On the fourth day of the trial, the paths of three people cross in the Frankfurt district court.

A member of the Bundestag, a journalist and a school principal.

Three whose worlds are completely different, but who share an experience that they will probably never completely let go of.

They all received threatening letters from "NSU 2.0".

Anna Sophia Lang

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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They have become the target of hateful messages because, in the author's eyes, they are on the wrong side: on the side of democracy and human rights, against racism and for equal opportunities, against right-wing extremism, for tolerance and diversity.

Everyday life has changed for everyone.

They have had to change how they live and work, although not to the same extent.

How many people are also indirectly affected by the series of threatening letters will be shown in the next few weeks of the trial against Alexander M. from Berlin, the alleged perpetrator.

Even now, after a fraction of those who have received such letters have been heard, the damage that has been done can be guessed at.

"I'm reluctant to turn to the Hessian LKA"

Martina Renner, left-wing politician from Thuringia and member of the Bundestag, who is also a joint plaintiff, reported on Thursday how the threatening letters prevented her and her employees from doing their job.

And, on the other hand, the effect of the message that someone wanted to kill her and was watching her.

Since August 2018, Renner has not only received letters from NSU 2.0, but also from the National Socialist Offensive and the Staatsstreichorchester.

She is convinced that they are all connected because they repeatedly referred to one another and mentioned one another.

It looks like a handover, says Renner: the author of one series of threatening letters had hardly been caught when the next began, and after that ended, the next.

In terms of quality and content, the letters are comparable to nothing

This resulted in the feeling that it couldn't be a single perpetrator at all, but that a network had to be behind it.

That you wanted to show in the regular cycle of the letters: "We have an eye on you, we'll stay tuned." And that deliberately incorporated police internals and legal jargon to signal: "You can no longer trust anyone." There are some details there is hardly any explanation other than that the authors had contacts in the authorities.

So what about her trust in the authorities, the prosecutor wants to know from Renner.

The politician replies: If she files a complaint, she blacks out private data and contacts the institution she trusts the most.

"I'm reluctant to turn to the Hessian LKA,"

A sense of threat

Karin Gottschalk, deputy editor-in-chief of the "taz", also tells of a feeling of threat.

Months before she was described in a threatening letter as a "pest of the people" and "disgusting shit potato" that the "taz" author Hengameh Yaghoobifarah should finally call off, she had an alleged police officer from Section 36 Wedding on the phone.

The man claimed that Yaghoobifarah had filed a complaint but could no longer be reached.

Because Gottschalk didn't want to give out the cell phone number, the caller got angry: "Your colleagues still have a lot to do," he said, "we'll get you all."

The head of the Walter Lübcke School in Wolfhagen was invited as the last witness that day.

After the assassination of the Kassel district president by a right-wing extremist, their students campaigned for the renaming and drove to the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court to support the Lübcke family.

The “NSU 2.0” therefore threatened them with a bomb attack, and the student representative at the time was mentioned by name.

The headmaster reports how afraid the parents were for their children.

Since then, the police have always been nearby, and the site is monitored.

But one thing is clear to the headmaster: “We will continue to stand up for values ​​openly.

We won't be intimidated."

In the meantime, Alexander M., in a self-presented application for evidence, requests that a journalist be invited as a witness.

You have written an article in which exculpatory stands for him.

The process will continue in a week.