Inexplicable? The fatal failure of Bad Kleinen

On June 27, 1993, the alleged RAF terrorist Wolfgang Grams and a GSG9 officer died in an unsuccessful operation at Bad Kleinen station. To this day, the case stands for the failure of authorities.

The two fatalities of the failed GSG9 mission in Bad Kleinen on June 27, 1993:Michael Newrzella and Wolfgang Grams. One is an official of the special group GSG9. The other a suspected Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorist. Allegations and rumors of an alleged execution of the suspect have persisted for years. The events are never fully explained. The incident still stands for a serious failure of the authorities and emergency services involved, almost three decades after the fatal shots were fired on the platform in Bad Kleinen.

The RAF and the history of Bad Kleinen

How did this happen? In the early summer of 1993, the RAF seems to be slowly disappearing into insignificance. A year earlier, she had declared in a letter that she would refrain from further assassination attempts. But on March 27, 1993, unknown perpetrators blew up the brand new building of the prison in Weiterstadt near Darmstadt. 123 million marks in damage, people are not injured. The RAF claims responsibility for the bomb attack. It is the so-called third generation of the RAF. She hasn't given up the fight yet.

Keyword:RAF

The Red Army Faction (RAF) was founded in the spring of 1970 by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin. Some media initially refer to the group as the "Baader-Meinhof Gang". The roots of the RAF date back to the student movement of the late 1960s, but their exact connection is disputed among historians. A key concept in the group's self-image is "urban guerrilla" based on revolutionary associations in Latin America. Their common goal:change of the political system by a small group - also with violence.
A series of robberies followed in May 1972 the first bomb attack by the RAF to the headquarters of the US Army in Frankfurt am Main. Shortly afterwards there are more attacks; among other things on the building of the Axel Springer publishing house in Hamburg. Within a few months, the investigators took almost all members of the RAF Celebration.

While the leaders of the group were being tried in Stuttgart-Stammheim in 1975, the "second generation" of the RAF committed the crime increasingly brutal attacks. The terror reached its peak in 1977 during the so-called German Autumn, which began with the kidnapping of Employer President Hanns Martin Schleyer on September 5th. The terrorists kept the country in suspense for weeks. Schleyer was found murdered on October 19, 1977. He is one of 34 dead attributed to the RAF walk. A day earlier, the three leading RAF had met -Members Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe apparently killed themselves in their cells in the high-security prison in Stuttgart-Stammheim.
A "third generation" changes strategy in the early 1980s and wants the RAF internationalize. The killing goes on. Only in 1998 did the RAF declare itself for resolved.

The undercover cop's "masterstroke"

What hardly anyone knew at the time:the investigative authorities managed to smuggle an informant into the RAF. Klaus Steinmetz, who has been active in the left-wing scene for years, has been reporting regularly to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 1992 about meetings with RAF members. "That was a masterpiece," Rainer Hofmeyer, then head of the anti-terrorist department at the BKA, enthuses years later. A feat that ended in disaster.

Operation "Weinlese" and the RAF on vacation

When the Office for the Protection of the Constitution heard that Steinmetz wanted to meet Birgit Hogefeld in Bad Kleinen in June 1993, Federal Public Prosecutor Alexander von Stahl decided to take action. Along with Wolfgang Grams, Hogefeld is regarded as the head of the third generation of the RAF. And this generation is blamed for the murders of nine people. Under the alias "Weinlese", the BKA, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the public prosecutor's office are investigating where and how Hogefeld can be arrested. Steinmetz and Hogefeld are planning a short vacation in Wismar. Access should be there. The train station in Bad Kleinen is also considered - and rejected again. Too confusing, too dangerous.

The day of action

On June 27, 1993, almost 100 police officers were on standby, ranging from normal officials to GSG9 specialists. These are supposed to overwhelm Hogefeld and apparently also V-Mann Steinmetz on the way to the train station in Wismar from a minibus. About a bug that they planted on Steinmetz, operations manager Jürgen Peter hears Birgit Hogefeld mention that she still wants to meet friends today. Seconds before access, Peter decides:Wait! "Ultimately, I am responsible for the death of these two people," says Peter years later in the documentary "Endstation Bad Kleinen" by Anne Kauth.

Access point but Bad Kleinen

Because now the emergency services have to set up a new plan in no time at all - after months of planning. Access should now take place at the train station in Bad Kleinen. There, Hogefeld and Steinmetz are waiting for these "friends" in a restaurant at midday. Around 2 p.m., Hogefeld picked up a man from platform 1/2. It's Wolfgang Grams. Investigators are initially unable to identify him. The three of Hogefeld, Steinmetz and Grams have a bite to eat in the "Billard-Café" restaurant. The BKA top decides:access when leaving the premises.

How many "friends" were in Bad Kleinen?

A 2001 FAZ report said that two other RAF members were there - "besides Hogefeld, Klette and Staub." Fingerprints proved that. Daniela Klette and Ernst-Volker Staub have not been caught to this day.

