Der NSU und ich? Eine Narrativanalyse zur Konstruktion polizeilicher Identität angesichts des NSU-Komplexes

In the context of dealing with the NSU complex, the police's involvement in racist structures is becoming increasingly clear. Social Identity Theory (SIT) posits that this entanglement jeopardizes the preservation of a positive police identity, and that, in response to this, police officers use identity management strategies to reconcile the handling of NSU crimes by law enforcement with their identity. This paper examines how this reconciliation is implemented narratively. The analysis of five narrative interviews shows that the personal stories of police officers primarily rely on the master narrative of the security authorities on the NSU complex and that a police-specific NSU narrative seems absent. Nevertheless, fragments of the counter narratives of the victims of the NSU complex also find their way into the reality of the police officers' lives. However, these are integrated by means of narrative strategies of depoliticization, individualization, and color-blind racism, possibly to keep up a positive and consistent police image. However, a culture of error management within the police nonetheless emerges through engagement with the narratives of the victims of the NSU complex.