Stephanie Hinzpeter

It was the most spectacular hostage situation and at the same time one of the most sensational crimes in German criminal history: the Gladbeck hostage drama kept Germany in suspense from August 16-18, 1988. 54 hours of fear. On August 16, shortly before 8 a.m., Gladbeck, northern Ruhr area. Hooded and armed with MPs, Hans-Jürgen Rösner and Dieter Degowski penetrate a bank. They take two bank employees hostage, want an escape car and a ransom of 300,000 marks. What then followed with an odyssey through the Ruhr area, northern Germany and the Netherlands was a scenario in which all those involved - perpetrators and victims, police and journalists - lost control over their actions. In the end there were three deaths, many injured, grief and anger, mutual blame and the attempt to draw consequences for the future from the inconceivable event.