Journalist Tanjev Schultz from Süddeutsche Zeitung published in February 2021 the book "NSU – Die Akten: Was die Behörden wussten" (NSU – The Files: What the Authorities Knew) – the most comprehensive documentation of German government failure in the NSU case to date. The 480-page work is based on over 1,000 classified pages from the Verfassungsschutz (German domestic intelligence agency), which Schultz obtained through freedom of information requests between 2019 and 2020. The book won the German Non-Fiction Prize in the history category in November 2021.
Intelligence Knew – And Remained Silent
The chronology of what was known is chilling: As early as 1998, an informant codenamed "Tarek" reported to Verfassungsschutz Baden-Württemberg about Uwe Mundlos' escape plans. The intelligence agency was aware of the connection between Mundlos and later NSU supporter Ralf Wohlleben – eight years before the NSU murders began.
In 2000, informant "Corelli" (Thomas Starke) personally met Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt in Chemnitz and reported their sudden disappearance. In 2006, Verfassungsschutz registered "the trio" – Mundlos, Böhnhardt, and Beate Zschäpe – as wanted, while informant "Iraq" even provided a residential address in Zwickau. In 2007, informant "Mario" even supplied photographs of Zschäpe – yet Verfassungsschutz Baden-Württemberg ignored the NSU connection despite warnings from the German Federal Criminal Police.
During this period, NSU murdered ten people: nine migrants and one police officer. Authorities instead pursued a racist "Döner murders" theory and suspected the victims' families themselves.
29 Informants and Systematic File Destruction
Schultz's research identifies 29 informants within the NSU environment. The files document a clear pattern: critical information was systematically withheld from police and federal authorities. Even more scandalously: in 2011, immediately after NSU's self-exposure on November 4, Verfassungsschutz Baden-Württemberg destroyed 300 case files.
"File destruction was not a mistake, but policy," writes Schultz. The intelligence agency protected its informants – at the cost of human lives. No search operations were launched despite concrete tips on whereabouts. The question of whether informants were directly involved in NSU operations remains unanswered due to the file destruction.
German Political Response
The book's publication triggered political uproar on February 16, 2021. The federal interior minister called the revelations "shocking and shameful" and demanded a comprehensive review of all NSU files. Former NSU investigative committee chair Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) declared in the Bundestag: "The book confirms complete failure."
Despite these admissions, no new investigation was launched. The only concrete action was a recommendation to digitize the files. For victims' families and survivors of NSU attacks, this was yet another disappointment in an endless chain of institutional failure.
Significance for Justice
Ralf Wohlleben was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2018 and released in 2024. Beate Zschäpe is serving a life sentence following the federal court decision in July 2018. But the intelligence agency's role remained largely hidden – until Schultz's book.
The documentation reveals: NSU was not an isolated terror network operating in secrecy. It operated in the shadow of an intelligence agency that knew everything and did nothing. Schultz's achievement lies in his meticulous chronology of this failure, which no longer permits excuses. The book is thus not merely historical documentation, but an indictment against a system that prioritized protecting its own structures over human lives.
