National Socialist Underground murders
National Socialist Underground murders — simplified overview
Overview
- The National Socialist Underground (NSU) was a neo-Nazi group in Germany that carried out a series of racist killings from 2000 to 2007.
- Ten people were killed and one was wounded. Most victims were ethnic Turkish shop owners; one victim was Greek and one was a German policewoman.
- The murders were carried out in daylight across several German cities, mainly with a silenced handgun.
Victims (names, location, date)
- Enver Şimşek — Nuremberg, 9 September 2000
- Abdurrahim Özüdoğru — Nuremberg, 13 June 2001
- Süleyman Taşköprü — Hamburg, 27 June 2001
- Habil Kilic — Munich, 29 August 2001
- Mehmet Turgut — Rostock, 25 February 2004
- İsmail Yaşar — Nuremberg, 9 June 2005
- Theodoros Boulgarides — Munich, 15 June 2005
- Mehmet Kubaşık — Dortmund, 4 April 2006
- Halit Yozgat — Kassel, 6 April 2006
- Michèle Kiesewetter — Heilbronn, 25 April 2007
The killers
- Beate Zschäpe, Uwe Mundlos, and Uwe Böhnhardt were the core members who grew up together in Jena, East Germany.
- They formed a far-right group and spent years on the run after a 1998 raid found bomb materials in a storage garage.
- They used a 7.65 mm CZ 83 pistol to commit most of the killings and sometimes carried out other crimes, including a bombing.
- In November 2011, Mundlos and Böhnhardt died in an armed bank robbery, apparently by suicide. Zschäpe surrendered and was later tried for murder and terrorism.
Investigation and early questions
- For many years, police initially blamed immigrants or organized crime for the killings and did not connect the crimes as the work of a single group.
- Investigators later found possible links to neo-Nazi networks and to sections of Germany’s security services (the BfV), which had used informants connected to neo-Nazi groups.
- Reports and evidence suggested informants may have known about the NSU crimes but did not share crucial information with police.
The NSU trial
- The NSU murder trial began on 6 May 2013 and concluded in July 2018.
- Beate Zschäpe was found guilty of ten murders, arson, and other charges, and was sentenced to life in prison.
- Accomplices were also convicted:
- Ralf Wohlleben: convicted of aiding nine murders; sentenced to ten years.
- Andre Eminger: convicted of aiding a terrorist organization and two bank robberies; sentenced to about two and a half years.
- Holger Gerlach: convicted of aiding a terrorist organization; sentenced to about three years.
- Carsten Schultze: convicted of aiding and abetting in nine murders; sentenced to juvenile detention (three years) because he was 20 at the time.
State complicity and aftermath
- The NSU case raised serious questions about the role of Germany’s security services. Questions included whether informants knew about the crimes and whether authorities mishandled the investigation.
- Investigations showed that files about NSU informants were shredded after the crimes were exposed, leading to criticism and resignations, including the head of the security service.
- The murders and the handling of the case sparked national and international criticism, including concerns raised by Turkey. The term Döner-Morde (Kebab Murders) was widely used in media and later called the German Un-Word of the Year in 2011 for its dehumanizing framing.
- In 2018, authorities disclosed further issues in police culture, including threats against a lawyer connected to victims’ families and racist or far-right materials found among some officers.
Key takeaway
- The NSU murders were a ten-year wave of racist killings carried out by a small far-right group with alleged ties to neo-Nazi networks. The case exposed failures in investigation and law enforcement, raised questions about state complicity, and led to ongoing scrutiny of Germany’s security services and policing.
This page was last edited on 1 February 2026, at 23:15 (CET).