The abduction of Birgitta Wolf

There are stories in which suspicion lies not in the interpretation, but in the naked sequence of events. Birgitta Wolf's legacy is one such. It was reconstructed by investigative journalist Erik Glaad; What emerges is the chronicle of an alleged kidnapping - and in the end, Germany's most active neo-Nazi is around a million euros richer.

Birgitta Wolf, a former veterinarian from Ekerö just outside Stockholm, was not apolitical herself: According to research, in the 1990s she donated to a Swedish Holocaust denier, was a member of the Sweden Democrats and, when they became too tame, switched to the more radical National Democrats. Through her second husband, a German neo-Nazi, she met Thorsten Heise - federal executive of the “Heimat” (formerly NPD), right-wing rock entrepreneur, mail order company for Nazi propaganda, and leader of the international neo-Nazi scene for decades.

Wolf will move back to Sweden in autumn 2021. Then it deteriorates rapidly, both physically and mentally. She forgets that her mother is long dead and thinks she recently spoke to her. On March 3, 2022, she achieved five out of 30 points in the dementia test (MoCA) - an exceptionally low score. The municipality of Ekerö is applying to the court for guardianship: a close examination of whether the woman can still make her own decisions.

This process will never be completed - because it is prevented. On March 26, 2022, Heise and his wife show up at the nursing home, along with the Swedish neo-Nazi Mart Place as a translator. You just want to take your “girlfriend” with you for the weekend. It is the last time that the home staff sees Birgitta Wolf. The now 90-year-old is brought to Germany. The home reports her missing, the police are searching, and a rescue helicopter is circling over her house. "For me, this is the abduction of someone who cannot help themselves," says a relative.

What follows is a chain of remarkably well-prepared steps. On April 2nd, a lawyer in Wolf's name revokes all previous powers of attorney and demands keys and bank cards for Heise. This lawyer: Wolfram Nahrath, former NPD official, scene defender, appeared in the NSU trial. Heise and Nahrath claim to Swedish authorities that Wolf had already issued Heise a power of attorney in 2020 - at a time when the two had demonstrably never met in person. Wolf ends up isolated on Heise's manor in Fretteröde, Thuringia; Her German neighbor writes to her and never gets an answer.

The gist: On May 5, 2022 - a good month after the kidnapping from Sweden - a will will be drawn up in a northern German law firm. Sole heirs: Thorsten and Nadine Heise. The notary Lars Brettschneider, whose office is 100 kilometers from Fretteröde and who, according to left-wing MP Katharina König-Preuß, has connections to right-wing fraternities, saw "no doubts" about the demented senior's ability to testify. The assets: around ten million Swedish crowns, around one million euros. Wolf had repeatedly told her friends that she wanted to leave her money to animal welfare.

When Birgitta Wolf dies in April 2023, the Heises are her sole heirs. Six weeks later they appear in the Ekerö House land register; It has now been sold for almost 400,000 euros. According to Heise, Wolf will be buried at sea - a final journey without any traces. König-Preuß has filed a complaint, among other things, for fraud; the half-brother Georg takes legal action against the will.

The judiciary will have to clarify whether something can be proven in the end. But the case is more than just a crime story. Right-wing extremist structures live from money - from farms where training and networking takes place, from infrastructure that makes a movement permanent. If a cadre like Heise secures a million on the deathbed of a demented woman, against her stated wishes, then this is not a private inheritance dispute. Then that is potentially working capital for the scene. Reporter Glaad says it matter-of-factly: Some of this money will flow into the neo-Nazi scene.

Legality is not the same as legitimacy - and here legality is not even certain. Follow the money. Always with Nazis.