Europe

German police manhunt veers into Keystone Cops territory

Case of mistaken identity as police snatch man from bus in Berlin wrongly believing him a member of Red Army Faction

A poster in Berlin calls for information about the whereabouts of Ernst-Volker Staub from the radical anti-capitalist group known as the Red Army Faction. Photograph: David Gannon/AFP

Derek Scally in Berlin
Tue Mar 19 2024 - 18:24

Germany’s hunt for two at-large former members of the left-wing Red Army Faction terrorist group is descending rapidly into Keystone Cops territory.

On February 28th, 65-year-old Daniela Klette was arrested in Berlin after living for more than 30 years under a fake identity. As fresh details about her arrest emerge, the manhunt continues for her two former gang accomplices.

Like Klette, they are sought for, among other things, charges related to a bomb attack on a prison building site in 1993 and a series of raids on cash transporters and supermarkets – allegedly to finance their life in the underground since the Red Army Faction disbanded in 1993.

On Tuesday of last week, passengers on a Berlin bus were surprised when special forces surrounded a disembarking passenger – 67-year-old Andreas Weiser – and shouted at him to “Get down to the ground, down!”

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Writing on his blog, Weiser recalled turning around to see the armed police: “In the first second, I don’t cop on. Then: ‘F**k, they mean me.’”

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Hitting his head on the pavement as he was dragged down, Weiser guessed he was now a part of the faction manhunt and shouted: “You’ve got the wrong person.”

Released after 45 minutes, Weiser learned an off-duty police officer waiting at the same bus stop as him had phoned in the tip-off, certain he was 55-year-old ex-Red Army Faction man Burkhard Garweg.

“Clearly the Berlin police are under considerable pressure,” wrote Weiser on his blog, “and they are suffering from manhunt fever.”

The fever has been building since the Klette arrest in Berlin. Unusually, it was carried out by regional police from the state of Lower Saxony, historically the lead investigator in faction cases.

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They came to the German capital without informing fully their Berlin colleagues what they were doing. Doing so would have triggered a major security operation; instead Lower Saxon officers knocked on Klette’s apartment door and asked her to come with them.

Federal police officers escort Daniela Klette, a former member of the Red Army Faction. She was recently arrested in Berlin after more than 30 years on the run. Photograph: Ronald Wittek/EPA

Furious Berlin police pointed out afterwards that Klette could have triggered a booby-trap bomb or started a shoot-out. Subsequent searches of her flat revealed a hidden weapons cache containing a bazooka and a machine gun with ammunition.

“Anyone who has an AK47 in their apartment,” said a Berlin police union spokesman,” “shouldn’t be able to move a finger when police call round.”

It gets worse: instead of being handcuffed and made leave immediately, Klette asked the two officers if she could go to the toilet first. There she reportedly sent a text message to tip off Garweg – then flushed her sim card down the toilet.

A subsequent raid of his alleged hideout, in a nearby caravan park, indicated he had fled recently. He and Ernst-Volker Staub, another former Red Army Faction member, remain at large.

Derek Scally

Derek Scally

Derek Scally is an Irish Times journalist based in Berlin

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