Narrating violent crime and negotiating Germanness: the print news media and the National Socialist Underground (NSU), 2000-2012

This doctoral thesis examines how the German print news media portrayed acts of violent crime committed by the right-wing extremist group National Socialist Underground (NSU) between 2000 and 2012. It explores how these narratives shaped perceptions of 'Germanness' by analyzing the media's construction of relationships between perpetrators, victims, society, and the state. The research combines theories from textual hermeneutics, narrative criminology, and media studies to investigate the media's portrayal of a series of murders involving individuals with a migration background, a nail bomb attack, and an attempted murder of police officers. The study compares media narratives before and after the identification of the perpetrators in November 2011. The key argument is that the NSU's actions did not fundamentally alter dominant ideas of Germanness but instead reinforced existing perceptions by categorizing certain groups, such as immigrants, East Germans, and right-wing extremists, as 'Others within'. The findings suggest that the interpretation of violent crimes, particularly over extended periods, is deeply intertwined with everyday storytelling and identity formation.