Gladbeck hostage crisis

Infobox civilian attack
title = Gladbeck hostage crisis


caption =
location =
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date = 16 August - 18 August 1988
time =
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type = bank robbery, hostage taking
fatalities = 3
injuries = probably 5
perps = Dieter Degowski, Hans-Jürgen Rösner
perp =
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susperp =
weapons = handgunsThe Gladbeck hostage crisis was a hostage-taking in August 1988 after an armed bank raid in Gladbeck, Germany. Two men with previous criminal records, Dieter Degowski and Hans-Jürgen Rösner, went on the run for two days through Germany and the Netherlands.

On 18 August 1988 the hostage situation was ended in a police operation on a Autobahn. Three people were killed during this crisis. The whole episode was played out in the media in Germany and the Netherlands.

Chronicle

16 August

In the morning the two armed and hooded offenders forced entry to a branch of the Deutsche Bank in the district of Rentford-Nord in Gladbeck before opening hours.

At 8:04 am an emergency call by an chance witness notified the police . A parked police car was seen by the offenders as they left the branch, so far without hostages. They went back into the bank and took two clerks hostage, demanding a car and a ransom. To enforce their demands they fired several times.

A radio station conducted a first interview with them.

After several hours of negotiations the abductors were given 300,000 DM and a white Audi 100 as a getaway car. At 9:45 pm the getaway started. Marion Löblich, the girlfriend of Rösner, boarded the car in Gladbeck.

17 August

After driving on the Autobahn to Bremen, the abductors stopped in the district of Huckelriede and hijacked an ordinary public-transit bus with 32 passengers at 7:00 pm on 17 August. The media interviewed the abductors and the hostages without any interference from the police. Some hostages even had a pistol pressed against their throats.

After the release of five hostages, the bus was driven to the Autobahn service area of Grundbergsee. Two bank clerks were released there.

Two police officers arrested Löblich, who was using the rest room. Demanding an exchange, Degowski and Rösner threatened to kill a hostage every 5 minutes. After expiration of the ultimatum they shot a 15-year-old Italian boy in the head. Löblich was released minutes later because of a broken handcuffs key. However, the boy died after 20 minutes because there was no ambulance attending the situation.

After this incident the bus was driven to the Netherlands. During the chase a police car collided with a truck, leaving one police officer dead and another injured.

18 August

At 2:30 pm on August 18, 1988, the bus entered the Netherlands. At 5:15 pm two women and three children were released, after the Dutch police refused to negotiate if children were held hostage. At 6:30 pm Rösner and Degowski got a BMW 735i. The getaway car had been prepared by the police so that the engine could be stopped by remote control. Whilst attempting to escape, Löbich and the bus driver were injured.

During a stop in Wuppertal the abductors shopped in a pharmacy.

Having stopped in a pedestrian area in Cologne at 11:00am, the car was surrounded by media and shoppers. Some reporters offered to guide the abductors on their way or to hand them pictures of police officers to prevent trickery if hostages were exchanged. A reporter guided the abductors to a nearby rest area on an Autobahn and accompanied them for several kilometers.

On the A3 close to Bad Honnef, a few kilometres before the state border between North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, a police car crashed into the getaway car and rendered it undriveable at 12:00am. This led to a gunfight and the death of one of the hostages. After that the abductors were arrested.

The remote control to stop the car engine was not used since the police officers had "forgotten" to take it with them. Across the state border, a special task force (GSG9) was in position waiting to take action.

Trial

On 22 March 1991 Rösner and Degowski were pronounced guilty by the regional superior court of Essen and received life sentences. Löblich was sentenced to 9 years. In 2002 the Higher Court in Hamm ascertained "guilt of a very serious nature" and Degowski's sentence was increased to 24 years . In 2004 the same Higher Court refused an application for parole and a request by Rösner to shorten his sentence. The court also declared a state of "preventive detention" ("Sicherungsverwahrung") and therefore Rösner is unlikely to be freed after the end of his sentence.

Aftermath

On 20 November 1988 the Minister of the Interior of Bremen Bernd Meyer resigned due to mistakes by the police.

Conduct of the media

This was the first incident in Germany with direct interference by representatives of the media. The media were severely criticized for their handling of this situation, for example for conducting interviews with hostages.

As a result, the German Press Council (Deutscher Presserat) banned any future interviews with hostages [http://www.presserat.de/1980-1989.115.0.html Deutscher Presserat Dokumentation "in german"]

References in the media

The German dark wave band "Silke Bischoff" was named after one of the hostages. They later had to change their name for legal reasons, which is why the band is called 18 Summers nowadays, referring to the girl's age when she was killed. The song "Hostage" on Mike Oldfield's album Earth Moving includes an authentic sample of a news broadcast on German radio referring to the event.

External links

* [http://www.todayinhistory.de/index.php?what=thmanu&lang=en&manu_id=1551&tag=16&monat=8&weekd=&year=2007&weekdnum=&dayisset=1&lang=en Deutsche Welle: "The Gladbeck Hostage Drama"]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0DC1F38F93AA2575BC0A96E948260 NY Times: "Hostage Dies as German Drama Ends"] , published on 8/19/88
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFDE123CF93BA1575BC0A96E948260 NY Times: "Killings in German Hostage Incident Stir Dispute"] , published on 8/28/88
* http://rhein-zeitung.de/on/98/08/11/topnews/glad1.html Ten years after. News story with pictures and links de icon
*http://www.focus.de/panorama/welt/gladbeck-ich-war-feige_aid_323612.html de icon

References

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