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The arrest of Stephan Ernst has likely drastically changed the lives of three women. That of his mother, who during her visits to the prison protests that she is next to her son. That of his daughter, who broke contact with her father. And that of his wife, who now slowly enters room 165 of the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main. She casts a shy glance to the left at her husband, who is sitting in the dock for the murder of Kassel district president Walter Lübcke.
Presiding Judge Thomas Sagebiel asks if you really want to testify in court. “You do not have to.” The little woman almost sank into the chair reserved for witnesses. She nods, yes, she will. A lawyer sits next to her to help her.
Ms. Ernst wants to testify and it quickly becomes clear why. As for the murder of Walter Lübcke, she apparently has nothing to hide. You can talk about life next to the alleged murderer without hesitation, because obviously she was as clueless as some spouses, who do not realize – or do not want to notice – the life of the other.
A grueling interrogation
The Fifth Criminal Senate deals with the night of the crime, the night of June 2, 2019. Ms. Ernst says she was in the bathroom when her husband got home around midnight. She heard two cars approaching: one had “braked hard”, seconds later a second car followed at low speed and parked. She claims to have heard the door slam from two cars.
The perception that Stephan Ernst’s statement could support that he drove home with co-defendant Markus H. after the crime. Stephan Ernst claims to have a gun there and handed it to Markus H.
The Senate now wants to know if Ms. Ernst was surprised that two cars were parked in front of her house in the middle of the night and two car doors slammed shut. No, says Mrs. Ernst. It was late and she was tired, she hadn’t thought of anything. After the bath she was in the bedroom. Her husband appeared there shortly after, but then came out of the house again. Why? Where? Did you do that often? “When my husband goes out, he doesn’t have to tell me where.” And then Ms. Ernst said a phrase that kept popping up this morning: “I didn’t ask.”
It is a tedious interrogation. Ms. Ernst, a trained Pharmaceutical Technical Assistant (PTA), responds quietly and must be repeatedly asked to speak louder into the microphone.
She has been married to Stephan Ernst since 2001. Have you met Markus H. in those years, accused of complicity in the murder of Walter Lübcke? No. Did your husband tell you about H.? No. Did she tell you about the shooting club and who was she going with? No. Did you ever ask? Not.
Did a lawyer at the scene promise the support of his companions?
The Senate is interested in the role of first defense attorney Dirk Waldschmidt, a busy scene attorney who is said to have advised Ernst to make his first confession. In it, Ernst claimed that he had killed only Walter Lübcke. How did Waldschmidt get the mandate? Who hired you? Frau Ernst does not know. One day Waldschmidt called him and then visited him at his home. Days later he left a message on the family’s answering machine telling them not to worry about the house and possible financial obligations, “the companions would help us.”
Ms. Ernst deleted the message, “out of fear,” as she says in court. It was clear to her that she would not accept money. “She didn’t want any help from comrades.”
Ms. Ernst does not want to talk about her family in court, not her or her husband’s. In her third confession, Stephan Ernst described a childhood under a violent and xenophobic father. Ms Ernst also does not want to talk about marital problems and a slip with a phone number on her husband’s pants, about family vacations in the Czech Republic and not about the knife that was found in their home with DNA matching it Ahmad’s DNA. E., who Stephan Ernst attacked in January 2016 and is said to have been seriously injured. Mrs. Ernst is unable to speak of her husband’s friends. “I don’t know,” she says. Stephan Ernst never loses sight of her for a moment during the interview.
Do you know about your husband’s criminal past?
Only once in the survey does it show how shocking it must have been for Ms Ernst when a special task force opened the door of her home on the night of June 15 last year, broke in and arrested her husband Stephan. At 3 o’clock, Ms. Ernst herself was sitting in an office and was questioned; it was her 43rd birthday. At the time she was still wearing her nightwear and did not have a lawyer with her, she says in court.
At the time, he did not mention that he saw two cars in front of his house the night Walter Lübcke was shot. It wasn’t until July 1 that she herself called the police and told them about the two cars she had heard that night. She only remembered it at that moment.
In questioning following her husband’s arrest, it was revealed, if Ms. Ernst had been telling the truth, that she also appeared to know very little about her husband’s criminal past. Stephan Ernst, who, when he was 15 years old, wanted to set fire to a house in which several Turkish families lived; who, at the age of 19, stabbed a knife in the back and then into the chest of a Turkish imam in the bathroom of the main train station in Wiesbaden and a year later deposited a homemade bomb near a housing for applicants of asylum. He was jailed for four years.
“Said: stab”
Nicole Schneiders, who defends Markus H., asks on the 14th day of the trial if Stephan Ernst had told her why he was in prison. Ms. Ernst also did not want to say anything about this in court. When questioned after her husband’s arrest, she replied, “A knife fight,” but he didn’t really tell her. Their alleged lack of interest irritated even interrogators, who asked why they were not questioning such details. Her response: “Yes, I asked. She said: stab.”
And as is often the case in wordless relationships: those affected often don’t have answers to the really important questions about their partner, or are afraid to speak up. When asked if she had a “good relationship” with her husband, Ms. Ernst replied that she did not want to answer. Would you trust your husband to shoot someone? Your response: “I don’t want to say anything about that.”
