Ralf Wohlleben

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Ralf Wohlleben on October 18, 2003 in Erfurt

Ralf Wohlleben (born February 27, 1975 in Jena ) is a German neo-Nazi and was a supporter of the terror group National Socialist Underground (NSU). He was deputy state chairman and press spokesman for the NPD Thuringia and chairman of the district association of the NPD Jena. He is one of the leading neo-Nazis in the Free State of Thuringia.

Life

Ralf Wohlleben worked as an IT specialist for system integration . He has been politically active since the mid-1990s. Until 1999 he was in a relationship with a woman from the right-wing extremist scene in Jena. The first Thuringian committee of inquiry into the NSU made public in 2014 that the Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution temporarily recruited this woman during the relationship in order to obtain information about Wohlleben. Wohlleben is married and has two children with his wife. He was on 29 November 2012 and after sentencing in NSU Trial on July 18, 2018 on suspicion of supporting the NSU in custody . Since then he has lived with his family in Bornitz ( Elsteraue municipality ) in Saxony-Anhalt near right-wing extremists.

Political activity

Wohlleben started his political activities in the right-wing extremist scene in Thuringia in the mid-1990s with the Anti-Antifa Ostthüringen and the neo-Nazi comradeship network Thuringian Homeland Security (THS), where he quickly became a leader. Wohlleben also maintained contacts with fraternities such as Jenensia and Normannia Jena , which was founded out of this in December 1999 .

Together with members of the right-wing terrorist group National Socialist Underground from Jena, he provoked visitors as part of a trial against the Holocaust denier Manfred Roeder in Erfurt in 1996. In 1999 Wohlleben joined the NPD, founded the NPD district association Jena and became its chairman. From 2002 he was deputy chairman of the NPD Thuringia and its press spokesman. The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution announced that in 1999 they had unsuccessfully tried to recruit Wohlleben. Since September 2010 he is no longer a member of the NPD.

On June 18, 2000, Wohlleben, who had officially run as a non-party candidate, was elected to the ten-person local council of Jena- Winzerla , where he took on responsibility for the youth sector. Two days before the election, neo-Nazis had distributed advertising material that did not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the candidate's political orientation. He was a member of the Winzerla local council until December 1, 2002. After moving to the Jena district of Lobeda -Altstadt, he ran there in 2004 as local mayor and at the same time as candidate of the NPD for the local council election. He was elected to the eight-member local council of Lobeda-Altstadt with 5.83% of the votes cast. In the same year he was in first place on the state list of the NPD for the state election in Thuringia . In the 2005 Bundestag election he came third on the state list and as a direct candidate of the NPD in constituency 196 (Greiz-Altenburger Land) and achieved a result of 4.5%.

Wohlleben was known nationwide due to its numerous activities, such as B. he was an active supporter of the organization Nationale Jugend Jena , which asked the city to set up a self-governing national youth center . Wohlleben advertised on the homepage of the NPD district association for a demonstration by the National Youth on January 12, 2002, at which he also appeared as a speaker. In addition, Wohlleben established contact with the NPD Association Greifswald , whereupon the Greifswald right-wing extremist school newspaper Norddeutsches Sprachrohr was distributed to Jena schools and a school newspaper Mitteldeutsches Sprachrohr was founded based on the model in Jena , of which at least six issues were distributed. For a rally on June 1, 2002, he took over the chairmanship of the meeting, since the original applicant Christian K. was deemed unsuitable. He is the organizer and organizer of numerous rallies and demonstrations, including, for example, the Festival of the Nations in Jena on June 11, 2005 with around 500 participants and all previous Thuringian Days of National Youth . After a neo-Nazi who spread propaganda about the Nazi politician Rudolf Hess was injured in the arm by a police officer when he was arrested in Altenburg , Wohlleben reported a demonstration to which several hundred neo-Nazis came along with Christian Worch .

Wohlleben (right) at a neo-Nazi rally on April 1, 2006 in Arnstadt

Wohlleben also took part in the Wartburgkreisbote , an NPD newspaper that was supposed to bring new supporters to the party in a bourgeois guise.

