“I heard the news with a mixture of disbelief and shock,” Michalina Boulgarides told DW. She is the daughter of Theodoros Boulgarides, who was murdered in Munich in 2005 by the .
In 2018, Beate Zschäpe, one of the far-right terrorists and an accomplice to those who killed Boulgarides along with 10 others, was to life in prison, with the court determining a particularly severe degree of guilt.
Now, despite having done little during the trial to shed light on the series of murders, Zschäpe has been accepted into a rehabilitation program called “Exit,” a support system for people who want to leave extremist groups, which offers counseling and practical assistance with reintegration into society.
Barbara John, the federal government’s ombudswoman for the victims and surviving relatives of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), suspects that the NSU terrorist intends to use her acceptance into the program to increase the chances of being released early from prison.
The terror cell known as the NSU committed murders, carried out bombings and robbed banks in various German states between 2000 and 2007. Most of the murder victims had an immigrant background.
For Boulgarides, who learned of Zschäpe’s special deal through the media, it is a slap in the face to all those who lost their loved ones.
Together with other bereaved family members, she launched a petition on the online platform Campact and wrote a letter to the federal government. Her demands include the immediate removal of Zschäpe from the exit program, as well as legal and financial support for the bereaved and those affected through permanent and adequate victim pensions.
“We’ve been through a lot over the past 20 years, and it’s always the same. The terrible thing is that once again we realize that the government hasn’t learned anything — especially when it comes to dealing with those affected,” says Michalina Boulgarides. “Personally, I have never been offered any form of victim protection.”
‘The victims are being treated like perpetrators’
For years, of the murdered victims, who were suspected of having ties to the Mafia or drug trafficking. For Boulgarides, Zschäpe’s admission into an exit program is yet another example of the victims being treated like perpetrators: the convicted murderer, she says, is being supported in her reintegration, while the victims have been left behind.
“If she had spoken during the trial or during her time in prison — maybe even apologized — the victims might have responded differently. But she claims to have turned away from the far-right scene, even though it’s been proven that she maintained contact with it while in prison. That doesn’t add up for us and is not credible at all.”
A spokesperson for Exit Germany told the Frankfurter Rundschau that, as a rule, they do not comment on who is currently participating in the exit program. However, a basic requirement for admission is reflecting seriously on the crimes committed and the motivations behind them.
In November 2026, after 15 years of imprisonment, the Higher Regional Court of Munich will make a final decision on the length of Zschäpe’s sentence, who is currently incarcerated at the Chemnitz Correctional Facility.
Michalina Boulgarides agrees that this is what is motivating Zschäpe: “She is doing this to shorten her prison sentence; I can’t explain it any other way. If someone has truly reformed themselves and wants to show remorse, then they do so differently. That said, I do believe in these exit programs and think it’s good that they exist.”
The relevance of exit programs
In Germany, there are many such exit programs, both state-run and run by civil society organizations. Founded in 2000, Exit was the first such initiative and for many years remained the only non-state-run exit program.
Since 2018, the Competence Center Against Extremism (Konex), part of the State Criminal Police Office Baden-Württemberg, has been offering programs targeting right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism, Islamism, and foreign-related extremism — and more recently, one specifically for .
“For a successful exit, it is crucial that one is willing and ready to leave — in other words, that one is truly motivated to break away. And that depends on how deeply someone is entrenched, how radicalized and embedded they are in the scene,” said Conrad Klosinski, head of the exit counseling program at Konex, told DW. “And we constantly have to assess whether motivation is genuine or merely aimed at securing a reduced sentence.”
In seven years, Konex has handled more than 1,000 cases. The proportion of young people involved in far-right extremism has risen sharply. Radicalization now primarily takes place online — in chat groups and on social media platforms like TikTok — through constantly evolving codes and symbols.
“Our minimum goal is that the person no longer commits politically motivated crimes,”Klosinski said. “And of course, the best outcome — which we actively work toward — is that they really distance themselves in the long term, become deradicalized, adopt a new ideological outlook, and ideally stand firmly behind the foundations of a free and democratic constitutional order.”
This article was originally written in German.
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