Right-wing organizing in Thuringia | "Knockout 51": After the violent fantasies, the great silence

Everyone is equal in court. Patrick Wieschke, too, has to unbuckle his belt when he goes through the security checkpoint at the Jena Higher Regional Court. He could, of course, put it back on immediately afterwards. But Wieschke is in a hurry to get to his seat in the dock, so he enters the courtroom without a belt on his trousers, where he and two other right-wing extremists will have to answer for their actions in a second "Knockout 51" trial starting Monday. Only then does he begin threading the piece of leather through the loops of his trousers – and realizes too late that this doesn't make for a particularly good photo opportunity, and not just for an Eisenach city councilor like him. He quickly tries to turn away. But many in the courtroom have long since noticed the embarrassing scene.

The allegations being discussed in the trial, however, must be described in entirely different terms than "embarrassing." Serious is probably a better description when it comes to "Knockout 51." The organization was much more than a group of martial artists with a National Socialist worldview. According to everything that police and judicial investigations have revealed so far, the group attempted to act as a force for order, especially but not exclusively in Eisenach, and thus create a "Nazi neighborhood." The members of "Knockout 51" were also said to have been willing to kill people.

Four right-wing extremists, who this Higher Regional Court found to be part of the group, were sentenced to prison terms a year ago by the State Security Senate . Now, a further trial involving three defendants is underway.

Wieschke, who sits on Eisenach's city council as parliamentary group leader of the Die Heimat party, is alleged to have supported this group with a total of seven offenses. Among other things, according to a representative of the Federal Prosecutor General during the reading of the charges, he made the so-called Flieder-Volkshaus in Eisenach available as a weapons storage facility for "Knockout 51." Furthermore, parts for a semi-automatic firearm, which had already played a role in the first "Knockout 51" trial, were allegedly printed using a party computer and a 3D printer located there. The Heimat representative declined to comment on the allegations at the start of the trial.

The other two defendants—who also remained silent that day—are significantly younger than 44-year-old Wieschke and represent the propensity for violence that emanated from "Knockout 51." Both are in custody and are led into the courtroom in handcuffs.

The main defendant – a right-wing extremist born in 1998 and well-connected in the Thuringian neo-Nazi scene – holds a thick file folder in front of his face as he is led into the courtroom. The Federal Prosecutor General accuses him of being the ringleader of "Knockout 51" and of having also been responsible for the ideological training of its members. "His lectures were about spreading hatred, which he viewed as a mark of quality," said the Federal Prosecutor General's representative in the courtroom. The third defendant, a 35-year-old man, is considered particularly violent. He is alleged to have been prepared to drive a car into a group of left-wing extremists in order to kill them – a plan that was never carried out because the expected attack from the left did not occur; at least not at the time the neo-Nazis expected. The Federal Prosecutor General also accuses this man of having been involved in an attempt by "Knockout 51" members to manufacture a submachine gun themselves.

During the trial, it is expected that the attacks by leftists on neo-Nazis in recent years will be a central element of the defendants' defense strategy. The trial will also address whether "Knockout 51" was a criminal organization—as the Higher Regional Court has so far considered it—or even a terrorist organization , as the Federal Prosecutor General believes.