It was the evening of August 29, 1992 when a bomb exploded near the Marktkirche in Hanover. The streets are full:it's the old town festival. The explosive device is hidden in a rubbish bin that hangs on many lampposts. The detonation injured 20 people, some seriously. Four weeks later - on September 28th - there was another bang, very close by, this time in front of the "Brauhaus Ernst August" restaurant. Again, the explosive device is in a trash can, again people are injured, this time five. And fear is rampant in Hanover:Who plants the bombs, why - and when will the next one explode?
Soko "Old Town" identified
The attacks in the middle of the city put the security authorities on high alert. The "Old Town" special commission is investigating the police. Soko knows that the explosive devices are the work of a hobby bomb maker. She also communicates this to the public - however, the police knew more about the background at the time of the explosion than they initially reveal.
Ten millions in diamonds
On October 4, the police and city administration reveal what had been kept top secret until then:Lord Mayor Herbert Schmalstieg (SPD) had been blackmailed for two years. Since April 1990, an unknown person has been making insane demands in a series of letters. He wants diamonds worth ten million marks, as well as numerous weapons and ammunition. Otherwise there will be a bloodbath.
Four explosives fail to detonate
The blackmailer certainly didn't wait two years to carry out his threats. Between 1990 and early 1992 he planted a total of four explosive devices at different locations in the city. The bombs don't go off. Nevertheless, the authorities are desperate - as early as 1990 they even want to fulfill the blackmailer's demands. And the planned handovers are cinematic.
The perpetrator has the plane take off and the young woman drives up in a convertible
The first attempt was launched in May 1990:an airplane with the diamonds and several weapons on board was to take off from Langenhagen Airport. The perpetrator wants to radio the crew when they should jettison their cargo. But a radio message never arrives in the cockpit. About two weeks later, the next attempt - and the perpetrator again proves his preference for James Bond-worthy spectacles. His instructions:A woman, no more than 20 years old and wearing only a leather coat and black shoes, is to wait for him in front of the New Town Hall with the diamonds and weapons in her luggage, in an open black convertible, if you please. Here, too, the investigators follow the demands - but the blackmailer does not appear.
Crate with unique contents in the allotment bushes
After there were two bangs in August and September 1992, everything happened pretty quickly. A coincidence brings the investigators a whole lot closer to the person they are looking for on October 2nd:In an allotment garden colony in the Badenstedt district, an allotment gardener discovers a box in the bushes. Their contents and purpose are more than clear, including ready-made bombs, several kilograms of explosives, books with tips on bomb-making and the typewriter on which letters claiming responsibility for the attacks were typed.
Arrested on October 6, 1992
A tape recording brings the breakthrough. The investigators recorded their phone calls with the blackmailer in 1990 and have now published them. A former classmate of the perpetrator recognizes his voice. The bomber was arrested on October 6th:Stefan S., 22 years old, mechanical engineering student. S. does not resist, allows himself to be arrested without resistance in his parents' house in Badenstedt, and makes a confession. Around five anxious weeks are coming to an end for the people of Hanover, and more than two tense years for the mayor, the city administration and the police.
Stefan S.:Until his death in Moringen
In September 1993, the juvenile chamber of the district court in Hanover sentenced S. to eight and a half years in a psychiatric facility. Exclusion and bullying apparently played a large part in the fact that the very overweight young man committed these acts. A psychiatrist attested him a paranoid personality disorder in court. Even after the sentence has been served, S. remains in the Moringen correctional facility - he is not considered cured and his release is irresponsible. At the end of 2012, S. died of natural causes in the penitentiary, as reported by the Ministry of Social Affairs. He is 42 years old.