In 2002 he bought the former restaurant Zum Löwen in Altlobeda together with the right-wing extremist songwriter Maximilian Lemke and the THS activist André Kapke . The property, which now bears the unofficial name Braunes Haus , based on the model of the NSDAP party headquarters in Munich , quickly developed into a right-wing extremist housing and training project with supraregional importance, in which regular political events by the NPD, young national democrats and the free comradeship scene as well Concerts by right-wing rock bands and right-wing extremist songwriters such as Michael Müller and Annett Moeck take place. After a lecture with Karl-Heinz Hoffmann in the Saxon town of Hausdorf in September 2010, the suspicion of the storage of explosives in the Brown House arose, which is why the police searched the building twice in September and October of that year. In 2012, the police ransacked the property again, assuming guns were walled in on the property.

In 2005 Wohlleben not only acted as chairman of the Jena district association, but was also deputy chairman of the Thuringia regional association. In 2008 Wohlleben resigned from the NPD.

The service offered by the NPD district association for property owners to publicly express an interest in acquiring the property in return for a donation aroused media interest . Since some municipalities exercise their right of first refusal on the sale of buildings in order to prevent the development of right-wing extremist centers, a better sales price could have been achieved in this way.

He was also the operator of a hosting service for right-wing extremist offers under netzspeicher24 , whereby the sites he was in charge of were repeatedly victims of hacker attacks from the left spectrum.

Wohlleben was accused by the former member of the NPD, Uwe Luthardt, of having said that Luthardt would be "kicked out" or "disappeared" from the party . The lawsuit by Wohlleben and the Jena District Association for future failure to make this statement was dismissed by the Gera Regional Court in July 2013.

Connections to the right-wing rock scene

Wohlleben is suspected of having organized right-wing rock concerts with Andre Kapke for the National Socialist underground . They are said to have collected DM 4,000 so that members of the NSU can move to South Africa .

After Wohlleben's involvement in the Munich NSU trial on December 16, 2015, he was the organizer and registrant of the great right-wing rock festival Fest der Völker , which took place in Thuringia for several years and in which many bands took part in the international and in Germany banned neo-Nazi - Music network Blood and Honor can be assigned.

In February 2009 he advertised a concert by the Hammerskin band Frontalkraft from Cottbus.

In 2012, the Thuringian band Sonderkommando Dirlewanger (SKD), which is close to the Blood and Honor network , recorded a solidarity CD for Wohlleben with 14 other right-wing rock bands. Other bands on the CD are Uwocaust & alte Freunde , Blitzkrieg , Blutbanner and TäterVolk . The CD is also distributed in Switzerland through former members of the Nationally Oriented Swiss Party .

In March 2012, a solidarity concert by the bands Barny (Saxony), Stan (Brandenburg) and Erik (Bavaria) planned for Wohlleben in Saalfeld was stopped at short notice. The police issued 67 dismissals.

BAF support

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution counted Wohlleben in an internal paper on the Brown Action Front (BAF), which saw itself as part of the National and Social Action Alliance of Central Germany . The members of the group were investigated on suspicion of founding an armed group (§127 StGB). The proceedings against the group were discontinued without result.

NSU support

On November 29, 2011, the federal prosecutor had Ralf Wohlleben arrested in connection with the series of murders committed by the National Socialist Underground (NSU) in Jena. In the mid-nineties he founded the Jena Comradeship with Uwe Mundlos , Uwe Böhnhardt and Beate Zschäpe and was active with them in the Thuringian homeland security . During this time, Wohlleben and Zschäpe and Böhnhardt took part in a meeting with around 20 other neo-Nazis, at which crosses were burned based on the American Ku Klux Klan .

In 1998 Wohlleben played a key role in the NSU trio's hiding. As the “most important supporter” in the early days, he kept in touch with Böhnhardt, Mundlos and Zschäpe by phone and supported them financially. To this end, he sent them donations from solidarity concerts organized by him and André Kapke and took out a loan for them. He was in contact with the Saxon supporters of the trio. Wohlleben's name also appeared on the address list that was found during the search of the trio's bomb-building garage in Jena in January 1998.

Ralf Wohlleben is criminally guilty of aiding and abetting the NSU's nine murders of migrants by obtaining the weapon of the series of murders, a Ceska pistol with a silencer, in April or May 2000.

