NSU murders in Hamburg and Rostock

For years, police have been groping in the dark over a nationwide murder spree. The investigators consider protection racket or drug deals to be the background, at times there is also talk of "honor killings". But it has been known since November 2011:the crimes from 2000 to 2006 are obviously the work of right-wing extremists. And the gang "National Socialist Underground" (NSU) is said to have committed even more serious crimes:the murder of a police officer, bomb attacks and several bank robberies. Hamburg and Rostock are also among the scenes of the murder attempts on immigrants.

Hamburg:Close-range shots at Süleyman Tasköprü

Wednesday, June 27, 2001:Süleyman Tasköprü works in his father's vegetable shop in Hamburg's Bahrenfeld district. What exactly happened between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in the store on Schützenstrasse is still a mystery to this day. Süleyman's father Ali found the 31-year-old at the time:his son was covered in blood and had severe head injuries. The alerted emergency doctor can no longer save him. It is only later, through an autopsy, that it becomes clear that Tasköprü was killed by three shots at close range - his head was so severely disfigured.

The father had seen two men walking away from the store on the sidewalk near the scene of the crime. At first he thinks they are customers. Only later does he realize that he must have seen the perpetrators. He describes her as German, slim, about 25 to 30 years old - the information is not enough for an identikit. The police don't follow the trail any further.

Six years after the murder, the police released an identikit of a possible witness. At the time, it was already clear that Taskopru was one of a total of nine victims who were all killed with the same weapon:eight Turkish and Turkish small traders and one Greek. But the police are completely on the wrong track.

Rostock:Murder of 25-year-old Mehmet Turgut

Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2004:Mehmet Turgut works as a temporary worker in a doner kebab shop in the Rostock district of Toitenwinkel. He had only come to Rostock ten days earlier. To this day it is unclear what exactly happened that morning. The perpetrators entered the stand probably shortly after 10 a.m. They fired several shots at their victim. Turgut is found dead some time later. The 25-year-old suffered serious head and neck injuries, police said. She did not want to give details at the time so as not to jeopardize the investigation. Only later did it become known that the murder of Mehmet Turgut was part of a series of crimes that went through the media as "kebab murders" and to which Süleyman Tasköprü from Hamburg also fell victim. The murder weapon is the same every time:a Ceska, type 83, caliber 7.65 millimeters.

Serious mistakes by the investigative authorities?

In May 2013, the trial against suspected members and supporters of the NSU began in Munich. The lawyers for the victims' families, who appear there as joint plaintiffs, criticize from the start that the investigating authorities have obviously made serious mistakes for years. This impression is reinforced by the results of investigative committees of the Bundestag and several state parliaments.

Beate Zschäpe, who lived with the two alleged main perpetrators Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, breaks her silence for the first time on December 9, 2015 after two and a half years of trial. During the trial, she has her lawyer read out a statement. In it, she denies direct involvement in the crimes. You only found out about it later. However, she does admit responsibility. "I feel morally guilty that I could not prevent ten murders and two bombings." Böhnhardt and Mundlos took their own lives in November 2011 while fleeing a failed bank robbery. In July 2018, Beate Zschäpe was sentenced to life imprisonment.