The word "if"

The 37 GSG9 men among the 100 police officers are supposed to access the underpass to the tracks. All escape routes are blocked. When the trio finally set out, there was a serious breakdown:a GSG9 man on platform 4/5 heard the announcement "Access is in progress..." over the radio and ran down the steps to the underpass. However, at this moment the access has not yet happened. The instruction read "When access occurs" with the addition of checking a suspicious vehicle in front of the station. The officer almost runs into the RAF trio's arms. The escape route up to platform 4/5 is therefore unguarded.

Ten seconds at a train station in Mecklenburg

However, the access can no longer be stopped. Seven GSG9lers fall on Hogefeld, Grams and Steinmetz. Hogefeld and Steinmetz are instantly overwhelmed. Grams reacts with lightning speed, evades access and flees up to platform 4/5. Behind him are half a dozen officers, with Michael Newrzella in front. Arriving on the platform, Grams draws his gun and fires at his pursuers. They fire back. Grams fires ten shots, 33 the GSG9 men. Two of them collapse. Newrzella is hit by four bullets; he is 25 years old and dies a little later from his injuries. Grams has also been hit several times. He falls backwards onto the track and stays there. He also dies from his gunshot wounds. It's all over in a little over ten seconds.

Who shot Wolfgang Grams?

According to official information, Wolfgang Grams died from a close-up shot in the temple. The BKA quickly came to the conclusion:suicide. But more and more inconsistencies cause speculation:A kiosk seller on the platform claims to have seen that the officers shot Grams at close range. An anonymous police officer reports to the "Spiegel" author Hans Leyendecker that the GSG9 men have aimed close-range shots at Grams. In addition, none of dozens of police officers say they actually saw Grams commit suicide. On the contrary:The pursuing GSG9 men didn't want to have had Grams in view in the crucial seconds.

Parents of the killed officer are threatened

Even completely innocent people get into the conflict. For example, the parents of the Newrzella officer who was killed had to live with hostilities from the left-wing scene for years. Activists threaten to dig up the policeman's body and throw it "in the garbage". Her son is also always mentioned in the same breath as the terror suspect. For the government, Newrzella is a symbol of the attack on the state. Even Federal Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters (CDU) comes to the funeral. It will be one of his last acts.

Federal Minister of the Interior resigns

To this day it is unclear how many officers observed the process from the stairs or from the opposite platform. In addition to the unsuccessful attempt to cover up the existence of the informant Steinmetz - only a few hours later the media reported about a third man - the authorities continue to fan the speculation with increasingly contradictory statements. "Der Spiegel" speaks of a "killing like an execution" (issue 27/1993). Seiters submits his resignation. It is the first of ten resignations as a result of Operation Grape Harvest. The federal prosecutor general is relieved of his office and high-ranking officials are also forcibly transferred to the Federal Criminal Police Office.

GSG9 statements "totally absurd"?

Several studies should provide clarity. The public prosecutor's office in Schwerin interrogated the two GSG9 officers who put Grams on the track and came to the conclusion that some of the statements were "completely absurd". According to the final report from Schwerin, some of the statements made by the witnesses turned out to be "fictitious".

Has the gun been stolen from Grams?

The Zurich public prosecutor's office is called in as an independent authority to investigate Grams' death. The Swiss experts confirm Grams' gun as the murder weapon. A self-shot is plausible. However, a scratch on Grams' hand leads the experts to not rule out the possibility of the weapon being stolen from his hand by force.

Mishaps, cover-ups and unreliable witnesses

Other embarrassing mishaps hinder the final investigation:possible traces of smoke on Wolfgang Grams' hand could have proved that he was holding the gun in his hand when the shot was fired at close range. In the pathology, however, the hand of Grams, who had not yet been clearly identified, had been cleaned in order to be able to take fingerprints, and thus important traces were irretrievably destroyed. The projectile that killed Grams was never found despite an intensive search.

Hogefeld's weapon initially went unnoticed

Authorities have claimed for days that Hogefeld opened fire and that officers merely returned fire. It quickly turns out that Hogefeld's gun was never drawn. On the contrary, she was only noticed half an hour later, when the RAF woman was already handcuffed in the police car. The kiosk seller changes her statement several times. In the final report, no more importance is attached to it. Even the "mirror" witness does not stand up to follow-up examinations. Author Leyendecker later moved away from his presentation.

Fingerprints and a hair

To date, the police have little evidence against Wolfgang Grams. In 1985, the police discovered a RAF conspiratorial apartment in Tübingen. Grams' fingerprints were found there, among other traces. In 2001, eight years after his death, he was finally specifically linked to a crime committed by the RAF. A hair found at the scene of the 1991 murder of Detlev Rohwedder has been linked to Grams by specialists using new DNA analysis. Wolfgang Grams was explicitly not classified as a suspect by the federal prosecutor. The hair wasn't enough for that.

Events in Bad Kleinen "cannot be explained"

Klaus Steinmetz still lives abroad under a false name and under police protection. In November 1996, Birgit Hogefeld was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main for murder, attempted murder and membership of a terrorist organization. In June 2011, Hogefeld became the last RAF member to be released from prison. A lawsuit for damages by Wolfgang Grams' parents was rejected by a total of five instances, most recently the European Court of Human Rights, because the exact "act of events cannot be clarified".

Despite lengthy, meticulous investigations, what really happened in Bad Kleinen never came to light.