Gladbeck hostage crisis

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Gladbeck hostage crisis
Date	16 August - 18 August 1988
Attack type	bank robbery, hostage taking
Weapon(s)	handguns
Deaths	3
Injured	probably 5
Perpetrator(s)	Dieter Degowski, Hans-Jürgen Rösner

The Gladbeck hostage crisis was a hostage taking in August 1988 after an armed bank holdup in Gladbeck, Germany. The previously convicted Dieter Degowski and Hans-Jürgen Rösner escaped two days through Germany and the Netherlands.

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

1 Chronicle
2 Aftermath
- 2.1 Bearing of the media
3 References in the media
4 External links
5 References
6 Sources

[edit] Chronicle

[edit] 16. August

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

At 8:04 am the emergency call of an accidental witness alarmed the police forces. A parked police car was seen by the offenders leaving the branch without hostages. They returned into the bank and took two clerks as hostage, demanding a car and raising a ransom. To enforce their demand they fired several times.

A radio station conducted a first interview.

After several hours of negotiations the abductors received 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.

[edit] 17. August

Driving on the Autobahn to Bremen, the abductors stopped in the district of Huckelriede and captured a normal scheduled public-transit bus with 32 passengers at 7:00 pm on 17th August. The media interviewed the abductors and the hostages without intermission of the police forces. Even hostages who were held with a pistol against their throat.

Releasing five hostages, the bus were driven to the service area Grundbergsee. Two 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 stituation.

After this incident the bus was driven to the Netherlands. During this ride a police car clashed with the bus and a police officer died and another was harmed.

[edit] 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, as the Dutch police refused to negotiate if children were hold hostage. At 6:30 pm Rösner and Degowski gotten a BMW 735i. The getaway car was prepared by the police to disrupt the engine, using a remote control. In the attempt of escape Löbich and the bus driver were injured.

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

Stopping in a pedestrian area in Köln at 11:00 am the car was surrounded by media and shoppers. Some reporters offered to help the abductors to guide them or to hand them pictures of police officers to prevent a foisting if hostages were exchanged. A reporter guided the abdutors to a close rest area on an Autobahn and accompanied the abdutors for several kilometers.

On the A3 close to Bad Honnef, a few kilometres before the state border of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, a police car was crashed into the getaway car and rendered it useless at 12:00 am. The result was a gunfight and the death of one of the hostages. Afterwards the abductors were arrested.

The remote control to disrupt the car engine was not used since the police officers have "forgotten" to take it. Behind the state border a special task force (GSG9) was in position to take action.

[edit] Trial

On 22th March 1991 Rösner and Degowski were pronounced guilty by the regional superior court Essen and received a life sentence. Löblich was sentenced to 9 year. In 2002 the Higher Court Hamm declared a "very heavy guilt" and the time of serving the sentence to 24 years for Degowski. In 2004 the Higher Court Hamm refused the apply for parole and the request by Rösner to shorten the sentence. The court also declared a preventive detention ("Sicherheitsverwahrung") and therefore Rösner will not be freed earlier.

[edit] Aftermath

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

[edit] Bearing of the media

This was the first incident in Germany with direct intermission of media people. The media had been strong critized of their handling of this situation, e.g. interviews of hostages.

As a result, the German Press Council (Deutscher Presserat) stated: "interviews with hostages shall not be taken" ^[1]

[edit] 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 due to legal reasons, which is why the band is called 18 Summers nowadays, 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 refering to the event.