Attack on Germany: (Re-) Negotiating Self-images in Response to NSU Terrorism

Possibly one of the most powerful narratives in contemporary German identity is its self-perception as a nation that has successfully come to terms with its past, most commonly in relation to National Socialism. This narrative faced a new challenge when the far-right terrorist group ‘National Socialist Underground’ (NSU) was uncovered in November 2011. The NSU has been associated with a series of murders of nine Turkish and Greek immigrants between September 2000 and April 2006. The media has been quick to draw parallels to the left-wing terrorism of the ‘Red Army Faction’ (RAF) in Germany in the 1970s. This raises awkward questions for Germany both in relation to its own national self-confidence and in its external representation. Not only does Germany have to confront  the reality of these terrorist attacks after more than a decade; but also the failure of the authorities to identify the real perpetrators and the suggestion of a tolerance of racism in German society that may have facilitated the murders. Using Erving Goffman’s Impression Management Theory and drawing on media narrative analysis, this paper analyses the first few weeks of media coverage after the discovery of NSU terrorism in four major German newspapers. It addresses two major questions: To what extent does the media response reflect the perceived need to defend Germany’s image as a role model for coming to terms with its national socialist past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung)? How do the media resurrect Germany’s terrorist past in order to make sense of its terrorist present?