Youthful experimentation

A quick update on the war against far-right extremism. 

This morning GSG 9 – Germany’s elite anti-terror taskforce – arrested Carsten S.*, a 31 year-old Düsseldorfer in a Jack Bauer-style raid. He is alleged to have obtained a gun and ammunition and passed it on to the ‘Zwickauer Zelle’ – a neo-Nazi terrorist cell allegedly responsible for a string of murders and bombings. Cue articles littered with scary looking skinheads marching around.

According to Der Spiegel, however, Carsten S. lives a very different life now. He’s a social worker at a community centre for gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered youths. From their homepage:

“If anything’s on your mind, be it coming out, school, parents or other problems [...] with Carsten you always have someone to talk to.”

It would seem that, in this case, being a Nazi was just a phase.

*You might wonder why I haven’t published his name, even though it’s easily accessible through other sources. German media regularly refer to most alleged criminals in this fashion - the German Press Council’s guidelines (Chapter 8, section 4) state that full naming is only allowed for serious criminals, and then only when in the public interest. Although I’m not bound by these guidelines, this guy clearly tried to turn his life around... so, I’m being nice. It’s hug-a-Nazi day.