NSU Trial: Documenting State Failure
Journalist Nils Minkmar's book reveals how German authorities failed to stop a terror cell for over a decade
Journalist and author Nils Minkmar was present in the courtroom in Munich as one of post-war Germany's largest and most complex trials unfolded between 2013 and 2018. In his work 'Das Kartell,' he documents five years of proceedings against the National Socialist Underground terror cell network and presents a picture of a system threatening to collapse under its own contradictions.
A State's Collective Failure
Minkmar's analysis focuses not only on the murders committed by the far-right extremist terror cell, but primarily on the incomprehensible: How could this group murder with impunity for over a decade? Between 2000 and 2007, Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt, and Beate Zschäpe killed ten people—nine for racist motives, one police officer.
The book makes clear: this was only possible due to an extraordinary failure by police, intelligence services, and other security agencies. Minkmar meticulously documents how investigators pursued completely wrong leads, suspected victims' families, and systematically excluded far-right extremism as a motive for the crimes.
The title 'Das Kartell' points to a disturbing thesis: the network of informants, authorities, and far-right extremist structures created a system that resembled a criminal organization more than a constitutional state institution.
The Courtroom as Theater of Powerlessness
Over 430 trial days, proceedings took place against main defendant Beate Zschäpe and four accomplices. Minkmar was regularly present and describes the atmosphere: a silent defendant who gave a statement only on trial day 438; lawyers for the victims' families desperately fighting for clarification; and that raised more questions than it answered.
