parliament representative from the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany. The investigators found an NSU leaflet that they recognized  from a file stored on one of the suspects’ computers. Until this discovery, no evidence had surfaced that the leaflet had ever been distributed or sent to anyone. It is now known that the NSU sent this handbill with a donation to the makers of the neo-Nazi magazine. Also suggestive of outside supporters is the song “Döner-Killer” by a German neo-Nazi band, released in 2010. Its lyrics include the line: “He already did it nine times / The SoKo Bosporus sounds the alarm / The investigators are hyped up / A bloody trace and nobody can stop the phantom” (Neun mal hat er es jetzt schon getan. Die SoKo Bosporus, sie schlägt Alarm. Die Ermittler stehen unter Strom. Eine blutige Spur und keiner stoppt das Phantom). And further: “He already killed brutally nine times, but the urge to kill can’t be satisfied” (Neun mal hat er bisher brutal gekillt, doch die Lust am Töten ist noch nicht gestillt).

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Maik Baumgärtner

About Maik Baumgärtner

Maik Baumgärtner is a Berlin-based investigative freelance journalist and author specializing in right-wing extremism, racism, discrimination and anti-democratic movements. He works for a variety of media outlets and is the author of the book Das Zwickauer Terror-Trio (2012), which gives a history of the National Socialist Underground.
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