Nazi Mole in German State Security
by German state security “Verfassungsschutz” comes under pressure over a series of Nazi inspired murders. It has been alleged that an employee of the Hessian branch of the service was present on location at several crime scenes of the series of murders. Are we talking of murder under state supervision?
An employee of the “Verfassungsschutz” in Hessen is suspected of having been in situ on at least six occasions while businessmen were executed by the terror group based in Zwickau. The officer, meanwhile suspended, had earned the nickname of ‘little Adolf (Hitler)’ in his hometown long before being employed by the German state security agency.
After a murder committed in an Internet cafe in Kassel, police made an appeal to all visitors of the cafe to come forward as witnesses. Internet surveillance showed that six guests had been there moments before the murder. Five people got in contact with police, one was missing. Ten days later, they tracked him down. There was some surprise when it turned out that the man was working for the Hessian “Verfassungsschutz”. At the time, he claimed of having had no idea that a murder had happened and that he had left the cafe a minute before the murder took place.
According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), that was a lie. The man had been present while the murder took place. Newspaper Bild claims that movement profiling of the suspected terror mole showed him in the vicinity of the crime scenes in six of the nine shootings. Authorities have remained dead silent about these new accusations.
Given the potential involvement of at least one state security agency, pressure is growing on federal and state governments to present answers to a mounting heap of questions. German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger told press that she is in favour of a restructuring of the “Verfassungsschutz”. Heavy criticism comes from police and government in Thuringia. They demand an in-depth inquiry into why the three members of the terror cell hadn’t been traced after they disappeared from view in 1998.
The whole fracas has reignited the discussion about the prohibition of the Nazi party NPD (“Nationalsozialistische Partei Deutschlands”). The ruling Christian Democrats are committed to getting such a prohibition examined. The party congress in Leipzig passed a unanimous vote in favour of such proceedings with supported from Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Socialists called for an outright ban of the NPD. First, though, the number of undercover agents within the right scene will have to be reduced. The many moles placed by successive Berlin governments into the NPD are hindering the move for a ban.
The Federal Constitutional High Court in Kassel had stopped a first move for a ban of the NPD in 2003 because of the large number of domestic intelligence liaison officers that were active within the party. The Supreme Court has sole and final jurisdiction to ban a political party in Germany.
The use of liaison officers of the constitutional protection (domestic intelligence) in the neo-Nazi scene in Germany under the ever louder questioned.
The chair of parliament’s intelligence committee was of the opinion that agents would have to be recalled. He said that it was nonsensical that government agents were deployed into the NPD to lead it while being paid for by taxpayers. Germany’s Interior Minister would have to withdraw all undercover agents from the party prior to a ban. This could be a high risk strategy as the government would lose inside information on the NPD for years until the Supreme Court had made its final ruling. And the verdict in that ruling is in no way as certain as Socialists want us to believe.
Sources and further reading:
Nazi Terror Network in Germany
Spitzname Kleiner Adolf; in German
Von Radikalen und Reflexen; in German
Verfassungsschutz – Wikipedia
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