Handcuffs, glass panes and rejected applications: The state is showing particular severity in the trial against the Ulm5 in Stuttgart-Stammheim. Instead of Elbit Systems and its role in the genocide, the resistance against it is on trial. Supporters are now calling for a large demonstration.

Crow, Daniel, Leandra, Vi and Zo have been in custody since September 2025. They are also known as the “Ulm5”. The group consists of five Berlin activists who are said to have broken into the German headquarters of the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems in September 2025 and sabotaged it. They have been on trial in Stuttgart-Stammheim for over six months now.

Trial begins against Ulm5 – conviction before the trial begins

The defendants are portrayed as terrorists and their resistance to war and occupation is to be criminalized. The long pre-trial detention and the conditions in the courtroom show the particular severity with which the German state is taking action against the activists. The choice of the processor location in Stuttgart-Stammheim does not seem to be a coincidence. From 1975 to 1977, RAF members Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, Holger Meins and Jan-Carl Raspe were on trial there.

The media, especially from Springer-Verlag, also regularly agitate against the Ulm5 and describe it as something like“Israel haters”and try to morally delegitimize the actions they are accused of with a constructed accusation of anti-Semitism.

Repression against Palestine movement

The trial itself continues the German state's actions against the Palestine movement, which have intensified significantly since October 7, 2023. Motions and references from the defense are rejected and conditions are created in the courtroom that make a “trial” simply impossible, even according to the state’s own constitutional standards.

Ulm5 trial: Defense denies “sham legitimacy of a show trial”

Mathes Breuer, the lawyer for the defendant Leandra, criticizes this treatment: “The court has once again proven that it is indifferent to the rights of the Ulm 5.” The defendants are handcuffed and separated from each other and their defense attorneys by glass panes throughout the entire trial. “The court did not grant our requests to sit next to our clients, thereby destroying any possibility of confidential communication during the trial,” explains Breuer.

“The court has violated the right to a fair trial in a way that can no longer be reversed,” he emphasizes. Parliamentary observers from an Irish delegation are also horrified. Shespeakalso about a “show trial” and about the treatment of the five as if they were terrorists.

Elbit Systems produces for genocide

The defense and the defendants are trying to use the trial to draw attention to the role of Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems is the largest Israeli defense company, which, among other things, produces ammunition, information technology and...85 percentof all drones used in the Gaza genocide. Elbit thus benefits directly from the mass murder, expulsion and surveillance of the population of Palestine and is an accomplice in the genocide.

Gaza in ruins, the world in motion - three years after October 7th

After October 7, 2023, Israel launched an offensive unlike any other. With the aim of destroying the Palestinian people, bombs are being dropped on Gaza, people are being attacked and killed in the West Bank, and countless people are being tortured and ill-treated in Israeli prisons.

Antimilitarists protested against this in mid-October at the “Shut Elbit Down” camp in Ulm. The police violently attacked the associated final demonstration. The participants protested, among other things, against the expansion of Elbit Systems. Eight new locations are to be built in Germany and 1,000 new employees are to be hired. The participants in the camp did not simply want to watch as the genocide against the Palestinian people was being promoted directly from the headquarters in Ulm.

“We don’t want to be silent”: Protest camp against Israeli arms company Elbit in Ulm

But this development does not seem all that surprising in Germany. This also emphasizes thatSupporter networkthe Ulm5 in Stuttgart in its call for a nationwide solidarity demonstration: “The German government stands by Israel politically, economically and militarily: through arms deliveries, military cooperation, diplomatic support and the repression against the Palestine movement in this country.” Not only does it deny its own complicity in the genocide, but it also benefits directly from the genocide, while the German arms industry is recording record profits.

Accusations of anti-Semitism are particularly used to combat protests and opinions in solidarity with Palestine. In Hesse, denial of Israel's right to exist will in future be punishable with up to five years in prison. Only those who recognize Israel's right to exist will be naturalized in Germany. In addition, the police repeatedly use extreme brutality against slogans, symbols and expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian freedom movement at demonstrations.

Reason of state as a criminal law: report is intended to legitimize Hessian initiative

Resistance in court and on the street

But solidarity with Palestine can be seen all over the world. Also in Germany and therefore also on every day of the Ulm5 trial in the courtroom in Stammheim. The network of supporters accompanies every day of the trial with a rally. Everyone has been standing there since AprilTrial dayPeople in front of and in the court cheer the 5 as they are driven to court in cars or sing in the courtroom. Well-known activists such as Greta Thunberg have also been there several times.

Together with the Baden-Württemberg Art Association, the initiative to support the defendants also organized a panel discussion with the lawyers, supporters and relatives of Ulm5. Now there will be a nationwide demonstration in Stuttgart on October 24th at 2 p.m.

“The resistant and offensive litigation” has an effect “beyond the courtroom and is linked to solidarity with the Ulm5 themselves,” writes theinitiativein their call for demonstration. “Countless people from different countries come to accompany the process, greet the prisoners and make it clear that the Ulm 5 are not alone.”

And they really aren't alone. In the past few months, supporters from Stuttgart and Berlin have organized numerous solidarity actions. Back in winter, people from Berlin, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria came together on New Year's Eve for a bus tour to greet the Ulm5 at the end of the year.

“Break isolation because solidarity connects” – bus tour for the Ulm5

Various organizations have also expressed their solidarity with the Ulm5 in creative ways. Nightly visits to prison with fireworks, colorful postcards with Ulm5 motifs, or a walk-in exhibition in the form of a prison cell. The support doesn't stop.

The Stuttgart Solidarity Network is one of several organizations that have accompanied and supported Ulm5 from the beginning. “The Ulm5 are portrayed as terrorists and serious perpetrators of violence because they smeared paint and destroyed some material in a weapons factory,” an activist explains to Perspective Online. Protests against the genocide in Gaza or against war are being delegitimized, while conscription and arms deliveries are being promoted. We must defend ourselves against this together: "Because the actions of the Ulm5 are legitimate. Fighting against war, rearmament and genocide is legitimate."

The demonstration will take place on October 24th at 2 p.m. in Stuttgart at Schlossplatz. Organizations from all over Germany travel. Various forces from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are calling for a public arrival.

Augsburg: Main station, 10:00 a.m., main entrance

Freiburg: Main station, 9:15 a.m., Konzerthaus bei der Fahne

Heidelberg: Main station, 11:30 a.m

Karlsruhe: Main station, 12:45 p.m., south entrance

Mannheim: Main station, 11:00 a.m., forecourt

Nuremberg: Main station, 10:15 a.m., Osthalle

Ravensburg: Main station, 11:00 a.m., platform 2

Ulm: Main station, 12 p.m., subway

The post“The Ulm5 are not alone”: nationwide solidarity demonstration on October 24th in Stuttgartappeared firstperspective.