Wohlleben was the only NSU helper who was in custody throughout the NSU trial . Prison conditions of Wohlleben, who in the Thuringian Tonna in custody sat were exacerbated in early September 2012 found. He is said to have bypassed the postal control in the prison and tried to influence witnesses and co-accused and to attempt to escape. Specifically, Wohlleben is said to have made contact with the neo-Nazi scene, which apparently partially succeeded. In October 2012 he was relocated from Thuringia to Munich. During Wohlleben's incarceration, both the neo-Nazi Internet portal Altermedia , André Kapke and the NPD politician Karsten Höhn took part in the Freedom for Wool campaign , "wool" being Wohlleben's nickname. According to the Thuringian state parliament member Katharina König-Preuss ( Die Linke ), he became "an icon of the neo-Nazi scene" during the trial.

On November 8, 2012, the Federal Prosecutor brought charges against Wohlleben for aiding and abetting murder in nine cases. As of May 6, 2013, Wohlleben had to answer the NSU trial in court. Wohlleben was represented by the lawyer Nicole Schneiders, who, according to her own information, was a "brief" member of the NPD during her studies in Jena in 2000 and 2001 because she was of the opinion that "a well-fortified democracy does not need party bans". While Wohlleben was the district chairman at the time, Schneiders held the position of deputy district chairman and is said to have had contacts with the right-wing comradeship scene . In addition, Schneiders was active in the aid organization for national political prisoners and their relatives (HNG) until it was banned . In December 2011, the law firm Harsch und Kollegen announced the termination of the contract due to “the enormous public pressure”. Wohlleben was also represented by the Cottbus attorney Olaf Klemke, and the Munich Higher Regional Court rejected a third compulsory attorney. Later the neo-Nazi Wolfram Nahrath was added as third defense attorney.

After it became known that the main defendant Beate Zschäpe wanted to get involved in the allegations in December 2015, Wohlleben's lawyers announced in November 2015 that he would also testify. In his testimony, he denied having been involved in obtaining the murder weapon and stated that he regretted any act of violence. He concluded his statement with the words: "My condolences go out to the families of the victims."

On July 11, 2018 Ralf Wohlleben was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for aiding and abetting murder in nine cases. On July 18, 2018, Wohlleben was released from custody after six years and eight months. Like the Federal Prosecutor's Office, the court saw no risk of escape given the maximum remaining prison term of three years and four months.

Suspected terror in South Tyrol

On November 8, 2012, the Bavarian state parliament member Susanna Tausendfreund ( Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ) explained in the BR program quer how Norman Bordin and other German neo-Nazis and Italian “comrades” had prepared terror attacks on migrants in South Tyrol. The basis are findings of the Italian secret service Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna (AISI). Bordin, the Würzburg neo-Nazi Uwe Meenen and the Thuringian NPD cadre Frank Schwerdt and Patrick Paul are said to have discussed attacks on shops such as kebab stalls with representatives of the Skinheads Tirol group - Meran section . Ralf Wohlleben is said to have brought 20,000 euros to Italy in 2009. The recipients, Alexander and Patrick Ennemoser, are activists of the international neo-Nazi terror network Blood and Honor - Combat 18 . Bordin's lawyer demanded a declaration of cease and desist with a “contractual penalty of 5,000 euros”, since Bordin's “personal rights” had been “massively violated by the allegations of fact”. The Italian state security had already informed the Federal German constitutional protection in 2003 that Wohlleben had participated several times in meetings with groups such as Skinhead Tirol Section Merano and Veneto Fronte Skinheads in Italy and given money "for the support of comrades who are in difficulties" .

