NSU trial: Holger G. and the wrong friends
The 38-year-old Holger G. belonged like Ralf W. and the three submerged to the Jena camaraderie and is accused of alleged supporters of the group.
© Marc Müller / dpaFriendship, says Holger G., is a feeling that goes deep. A friend is one whom you can rely on. One who also tells you to build shit. Uwe Böhnhardt, Uwe Mundlos and Beate Zschäpe were friends for him. When he then identified a neo-Nazi comrade in the police in Jena and was then reported - it was a "huge stupidity" - Uwe Mundlos had said to him: "Do not worry, you're just like that." They would have accepted him as he is, says Holger G. Until last. There he had to address her with Gerry, Max and Liese, their cover name. But when they moved around the houses together in Hanover, it did not feel like they were living underground. They talked about his relationship, they told about their holidays, and sometimes Uwe Mundlos had "endless monologues" about computer games. He felt obliged to the "threes" and wanted to help. He voluntarily provided his driver's license and organized a health insurance card for Beate Zschäpe. What you do just that, for real friends in need.
It is November 5, 2011, half past one in the morning, when Bad Nenndorf police picks him up at night in his company for interrogation. At his first hearing, according to the minutes, he is asked what he has to do with the bank robbery in Eisenach. He is said to have rented a mobile home, a getaway car. The two bank robbers: dead. One of them shot first one, then himself. Their bodies could not be identified yet. But his driver's license was found with them.
I would like to apologize. That's the truth.
"I realized why they really used my identity."says Holger G. today. To exist as a terrorist group in the underground namely. To commit murders, explosives attacks and robberies. He does not want to have suspected anything of that. "I apologize for that, that's the truth," he says. He still finds it difficult to reconcile the image of his friends with what he knows about them today. That they were terrorists. That they lied to him, used.
Holger G., loyalty and companionship are very important. He has to tell three times that he has experienced the "classic DDR education": "Pioneers, Young Pioneers, FDJ". Three times, because of nervousness at the beginning of his speech must always start again. He talks too fast, too vague. The chairman Richter Götzl interrupts him. "Please make an effort," he tells the tall man in jeans and blue shirt. "We have time." If not all in the hall have heard the pleadings of the accused clearly, that is a reason for revision. The ushers distribute headphones in plastic bags. Beate Zschäpe sits down on one, she should actually hear well, after all, she sits only half a meter in front of her former comrade.
Together they experienced a house search in 1997. Also, the apartments of Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt were searched at that time, because of "disturbing public peace by threatening acts of violence and violations of the weapons law," according to files of the Thuringian LKA. In Holger G. a neo-Nazi patch was confiscated, and the book: "My honor is loyalty," titled after the motto of the SS.
His horror at the actions of the NSU acts honestly
Later, there is a lack of loyalty that has him in 2004 to leave the right-wing scene. A comrade cheated on him with his girlfriend. A "bitter experience," he says. Holger G., nicknamed "Hucke", until his move to Hanover in 1997 Member of the "Section Jena", an elite subgroup of the Thuringian Homeland Security, together with Ralf Wohlleben, Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt and Beate Zschäpe, wants to be exited. He sincerely describes how he distanced himself from racist ideology when Lagerist in Hannover had colleagues who were migrants who were "normal and good". His horror over the actions of the NSU acts honestly.
But the alibi for renting the motorhome, which "the two Uwes" used for their last bank robbery, gets Holger G. just one of the leading neo-Nazi squad of Hanover. Marc-Oliver M., ex-NPD official and leader of a now forbidden comradeship, has testified that Holger G. accompanied him to the court with about ten others, where M. testified against two anti-fascists. The fact that he was twice on right demonstrations after his alleged exit, that was also "friendships" for him, he says in his statement, which he reads in writing.
It is "friendships" that have made him sit in room A101, accused of supporting a terrorist group. He lives now in the witness protection instead of his "philistine life". Holger G. seems proud that he has been working continuously since moving to Hannover. He also stayed when his company contracted from 120 to 21 employees, was foreman and works council. After a long period of private disorientation, drugs, gambling addiction, in 2007 he met his current partner. His "rock in the surf," he says, and: "the hammer, the woman." She did not want to hear from his old friends. Holger G. arranged the conspiratorial meetings with "The Three" when she was not at home.
Holger G. weighs heavily on Beate Zschäpe
Only twice, the friendship service was no longer voluntary. The last time in Hannover, the three came to visit with cake - and a hair clipper. The passport that Hoger G. provided years ago had expired, they needed a new one. Holger G. tells us that he did not want to help anymore. But Mundlos put pressure on him - and then immediately shaved his hair so that he looked more like Uwe Böhnhardt in the photos.
And also the transport of weapons should have been involuntary. It was 2000 or 2001, Holger G admits. He had been visiting Ralf Wohlleben in Jena. He asked him to transport something for the three people to Zwickau and got a jute bag out of his bedroom. Only on the train did he feel what was in the bag: a weapon.
Beate Zschäpe had picked him up from the train station, and one of the Uwes had loaded his gun in the apartment.
Holger G. weighs heavily on his former girlfriend Beate Zschäpe. Once, the judge asks precisely, "Who do you mean when you talk about the Three?" "All three," says Holger G. So also Beate Zschäpe.
The man who was considered the fourth man in the early stages of the investigation does not want to know what his friends are doing. He says, "The mere fact that you had to make a conspiratorial appointment did not cloud my perception: I liked these people." Today he is sorry for everything. When he's done, he falls back into the chair, throws his head back and moans.
At the end of the trial, the father of the murdered Halit Yozgat intervenes. Without asking what Ismail Yozgat wanted to say, Richter Götzl reprimands him: For comments is now not the right time, he should now sit down again please.
Some of the co-plaintiffs, survivors of the NSU victims say after the trial, they are glad that apologizes for the first time. They can not believe it. The remorse was read from the sheet. And another in the hall seems to have doubts. While Holger G. apologizes to the victims, Ralf Wohlleben leans back in the chair and grins.
For the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde at the NSU trial site is Lena fight. She is currently reporting for ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com and stern.de.
