Thorsten W. is now in custody. The police officer from Hamm liked to disguise himself as a German in his spare time, wore the right scene clothes, hung Reich War flags on his balcony. The federal prosecutor had him arrested a good two weeks ago. The accusation: Thorsten W. is said to have planned extreme right-wing attacks with twelve other men as “Group S.”
The force joins the latest terrorist threats in the country. And in the case of Thorsten W., there is also another questionable trend: Again and again, nationwide police officers with extreme right-wing abuses have recently been noticed.
Recent examples are:
Aachen: Two officers, guards in front of a synagogue, accidentally let “Sieg Heil” calls from a television series run over their radios. According to the police, there are “dubious” pictures on their cell phones. Disciplinary proceedings are initiated.
Bautzen: Citizens report “Sieg Heil” calls from an apartment. The police encounter three candidate candidates there. These are suspended and are being investigated for the use of signs of unconstitutional organizations.
Berlin / Frankfurt: In Frankfurt, the apartments of three police officers are searched, who are said to have been part of a right-wing extremist chat group. There is also a raid in Berlin on an official from Hessen. He is said to have been a member of a chat group in which right-wing extremist sayings and pictures were exchanged. The man is said to have been one of the spokesmen. He is suspended, the investigative body is the LKA Hessen – which has been investigating extreme right-wing accusations against 37 other police officers since 2018, among other things because they are said to have sent a lawyer as “NSU 2.0” threatening letters.
Wiesbaden: Three BKA junior commissioners exchange ideas about Halloween costumes in a WhatsApp chat. One posts a picture of Hitler and suggests to disguise himself as the assassin of Halle or in Wehrmacht uniforms with “original armbands”. One of the men is said to be released and disciplinary proceedings are initiated against two.
Lahr: Seven police students are said to have exchanged National Socialist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic messages in a chat group. All of them are due to be released because of “significant character deficiencies”.
18 disciplinary proceedings in Berlin alone
The list goes on. Because, as a recent TEH survey in the countries shows, more than 90 extreme right-wing incidents have been pursued by the police since last year. There are 18 disciplinary proceedings in Berlin alone. 13 cases are investigated in Hesse, nine in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and six in Saxony.
In Brandenburg, nine police officers had to be transferred recently because they were photographed in front of a graffiti on the right – and when the lettering was removed, two letters of the scene “DC” for “Defend Cottbus” were left behind. Also, there are currently four further extreme right-wing incidents, according to the Brandenburg Ministry of the Interior.
NRW, in turn, discovered four Reich citizens in the police force. In Lower Saxony, an official sent anti-constitutional pictures and played a song by the Hitler Youth. In Saxony, a police officer refused access to his headscarf wearer who wanted to file a complaint.
In the meantime, head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, has spoken of “too many individual cases”. Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) also explains: “People with right-wing extremist approaches must not find a place in a democratic police force.”
Extremism “absolutely unacceptable”
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) recently stood in front of the approximately 260,000 police officers in Germany. The extremist incidents are negligible among them. But the CSU man also said that extremism in the public service was “absolutely unacceptable”. The officials should be firmly on the ground of the constitution.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution set up a central office months ago to investigate extreme right-wing activities in the public service. A situation report is in the works. Its creation dragged on because the constitutional protection does not raise the professions with stored right-wing extremists. In this way, only previously known incidents are compiled or random discoveries are found on the Internet.
But it could soon be serious for police officers who are supporters of the far-right “wing” in the AfD. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution will shortly announce whether the pool around Bjorn Hocke will become a full observation object – like the NPD. The “wing” is already a “suspected case”; in the next step, the secret service could open its entire arsenal of surveillance measures.
Police suspected of terrorism had a gun license
Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Pistorius is already sending a clear warning. “Anyone who is openly committed to the wing should be denied civil servant status.” The group is openly ethnic and anti-constitutional. “Anyone who shares this idea does not correspond to the image that the Basic Law has of our judges, prosecutors, teachers, police officers or tax officials,” said Pistorius.
With police officer Thorsten W. suspected of terrorism, the problem takes on a new dimension. The 50-year-old most recently worked in the traffic department of the Hamm police, where he took care of the settlement of administrative offenses. Previously, he was in the weapons license department but is said not to have made any decisions himself. W. himself also had a gun license.
In addition to his work, W. followed a German cult and also participated in festivals in disguise. On the Internet, he traded as “Thor-Tjark”, complaining about Germany being “exploited”. He wrote to a Pegida devotee: “I admire you. You are tough and go out on the street with a lot of people straight away.”
Via the Internet and networked to W. finally with the other defendant’s alleged terrorist cell “group S.” The federal prosecutor leads him as a supporter. He is said to have offered the group 5,000 euros. This discussed attacks on mosques and refugees. Greens leader Robert Habeck and faction leader Toni Hofreiter were also the insight, as the TEH confirms. During the raids, the investigators found a pistol, a rifle, grenades, and knives. It is also checked whether the group wanted to produce explosives.
Nobody wants to have known
The Thorsten W. case now raises questions: Did none of the colleagues notice how the man ticked politically? Did he also provide “Group S.” with information from the security apparatus?
The Hamm police have since admitted mistakes in dealing with Thorsten W. Police chief Erich Sievert said he was “dismayed” by the suspected right-wing terrorism. “With today’s knowledge, we have to determine in retrospect that we have not checked the individual mosaic stones of his actions sufficiently.” The Imperial War flags on his balcony had already been noticed in 2018, and “no lie press” was on his bell. Even on duty, he once wore the right scene clothes. “With today’s knowledge, we would have had to conclude earlier,” says Sievert.
During the internal checks on Thorsten W., the Hamm Police Headquarters came across two other officers with a possible right-wing attitude. Here, too, is now being determined. The series of “individual cases” continues.
