If the fragment already exists, it will be re-used. However the state of the fragment will not. You should take a look at http://developer.android.com/training/basics/activity-lifecycle/recreating.html for more information.
In particular you should look at overriding onSavedInstanceState
and onRestoreInstanceState
as a method to repopulate the field that is generating that nullpointerexception
To determine if an instance of a fragment has already been created you can use 'findFragmentByTag' like so:
String fragmentTag = MyFramgment.getClass().getName();
MyFragment frag = getFragmentManager().findFragmentByTag(fragmentTag);
if(frag == null)
frag = new MyFragment();
Whatever ends up being referenced in 'frag', show this to the user.