The Gladbeck hostage drama

August 16, 1988, just before 8 a.m.:31-year-old Hans-Jürgen Rösner and 32-year-old Dieter Degowski rob a bank in Gladbeck, North Rhine-Westphalia. When they are surrounded by the police, they take two employees hostage. During the night they are allowed to leave with the hostages and an escape vehicle. The gangsters pick up Rösner's girlfriend Marion Löblich in an apartment in Gladbeck. At first they wander aimlessly through the Ruhr area. Finally they decide to go to Bremen. Marion Löblich comes from there.

Bremen's police missed the first opportunity for access

August 17:In the Vegesack district of Bremen, Rösner and Löblich go on a leisurely shopping spree through the pedestrian zone. Degowski stays in the car with the two hostages. The gangsters seem to feel safe. But the police have since tracked her down. The officers can observe that Degowski even leaves the car to go to the toilet. Never again will there be such a good opportunity to end the hostage-taking without bloodshed. But no one gives the command to access. The police seem downright paralyzed. Once again, the gangsters manage to escape with the hostages. However, the pursuers can only be shaken off briefly. When Rösner and Degowski noticed the police, there was a sudden reaction shortly after 7 p.m.:In the Huckelriede district of Bremen, they hijacked a number 53 bus and took another 32 people into their power.

"Press conference" of the hostage-takers in front of the bus

The absurd spectacle is now becoming a public event. Onlookers and reporters get to the bus unmolested. No sign of a barrier. The two gangsters obviously enjoy the public attention. Rösner gives a "press conference" in front of the bus. His buddy Degowski is "extremely dangerous," he boasts. Tells about his life and his childhood in reform schools. He has been in prison for a total of 13 years. Before he has to go back to jail, he wants to shoot all the hostages and then himself. He doesn't care about his life. He puts the barrel of his pistol in his mouth to attract media attention. Why should all the innocent people die, he is asked. Rösner shrugs his shoulders and just murmurs:"I can't help that."

Police do not respond to hostage-takers' offers to negotiate

The kidnappers keep trying to negotiate with the police. But all attempts fail:nobody in the upper management level seems to feel responsible. In general, the entire Bremen police force is acting headless and without a recognizable concept. Nobody expected such a situation, and there are no corresponding emergency plans. Meanwhile, Rösner is becoming increasingly aggressive. Again and again he holds his gun to the head of eight-year-old Tatiana de Giorgi, who is sitting on the bus with her brother Emanuele. Threatens to shoot her if someone doesn't contact him soon. Shoots around when he suspects snipers behind a window. When it's dark, the bus finally starts moving.

Absurd media spectacle

Pursued by the police, the bus with the gangsters and their hostages heads onto the freeway. In tow is a whole bunch of reporters. A police officer is killed in a traffic accident while pursuing. The kidnappers stopped shortly after 11 p.m. at the Grundbergsee service area on the A1 near Sottrum in Lower Saxony. Rösner's girlfriend wants to go to the toilet.

Again, reporters go to the hostage-takers and negotiate. They manage to free the two exhausted hostages from the Gladbeck bank. Meanwhile, other hostages have to serve for interviews. In front of the camera, a reporter asks Silke Bischoff:"How are you with the gun on your neck?" The 18-year-old hostage, threatened by Degowski with a gun, tries to smile. She's "actually doing pretty well," she explains. And that she can't imagine that he would actually pull the trigger.

Deadly escalation at the Grundbergsee service area

Then the drama escalates. Police officers overpowered Löblich in the toilet and arrested them - apparently on their own initiative; It was never clear who gave the command. Rösner freaks out. If his girlfriend is not released in five minutes, a hostage will die. The police give in. But the key for the handcuffs breaks off. The release is delayed. Then Degowski shoots 15-year-old Emanuele de Giorgi in the head in front of his little sister. Reporters carry the seriously injured man out of the bus. One of them holds the boy's head up to the camera. Another fateful error of the operations management is revealed:There is no ambulance on site. De Giorgi bleeds to death.

Showdown in Bad Honnef - a woman from Bremen dies

The bus drives off again, this time towards the Netherlands. There, the gangsters exchange the bus for a prepared BMW provided by the police and release most of the hostages. However, two Bremen girls from the bus, Silke Bischoff and her friend Ines Voitle, remain in her hands. The hostage-takers drive back to Germany. In Wuppertal, on the morning of August 18, they get stimulants from a pharmacy and drive on to Cologne. There, the kidnapper's vehicle is surrounded by onlookers and reporters in the city center. The perpetrators give detailed interviews and later drive onto the A3. Their destination is Frankfurt am Main. At noon, near Bad Honnef, a rescue attempt by the police ended in tragedy. Silke Bischoff dies from a bullet from Rösner's gun. Ines Voitle jumps out of the car and is largely unhurt.

Political Consequences

Immediately after the end of the hostage drama, there was a nationwide call for consequences. In view of the disastrous behavior of the Bremen police, the opposition from the CDU, FDP and Greens in the Bremen Senate is demanding the immediate resignation of Interior Senator Bernd Meyer. Meyer, himself a former police officer, assumes full political responsibility and announces immediate improvements. But he refuses to resign.

The Bremen Senate instructs the retired Attorney General Günther Wendisch to investigate the actions of the police. In his report from October of the same year, Wendisch comes to a judgment that is as clear as it is devastating:the chaotic police operation was caused by serious mistakes in leadership. In particular, the upper police leadership is accused of not having prevented the hijacking of the bus. The absence of an ambulance at the Grundbergsee service area is also considered a serious omission. In view of these allegations, Bremen's mayor Klaus Wedemeier can no longer keep his interior senator. A month later, Meyer resigned as part of a cabinet reshuffle. He remains the only politician nationwide who has to draw the appropriate conclusions from the Gladbeck hostage drama.

Life imprisonment

Hans Jürgen-Rösner and Dieter Degowski are sentenced to life imprisonment on March 22, 1991. At a hearing on August 14, 2013, the court decided that Dieter Degowski should be prepared for a life of freedom in the following years by relaxing his sentence. In 2017, Degowski was allowed to leave prison on an hourly basis for the first time. In February 2018 he will be released after almost 30 years in prison.

His accomplice Rösner, on the other hand, refuses any therapy. His release in 2016 would have been theoretically possible. However, preventive detention was ordered against him in the verdict.