National Socialist Underground

The National Socialist Underground (German: Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund, pronounced [natsi̯oˌnaːlzotsi̯alɪstɪʃɐ ˈʊntɐˌɡʁʊnt] ^ⓘ), or NSU (German: [ɛnʔɛsˈʔuː] ^ⓘ), was a German neo-Nazi militant organisation active between 1998 and 2011, and uncovered in November 2011. Regarded as a terror cell, the NSU is mostly associated with Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt and Beate Zschäpe, who lived together under false identities. Between 100 and 150 further associates were identified who supported the core trio in their decade-long underground life and provided them with money, false identities and weapons. Unlike other terror groups, the NSU had not claimed responsibility for their actions. The group's existence was discovered only after the deaths of Böhnhardt and Mundlos, and the subsequent arrest of Zschäpe.

So far, the following crimes have been attributed to the NSU: the National Socialist Underground murders, a series of murders of nine immigrants of Turkish, Greek and Kurdish descent between 9 September 2000 and 6 April 2006; the murder of a policewoman and attempted murder of her colleague; a 1999 bombing in Nuremberg; the 2001 and 2004 Cologne bombings; and a series of 14 bank robberies. The Attorney General of Germany called the NSU a "right-wing extremist group whose purpose was to kill foreigners, and citizens of foreign origin". The NSU attacks have been regarded as "the most violent by a guerrilla group in Germany since the end of the far-left Red Army Faction".