Drohmails to politicians and celebrities: tirades from the anonymity

Hassmail reached Mustafa Kaplan on a Sunday morning in December. Even before breakfast, the Cologne defense lawyer read the lines and was shocked. The sender "Wehrmacht" demanded inter alia ten million euros in the network currency Bitcoin and threatened with the murder of children and officials. Subject: "Elysium 2.0 and NSU 2.0".

In the trial of the right-wing terrorists of the NSU Kaplan was known as a representative of the sideline. Elysium is the name of a child pornography platform whose operators were in court and have since been convicted.

Because of the mail, Kaplan filed a complaint immediately. He felt threatened. "I immediately got the impression that there are dangerous spinners at work," he recalls. In addition to Kaplan, the distributor ran nearly a dozen lawyers, as well as several police departments and a journalist.

Confused thought building

It was not the first mail of its kind. And not the last. For months, it turns out now, send one or more offenders nationwide such threats with alleged right-wing extremist background.

As a speaker of the Berlin prosecutor announced, are now 78 letters on record. Following a decision by the Attorney General in January, officials in the capital are conducting the investigation. The suspicion: predatory extortion and sedition. Suspects are not yet identified. When the first mail was sent, the prosecutor's office did not say.

The mails went accordingly to courts, authorities, law firms, publishers, the Central Council of the Jews in Germany, journalists, also of the SPIEGEL.

Some mails are available to SPIEGEL. They show a confused mental structure in which the anonymous writer moves. Several times it is about blackmail. The sender threatens to set up online shops. There, "child molesters could decentralize their vacation photos". Elsewhere, it says: "Everyone can trade in weapons, gunmen and arms dealers are welcome."

"Executing citizens on the open road"

Again and again it is about sexual violence against children and that previous letters have been ignored by the federal government so far. That should take revenge. Once it is said that the senders are "abysmally evil and wicked 'people."

Several were also politicians in the addressee, including the left-wing MP Martina Renner. In a mail the politician read on Tuesday of this week: "If necessary, we are ready to send nationwide letter bombs or distribute ricin or execute citizens on the street."

As can be seen from a request Renner to the federal government, there were between December and January by mail bomb threats against 15 justice buildings. These were then evacuated.

The "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and the NDR reported that the perpetrators were also responsible for bomb threats against the main station Lübeck and the tax office Gelsenkirchen this week.

Death threat against Helene Fischer

Recently, the letters were increasingly drawn with the sender name "National Socialist offensive", as evidenced by an internal note of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). On January 10, a mail was directed against pop star Helene Fischer. It was referred to a murder call against the singer on an Internet platform. Fischer had been critical of right-wing extremist riots in Chemnitz.

On January 12, the "National Socialist Offensive" threatened to detonate a bomb at the event "Schlagerchampions" in the Berlin Velodrom. Also this action should have aimed at Fischer.

In a mail from the November, which is the SPIEGEL, the "Red Army Group" is called sender. The text reads: "The time has come for retribution Let's kill cops, politicians, judges, prosecutors and Co." Signatory: "RAF / Wehrmacht".

The term "NSU 2.0" used in several letters had become known in connection with Drohfaxen against the Frankfurt lawyer Seda Basay-Yildiz at the end of 2018. The sender suspected are several police officers. This procedure is further led by the public prosecutor's office Frankfurt am Main. To what extent there could be a connection to the mail series is unclear.

So far, the threats have resulted in no violence. Nevertheless, the authorities are alarmed. As the Federal Government announced, the Attorney General has initiated a test procedure. He can bring proceedings if they have a terrorist background.

Clearly, it seems only that the authors are looking for a strong public response. The BKA note states that further letters are to be expected. The media coverage and police measures should be seen as a "positive experience" - especially since the authors remain anonymous. This could lead to further letters being written.