Germany marks 15 years since NSU exposure as victims' families seek compensation

How the group was exposed

The National Socialist Underground (NSU) came to light on 4 November 2011, when Beate Zschäpe revealed its existence. The same day, Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos were found dead in a burned-out caravan in Thuringia, after a failed bank robbery in Eisenach. Shortly afterwards, Zschäpe set fire to the group's shared hideout in Zwickau, where investigators found a copy of a video in which the NSU claimed robberies, bombings and ten murders. Between 2000 and 2007 the trio killed ten people, nine of them with a migrant background, beginning with a murder in Nuremberg on 9 September 2000. Until 2011 the members lived largely undetected in Chemnitz and Zwickau, while investigators focused on the victims' families rather than a racist motive.

A killing that remains unexplained

The motive for the 2007 murder of a female police officer in Heilbronn is still unclear. Neither the first NSU trial before the Higher Regional Court in Munich, held from 2013 to 2018, nor the parliamentary inquiry committees gave a definitive answer. The victims' families increasingly doubt that new information will emerge. Publicist Tanjev Schultz, who followed the inquiries and trials, said the exposure marked a turning point for the country:

“It was a real turning point for this country that neo-Nazis could roam the country and murder for so long.”

Gamze Kubaşık, whose father was shot in his kiosk in Dortmund, only learned the background five years later, when a friend called her on 4 November 2011 and told her to switch on the television. She described the moment of recognition as a release:

“I simply felt that I had carried a burden with me for years, and that day I could finally stand up straight.”

Eminger verdict and anger over sentencing

Susann Eminger was sentenced in July 2026 by the Higher Regional Court in Dresden to two years' probation for supporting the group. She let Zschäpe use her health insurance card and identity card during doctor visits and dealings with the police. The court could not prove that she knew about the murders. Relatives of the victims and survivors of the 2004 bombing on Keupstraße in Cologne do not hide their outrage at the verdict. Michalina Boulgarides, whose father was shot dead in Munich, said:

“Ten people were executed in cold blood, and countless others were injured in bombings.”

Compensation demand

On 4 November, government ombudsperson Barbara John called for financial compensation for the victims and their relatives. She told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland that the families had been wrongly suspected for years and that investigators had failed. In her view, no other group affected by terror has been treated by the state the way the relatives of the NSU victims were. She put the number of those affected at about 45 surviving relatives and about 40 people injured in explosive attacks, and named no sum. She proposes that the federal government, or the states of Saxony and Bavaria, pay, while Thuringia alone has provided 1.5 million euros so far.

Surviving relatives of murder victims45

People injured in explosive attacks40

Surviving relatives of murder victims

45 people

People injured in explosive attacks

40 people

Data from the article text

Remembrance in Zwickau

Zwickau is marking the anniversary with several formats, including a service at the St. Marien cathedral. Artist Lysann König, who lives in Switzerland, made a video installation titled 'It is not the difference that paralyses us, but the silence' during a residency at the Offener Prozess documentation centre on the NSU complex. In an interview with MDR KULTUR, she spoke of guilt and anger over the failures of the authorities. She called for more files to be opened, because sealed records make it hard to trust state institutions.