More convictions

On March 16, 2000, the judgment against Ralf Wohlleben and his friend André Kapke was confirmed in Gera in the second instance because of a jointly committed dangerous physical harm and coercion of two young women. In June 2007 he and Gordon Richter (candidate for the Bundestag election 2005 and 2009 of the NPD in the Gera - Jena constituency ) against an NPD dropout in Gera were sentenced to pay 60 daily rates for joint defamation .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.thueringer-allgemeine.de
  2. ↑ Suspected terrorism - ex-NPD boss arrested. Berliner Morgenpost from November 29, 2011.
  3. ↑ Ex-girlfriend of co-defendant Ralf Wohlleben annoyed judge Götzl. Tagesspiegel , March 26, 2014.
  4. ↑ Thuringian State Parliament, final report, printed matter 5/8080, July 16, 2014, p. 1053 ff. (PDF) .
  5. ↑ Alleged NSU helper: Right-wing scene creates a mood for good life. Spiegel Online , September 5, 2012.
  6. ↑ Henrik Merker: The new life of Ralf Wohlleben. In: Zeit Online , Störungsmelder , August 15, 2018.
  7. ^ Jena fraternity "Normannia" with contacts in the NSU environment. lvz-online.de, September 5, 2012.
  8. ↑ Tagesschau online: Das brown Netz , from November 15, 2011
  9. ↑ Portrait: Ex-NPD functionary in sight. Focus from November 29, 2011.
  10. ↑ The Office for the Protection of the Constitution wanted to recruit Ralf Wohlleben. welt.de , September 28, 2012.
  11. ↑ The role of the protection of the constitution remains unclear.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release of the NPD Thuringia, November 29, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / ww0.npd-thueringen.de  
  12. ↑ Jena Official Gazette with announcement of the results of the election of the local council (PDF; 500 kB) ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jena.de
  13. ↑ a b Heike Kleffner : A background report ( memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press review IG Metall administration office Jena-Saalfeld, accessed on November 30, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.igmetall.de
  14. ↑ Thüringische Landeszeitung from June 20, 2000; in: Local news from Jena and the surrounding area
  15. ↑ Official Journal of the City of Jena No. 27, 2004 (PDF; 399 kB), p. 276, p. 279.
  16. ^ Carsten Hübner: Saxon Conditions , Federal Agency for Civic Education, June 17, 2008.
  17. ↑ Constitutional Protection Report Thuringia 2004 (PDF; 498 kB) ( Memento of the original from August 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thueringen.de
  18. ↑ Constitutional Protection Report Thuringia 2005 (PDF; 1.8 MB) ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thueringen.de
  19. ↑ Thüringische Landeszeitung from December 27, 2001; in: Local news from Jena and the surrounding area
  20. ↑ Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution: Verfassungsschutzbericht Freistaat Thüringen 2002 (116 pages pdf; 675 kB), Erfurt 2002, pp. 18–21.
  21. ↑ Thüringische Landeszeitung from May 17, 2002; in: Local news from Jena and the surrounding area
  22. ↑ Constitutional Protection Report Thuringia 2006 (PDF; 655 kB) ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thueringen.de
  23. ↑ Chronicle of right-wing extremist activities in Thuringia 2005 (PDF; 184 kB)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.mobit.org  
  24. ↑ Leipziger Volkszeitung from August 18, 2004
  25. ↑ a b c Indictment against Ralf Wohlleben: The ex-party official pulling the cord? Tagesschau.de from November 8, 2012
  26. ↑ "Junge Gemeinde Stadtmitte" about the "national residential property" in Jenaische Strasse
  27. ^ Akrützel: "Kaffeeklatsch with Horst Mahler" ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  28. ↑ Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution: Constitutional Protection Report Free State of Thuringia 2010 ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (114 pages pdf; 2.1 MB), Erfurt 2010, page 38 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thueringen.de
  29. ↑ Walled-in weapons: LKA Thuringia searches neo-Nazi meeting place In: spiegel.de from June 6, 2012
  30. ^ "Major inquiry from the Left Party: Right-wing extremism and democratic resistance " die-linke-thl.de of December 2, 2005
  31. ^ NPD and Zwickau terror cell: The unliebsame Kamerad spiegel.de of January 27, 2012
  32. ^ Zeit Online: "Right-wing extremism: The neo-Nazis' real estate scam" ( Memento of the original from November 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zeit.de
  33. ↑ Hosting Service Ralf Wohlleben
  34. ↑ Report at heise.de about hacker attacks
  35. ^ NPD complaints: bankruptcies, bad luck and breakdowns Publikative.org, August 2, 2013.
  36. ^ Julia Jüttner: Neo-Nazi André K .: Man for the rough. spiegel.de, November 30, 2011.
