I remember the news report when Beate Z was caught after burning up her apartment and this being tied to a murder-suicide by a couple of guys in the aftermath of Zschape's capture. As the resurgence of these extremists seems to be one of the unexpected demons unleashed after the reunification of Germany, I generally have an eye and ear open for such developments. What I didn't understand was: (1) the nihilistic idiocy of the people in the NSU (national socialist underground), which is the focus of episode 1; (2) the primarily Turkish targets of nine murders, robberies, and unknown numbers of random verbal and physical assaults (the focus of episode 2); (3) that a country that nearly blinked out of existence in the last spasm of NS delusional thinking, horrific violence against numerous countries, ethnicities, religions, and by-standers could descend into internecine information hoarding, as apparently went on between the German intelligence services, Federal police, the newly-free local police departments (some of whom had been STASI) of what had been East Germany, and other, hinted parties (the focus of episode 3).
The whole process started with the tearing down the wall in 1989. Apparently, some East German (and other) youth saw the NS beliefs espoused by their lunatic leader (d. 1945, suicide by bunker) as the only appropriate response to the authoritarian "Communism" of the East German/USSR leaders and a rise in immigrant populations, particularly from Turkey (a partner in Germany's defeat during WWI and mostly playing both sides in WWII), but also from Germany's African colonies, was to become violent, drunken, drugged- up thugs who sang awful songs, visited concentration camps on a lark, threatened and mugged anyone they wanted, and generally were a disgusting mirror image of the brown shirts, although in miniature.
This escalated until 2000 when a Turkish flower salesman was shot eight times in his roadside van, then photographed as he died. More murders and robberies (as well as a bombing in Koln) occurred over the the next 11 years, and Zschape was captured. It took her four years to admit to her association with the murder-suicide NS members and even then she failed to take any personal responsibility for her complicity in their activities.
I'll say that watching the first episode made me wonder why humanity deserves to live. The self-absorption of these young fools, believing that their behavior is the only solution to their new- found freedom from the Soviet bloc, is maddening. Their visits to Buchenwald were sickening. But it was well done as a film, so I read up on what to expect from ep. 2 and 3. Episode 2 dealt with death of Mr. Simsek and Semiya Simsek's evolution into a lucid speaker against racial violence. The grief into which his family was plunged as various police units came, interrogated them repeatedly as new detectives were assigned or took over from their retired predecessors, accused them of being part of a non-existent drug importation ring, blamed them for their husband's and father's death, then went silent for long periods (it happened in 2000 and the NS members fell into police laps in 2011 - try to understand what that must have been like!). Episode 3 could have been the outline for an episode in M. Clouseau's bumbling career, had it not been for the tragic in-fighting that kept local police from doing their jobs, and kept the NSU functioning as the Federal police and intelligence services hoped that their moles would uncover something broader than the "mere" murder of a "few" Turkish shopkeepers.
I always want to understand how these kinds of violent behaviors play out in human history. This series did an honest job of showing how delusional behavior, official lies, and incompetency results in unnecessary death and mistrust of governments. Well done, but not for those who avoid provocative material.
The whole process started with the tearing down the wall in 1989. Apparently, some East German (and other) youth saw the NS beliefs espoused by their lunatic leader (d. 1945, suicide by bunker) as the only appropriate response to the authoritarian "Communism" of the East German/USSR leaders and a rise in immigrant populations, particularly from Turkey (a partner in Germany's defeat during WWI and mostly playing both sides in WWII), but also from Germany's African colonies, was to become violent, drunken, drugged- up thugs who sang awful songs, visited concentration camps on a lark, threatened and mugged anyone they wanted, and generally were a disgusting mirror image of the brown shirts, although in miniature.
This escalated until 2000 when a Turkish flower salesman was shot eight times in his roadside van, then photographed as he died. More murders and robberies (as well as a bombing in Koln) occurred over the the next 11 years, and Zschape was captured. It took her four years to admit to her association with the murder-suicide NS members and even then she failed to take any personal responsibility for her complicity in their activities.
I'll say that watching the first episode made me wonder why humanity deserves to live. The self-absorption of these young fools, believing that their behavior is the only solution to their new- found freedom from the Soviet bloc, is maddening. Their visits to Buchenwald were sickening. But it was well done as a film, so I read up on what to expect from ep. 2 and 3. Episode 2 dealt with death of Mr. Simsek and Semiya Simsek's evolution into a lucid speaker against racial violence. The grief into which his family was plunged as various police units came, interrogated them repeatedly as new detectives were assigned or took over from their retired predecessors, accused them of being part of a non-existent drug importation ring, blamed them for their husband's and father's death, then went silent for long periods (it happened in 2000 and the NS members fell into police laps in 2011 - try to understand what that must have been like!). Episode 3 could have been the outline for an episode in M. Clouseau's bumbling career, had it not been for the tragic in-fighting that kept local police from doing their jobs, and kept the NSU functioning as the Federal police and intelligence services hoped that their moles would uncover something broader than the "mere" murder of a "few" Turkish shopkeepers.
I always want to understand how these kinds of violent behaviors play out in human history. This series did an honest job of showing how delusional behavior, official lies, and incompetency results in unnecessary death and mistrust of governments. Well done, but not for those who avoid provocative material.