26 June 2017
Raindrops patter against a white tent's roof in front of the Munich Court of Appeals. I wait underneath and wrap up my umbrella. Two women stand next to me. "Have you been here before?" I ask. "Several times," they respond. Then a guard appears and guides us through the entrance. "This way," he says, as does a white DIN A4 paper on the wall with the inscription "NSU-Trial" and a fat black arrow pointing left. We stop at the security check. Body scan by X-ray machine and female hands. The only utensils I am allowed to take with me: a pen, a writing pad, and two Euros. "Might be, the coffee machine is still broken," an officer mumbles while storing my handbag in a shelf. "What a shame," I hear me saying.
By now, more than four years have elapsed since the opening of the trial against the extreme-right terrorist organization National Socialist Underground (NSU). The NSU is accused of having committed ten murders - nine of which out of racist motives - all over Germany between 2000 and 2007. Among the victims were eight citizens of Turkish and Kurdish origin, one Greek man, and one German police officer. Moreover, the NSU is charged with two attacks in the city of Cologne - one explosion in an Iranian grocery shop and one nail-filled bomb blast in a Turkish quarter, leaving several people severely injured. Next to the premeditated crimes against citizens of foreign origin, the terrorist organization is charged with fifteen bank robberies.
After a failed hold-up in 2011, two members of the so-called "NSU-Trio" committed suicide. Their alleged accomplice Beate Zschäpe, who turned herself in to the police a couple of days later, is the main accused on trial. She faces life imprisonment being charged among others with founding the terrorist organization NSU and complicity in ten murders. Besides her, four other defendants are accused of having supported the terrorist organization with weapons and false documents. The NSU-trial is the biggest court case in Germany since reunification, involving five judges, thirteen defence lawyers, three federal prosecutors and approximately fifty lawyers representing the private accessory prosecutors (victims or family members of murdered victims).
I walk up the stairs to the visitor's gallery. Three police officers are guarding the doors to the tribune. My gaze wanders around searching for a half balding man whose haircut I only know from his Twitter profile picture. Robert Andreasch is a member of "NSU Watch," an initiative that aims for independent observation of the NSU-trial. We emailed beforehand and he offered me to accompany him on this court-hearing day. I see him coming straight up to me. "Hi, you're Paula, right?" I nod. The gallery is split into two halves. Around twenty people are sitting on the left side. Just a couple of chairs are occupied on the right. "This side is reserved for the press," Andreasch explains. "But only few journalists still follow the trial," he adds, "media attention has dropped long ago."
Withal, public interest was huge when the trial began in May 2013. The high socio-political relevance was not only manifested in the sheer scope of the racist hate crimes. What added crucially to societal interest was the fact that during many years public authorities investigated the murders (which were knowingly a series, as the foreign victims were shot by one and the same gun) primarily within the victims' communities, alleging ties to mafia-like organized crime. Many victims and family members described the interrogations as prejudging and presumptuous. They felt mistreated by state authorities and left alone in their grief and anxiety. "I haven't slept peacefully for years," a victim of the nail-filled bomb blast in Cologne said in a documentary.
At that, until the self-uncovering of the NSU, the media largely reported according to official portrayals, stigmatizing the people concerned, barely questioning the theory of organized crime. The defamations were taken to the extremes by the discriminating term "Döner-Morde" (the murders of Döner kebab) as a synonym for the series of murders. All the more, journalists considered the trial as an opportunity to give reparations in the form of comprehensive reporting. Due to limited space on the visitor's gallery, however, a heated debate sparked about media accreditation. Eventually, media and public each got fifty seats. Thus, during the first weeks people stood in line for hours in front of the court's entrance in order to save one of the highly coveted chairs.
Meanwhile, at the end of June 2017, 370 days of court hearing have passed. Throughout the last four years, Andreasch only missed a few dozens, he says. That day, end of January 2017, it is the 342nd hearing session. All present stand up as the judges enter the courtroom - a last sequence of dynamics before everyone sinks down to their chairs again and the hearing begins. After the opening and introduction, Manfred Götzl, the main judge, unfolds several broad sheets of paper and starts reading them out. What follows is a one-hour dictation of 232 Jewish institutions and their addresses in all kind of German cities listed in alphabetical order. The court exhibit was found in the apartment, where the NSU members used to live together. Attack targets, possibly?
Trial proceedings are often bureaucratic, as they follow strict rules. Thus, it is at the heart of court reporting that journalists face particular challenges to meet journalistic needs and practices. Trial days are generally unpredictable, but tight space in newspapers does not expand and editorial deadlines will not be postponed on busy hearing days with important decisions, as the American court reporter Linda Greenhouse put it in an essay. "While politicians will cheerfully or angrily critique any story in which their name has appeared, justices rarely respond to public comment, or even rank error," she writes. All the more, court reporters often have a hard time presenting the somewhat tiring daily trial routines in an appealing way.
