Parental Apartment of Beate Zschäpe

Beate Zschäpe (born 1975) lived together with her mother on Ernst-Zielinski-Straße in Jena-Winzerla, a district newly built from 1985 onward with predominantly five-storey prefabricated apartment blocks. Although the infrastructure had considerable shortcomings, the residential area was highly sought after due to its modern apartments and proximity to the city centre. Winzerla was not a socially deprived neighbourhood. However, with only two youth clubs, there was little on offer for young people in terms of leisure activities — one reason why more and more young people gravitated toward what was initially a latently right-wing scene. In parallel with her growing involvement with the far-right scene, not least through her first boyfriend Uwe Mundlos, she came to the attention of the courts between 1990 and 1995 for various petty thefts.

(Text and image: Frank Döbert)

External sources

Schäfer-Gutachten im Auftrag des Freistaates Thüringen, 2012, S. 37.