Helmut Roewer

Later he took a job in the West German Interior Ministry, working in areas involving Constitutional Protection (security) and reaching the level of a "Ministerialrat" (loosely: "permanent secretary").

[6] In 1994 the Thuringian Interior Minister, Franz Schuster offered Roewer a position as president of the regional office for protection of the constitution ("Thüringer Landesamtes für Verfassungsschutz").

An example was Tino Brandt, at that time a commander in the Thurinigian Homeland Protection League and a member of the regional executive of the National Democratic Party (" Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / NPD).

[13] In a letter to Interior Minister Jörg Geibert, Roewer wrote that there had been a "very strong suspicion" (eine "sehr ernste Vermutung") of irregularities in the local police department as a result of which "information from there to the [suspects] in question could have passed" ("dass Informationen von dort an die Betroffenen abfließen könnten").

An educational film produced for schools in 2000 characterised left-wing autonomists as ready to commit violence, while marches in the streets of right wingers were identified as reassuringly comradely affairs.

A statement was included from the Thurinigian Homeland Protection League leader, Tino Brandt, "We are essentially against violence" ("Wir sind […] prinzipiell gegen Gewalt"), completely without further elaboration or challenge.

[11][18] Roewer justified his unconventional approach to commissioning and producing the educational film by explaining that it had facilitated the incorporation of film-clips and images provided from the "radical right-wing scene".

[23] While that was going on there was also a commission of enquiry in place, which had been set up by the Landtag of Thuringia, into the activities in the area of the National Socialist Underground, and which came up with repeated criticism of the way Roewer's office was carrying out its security brief.

[17] A criminal investigation was launched in 2005 in respect of suspected malfeasances[25] during his time as president of the regional office for protection of the constitution ("Thüringer Landesamtes für Verfassungsschutz").

[27] In 2010 a deal was concluded with the Erfurt district court as a result of which the criminal proceedings were permanently halted and Roewer, by this time described as an "author, living in Weimar and Italy" paid 3,000 Euros to an agreed charity.

[17] Despite the threat of criminal conviction having been lifted, Roewer was still called upon to testify to parliamentary commissions of enquiry into the handling of the National Socialist Underground affair ("NSU murders").

There had in fact been several payments to "V-Mann Günther", and Roewer's dismissive reaction on being quizzed about the matter encouraged speculation that he could have had reasons of his own for apparently holding back from giving direct answers on the topic.

[29] Roewer's testimony that Thuringian "Verfassungsschutz" officers had engaged in drinking sessions with right-wing extremists in order to extract information from them failed to impress his questioners or media commentators.

The committee chairman, Sebastian Edathy went on record with the opinion that Roewer's memory lapses in response to questioning were "simply not believable" ("schlicht nicht glaubwürdig").