The NSU-trial, too, placed unprecedented challenges to journalists and media outlets. Due to massive failures regarding the investigation towards the series of murders, high expectations were held at the beginning of the trial. Victims and their family members as well as the general public claimed justice and it was the court reporters' responsibility to extensively provide information about daily trial proceedings. Additionally, journalists were in charge of holding administrative bodies to account and shedding light on organizational structures of right-wing extremism in Germany. Throughout this process media organizations needed to cope with the particularities of court reporting and cover the bureaucratic trial routines in such a way that interest would not fall off.
While the judge is reading out the Excel list, visitors sink deeper and deeper into their chairs. I as well have a hard time keeping my eyes open. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief, as Götzl lays aside the sheets and announces a short break. I join Andreasch off the gallery into a bleak side room. A few people already gather in front of the coffee dispenser. Luckily, against the security officer's assumptions, it seems to be working. "So, this is where I spend much of my time," Andreasch says, "all this became quite familiar to me." We get ourselves a cappuccino. It is scalding, and before I can take a proper mouthful the police guard calls us back inside. "You are not allowed to take the cup with you," he says.
An analysis of the coverage of the NSU-trial in six German quality newspapers showed that the number of published articles decreased considerably year by year. The total number of articles was 281 for the first year of hearings, 140 for the second year, 127 for the third year, and 46 for the fourth year. Moreover, there were highs and lows in the amount of reporting during the first three years, whereas in year four the article count stayed low throughout the whole time. Most articles (41) were published in the month of May 2013 when the trial began. Least articles (1) were published in the month of March 2017 when the time period of the analysis stopped. Thus, the findings show that there was a sharp decrease of media attention at the end of year three.
The analysis of newspaper articles on the NSU-trial also examined the way journalists framed the topic over time. It revealed that the everyday trial routines and proceedings were most dominant in the reporting throughout all years and it concluded that this might also be a reason for less and less articles being published as time went by. After all, while there were many decisive developments and important interrogations of witnesses at the beginning, the proceedings became more and more monotonous and bureaucratic as the trial went on and on. This also explains why, meanwhile, only a hard core of some half dozen journalists still spend their working days in court, leaving half full cups of watery hot coffee in the break room.
I sit back on the visitor's gallery, eyeballing through the rows where the defendants sit in the courtroom below. Beate Zschäpe in front with three of her five lawyers sitting to her left and right. I have seen her on TV countless times before, I read about her looks in newspapers, about her vanities. And I saw endless pictures of this brown curled woman next to those articles. As many journalists observed before, she appears impassive and apathetic to me as well. With all these cold-blooded murders in mind, all the pain and damage and sorrow the NSU is accused to have caused, I feel anger and the strong wish to scream down at her: "What on earth is wrong with you? Why can't you just talk and confess? What have those people done to you?"
Emotions are not wanted in court reporting. Just as little are journalists welcome to take position or comment as long as the verdict is not announced. German law is based on the presumption of innocence. However, in the meantime, overwhelming evidence exists convicting Zschäpe of having been a coequal member of the NSU. Accordingly, she was fully guilty. Her being sentenced to life imprisonment would be a relief for all victims and their relatives. However, many also believe that the so-called "NSU-Trio" is just the tip of the iceberg and the scene of violent right-wing extremists and supporters of the NSU goes far beyond those being on trial. The Munich Court of Appeals will not be able to shed light on this.
This is why activists gathered and organized the so-called "NSU Tribunal," which took place this spring. They describe their project and motivation as follows: "To this day we are far from the promised "complete explanation" of the NSU Complex. Initiatives and individuals working in solidarity with those targeted by the series of murders and attacks by the NSU developed the idea of a tribunal to fill this gap. In the context of the Tribunal, the NSU is conceived as the crystallization of structural racism. The Tribunal is a space to call out racism as a society. The testimonies of the victims and their families are the focal point. Their stories need to be heard and understood." Their main goal: To give a voice to the victims.
The 342nd trial day ends early at 2pm. After the lunch break the judge yet denies a couple of motions to take to evidence. Then he closes the hearing and the courtroom quickly empties out. Andreasch and I go to a little café around the corner. "There have been times, when hearings went on until evening," he says. "Now, all is way more chewy." Never would he have imagined the trial to last for so long. "When we started out with NSU Watch four years ago, we expected the court case to be closed in one or two years." As we enjoy our coffees, blue lights and sirens rush along the street. It is the convoy that drives Zschäpe back to prison. "Same procedure as every day," Andreasch notes. For how long the NSU-trial will go on? Nobody knows.