  37. ↑ Patrick Gensing : The brown puller. ( Memento of the original from May 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. publikative.org, November 29, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.publikative.org
  38. ↑ Frederik Obermaier, Tanjev Schultz: NSU murders, Ku Klux Klan and the police: Where does a fraternization of the state with the Klan begin? Süddeutsche.de of October 24, 2012.
  39. ↑ Julia Jüttner: Ralf Wohlleben: right-wing scene collects money for alleged NSU helpers ; spiegel.de, November 17, 2012
  40. ^ Fabian Eberhard: neo-Nazi money for terror murders. sonntagszeitung.ch, March 3, 2013
  41. ↑ Julia Jüttner: Alleged NSU helper: Right-wing scene creates mood for well-being ; spiegel.de of September 5, 2012.
  42. ↑ Frederik Obermaier, Tanjev Schultz: NSU murders, Ku Klux Klan and the police: The mask of the racists. Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 24, 2012, accessed on August 14, 2020 . .
  43. ^ Christian Fuchs, John Goetz : The cell. Right-wing terror in Germany . Reinbek 2012, p. 117 ff.
  44. ↑ Antonia von der Behrens: The network of the NSU, contributory negligence and prevented clearing up. In this. (Ed.): No closing words. Pleading in the NSU trial. VSA, Hamburg 2018, pp. 197–322, here in particular pp. 222, 226 f.
  45. ↑ Peter Carstens: Errors in the NSU manhunt: The who-is-who of terrorism. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 3, 2013.
  46. ↑ Antonia von der Behrens: The network of the NSU, contributory negligence of the state and prevented clarification. In this. (Ed.): No closing words. Pleading in the NSU trial. VSA, Hamburg 2018, pp. 197–322, here pp. 255 f.
  47. ↑ Terrorist helper: The protection of the constitution wanted to recruit Ralf Wohlleben. Welt.de, September 28, 2012.
  48. ↑ Julia Jüttner: Alleged NSU supporter Ralf Wohlleben: Comrades mail from jail. Spiegel Online, April 17, 2013.
  49. ↑ Wohlleben maintained a secret network in Tonna. faz.net, April 18, 2013.
  50. ^ Patrick Gensing: Right-wing extremist terror series: The NSU network. Tagesschau.de, October 10, 2012; Nosedive with an eagle. fr-online.de, April 11, 2013.
  51. ↑ Why is Beate Zschäpe silent? freitag.de, April 25, 2013, accessed May 5, 2013; Solidarity for possible terrorist helpers taz.de, February 22, 2013, accessed on May 6, 2013.
  52. ^ Martin Schutt: Criminal charges against employees of security authorities.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Thüringer Allgemeine , July 11, 2018.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.thueringer-allgemeine.de  
  53. ↑ Hans Leyendecker: Like the spider in the web of right-wing extremism. In: Süddeutsche.de. February 15, 2013, accessed April 12, 2013.
  54. ↑ Frank Döbert: Ralf Wohlleben's lawyer was active on the Jena NPD board. Ostthüringer Zeitung, December 15, 2011.
  55. ↑ Law firm Harsch und Kollegen: Press release in the case of the arrested Ralf W. from December 14, 2011. ( Memento from January 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  56. ↑ Rastatt law firm networked in the right-wing extremist scene. tagblatt.de, November 21, 2011.
  57. ↑ Lawyer for alleged NSU supporter deeply involved in right-wing extremist scene. In: faz.de , December 23, 2012.
  58. ↑ Law firm Harsch und Kollegen: Press release of December 22, 2011. ( Memento of the original of September 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kanzlei-harsch.de
  59. ↑ "To be regarded as a scene lawyer - I don't care." in: Lausitzer Rundschau . May 8, 2013, accessed October 7, 2013.
  60. ^ Kai Mudra: Third lawyer for Wohlleben rejected in the NSU proceedings. In: thueringer-allgemeine.de , March 7, 2013.
  61. ^ NSU trial: Ralf Wohlleben breaks his silence. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 29, 2015 ( DPA report).
  62. ↑ “I didn't want to get a weapon”. Tagesschau.de. December 16, 2015.
  63. ↑ Ralf Wohlleben sentenced to ten years in prison. Spiegel Online, July 11, 2018; Annette Ramelsberger: Ralf Wohlleben will probably return to Jena soon. Süddeutsche.de, July 16, 2018.
  64. ^ Neo-Nazi Norman Bordin threatens MdL Susanna Tausendfreund ; ( Memento from June 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) gruene-fraktion-bayern.de, from December 6, 2012
  65. ↑ writing Norman Bordin lawyer ( Memento of 13 January 2014 Internet Archive ); gruene-fraktion-bayern.de, dated December 6, 2012 (PDF; 1.1 MB)
  66. ↑ Italy warned in 2003 , n-tv.de, from July 6, 2012
  67. ↑ Julia Jüttner, Georg Heil: Der Agitator , portrait by Spiegel Online from November 24, 2011.
  68. ↑ redok.de: As bad Nachreder sentenced ( Memento of 10 June 2007 at the Internet Archive ), on 6 June 2007
personal data
SURNAME Well-being, Ralf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (NPD), member, deputy state chairman and press spokesman of the NPD Thuringia
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH Jena