Investigative measures | Raid against the Zwickau Left on the day before the NSU commemoration

The Zwickau collective also appears under the red star that the Communist Awakening (KA) demonstratively displays here in Leipzig. Photo: dpa/Sebastian Willnow A theme evening took place in Zwickau on Monday: “15 years of self-exposure – who was the NSU?” was the title of the event. The Zwickau collective also promoted this on its Instagram channel, which otherwise contains calls for left-wing and Palestinian solidarity demos, photos of a wreath-laying ceremony on Liberation Day or of a suspected right-wing attack on the “collective kitchen” in Zwickau.

On Tuesday, one day before the official commemoration of the victims of the right-wing terrorist cell NSU, whose core trio had found shelter undisturbed in Zwickau for years, the police searched the houses of suspected members of the Zwickau collective; five people were arrested.

The measures were triggered by investigations into the formation of a criminal organization, which are being conducted by the Dresden public prosecutor's office and the Police Terrorism and Extremism Defense Center (PTAZ) of the Saxony State Criminal Police Office. They are directed against twelve defendants between the ages of 18 and 36. They are accused of having founded a "political, communist group" in 2022 in order to "take regional and national action against right-wing radical and inhumane structures," according to a statement from the investigative authorities. They sought to achieve their goals “particularly by committing bodily harm against political dissidents and by damaging property.”

As early as February 2025, there were house searches against the group, which then spoke of “repression”.

The Zwickau collective is mentioned in the most recent annual report of the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the “Dogmatic left-wing extremism” section. It is a “Marxist-Leninist group” with around 15 members that “regularly professes communism through relevant symbols” such as the hammer and sickle or the clenched fist. To achieve this, “the establishment of a revolutionary communist unity party is propagated instead of parliamentary democracy.”

Of course, the only activities mentioned for 2025 are participation in two demonstrations, including one in memory of the victims of the NSU. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution refers in particular to a statement published afterwards, which accuses the police of having "not simply failed, but also murdered" in relation to fascist violence in Germany. As the report itself mentions, this was not published by the Zwickau collective, but by a partner group called Rote Wende Leipzig.

Previously, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution reports, the Zwickau collective had “not carried out any of its own public activities” until October 2025. The reason for this may have been “executive measures by the police” on February 4, 2025. Even then, there were house searches in Zwickau, Dresden, Saalfeld and Schwarzenberg.

The group then described itself as “hit by repression” and explained that the raids, confiscations and the resulting court and procedural costs “continue to burden those affected today.” To cover costs, a solidarity T-shirt was put out in August that shows two muscular masked people with a hammer and sickle in front of prefabricated buildings.

The search measures this Tuesday also affected apartments not only in Zwickau, but also in Dresden, Leipzig, Saalfeld, Bremen and Hamburg. Four suspects between the ages of 22 and 36 were arrested on arrest warrants from the Dresden District Court, and a fifth because he is said to have physically attacked a police officer during the raid.

All five should be brought before the investigating judge later in the day. The searches, in which, according to the Saxon investigators, LKA officers from Thuringia, Hamburg and Bremen are also involved, were therefore continuing.

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