A NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES
APRIL 1, 1991
PRESS
April 1 was Easter Monday.
I was in the newsroom until about 10 p.m.
And then headed home to Düsseldorf-Unterrath.
That's when I noticed...
the city was full of blue lights.
Fire trucks, ambulances, police cars.
I'd never seen anything like it in my whole career.
Not then or ever since.
I followed the police cars.
And they all drove to Kaiser-Friedrich-Ring...
which is where the rich and famous live.
I still didn't know what had happened.
I asked a policeman,
"Can you tell me what's going on? The whole city is on lockdown."
He said, "Not just the whole city.
All the freeways are closed.
We're imposing a dragnet."
I asked, "What could have happened?"
He said, "The worst kind of crime."
He said, "You've heard of Mr. Rohwedder?"
-"Who's Rohwedder?" -"You don't know Rohwedder?
He's the President of the Treuhand in Berlin.
He's liquidating the GDR."
My wife and I had returned from a ski trip.
We were traveling back to Düsseldorf that night.
We passed the Rohwedder house.
It was all lit up.
Twenty meters in front of the house,
I met a policeman and asked him just one question:
"Is he dead?"
"Yes."
I knew what had happened. It was unambiguous.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
We at ZDF apologize for interrupting your regular program.
The reason for this interruption is sad and shocking.
The head of the Treuhand Agency, Detlev Rohwedder,
was reportedly killed in his Düsseldorf apartment
on Monday evening at around 10:30 p.m.
GERMANY
The German Reich.
No one intends to build a wall!
Unity and justice and freedom
...insane attacks by barbaric terrorists.
For the German fatherland
Risen from ruins
Our fatherland, reunited.
Flourish, German fatherland
I was on a ski trip in Austria.
My security agents woke me up in the night
and said, "Rohwedder has been murdered."
I had only been skiing for two days.
I'd really looked forward to that ski trip.
He said, "Here, take your camera
and go photograph the top window."
I said, "But I can't see anything."
He said, "Just take a shot with your flash.
You'll see what you photographed later."
I was at home when I received a call
informing me there had been an attack on Rohwedder.
I immediately understood the situation.
Our Investigation Unit drove there.
The Crime Scene Unit was alerted.
And we immediately got to work that very night.
Many police arrived.
At some point, the Federal Criminal Police Office arrived.
Unidentified men took command.
And I was pushed aside.
We arrived between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.
We went into the house to get an initial look.
When we entered Mr. Rohwedder's study on the upper floor,
his body was still lying there.
Mr. Rohwedder lay dead on the ground
opposite the window in front of the bookshelf.
-Good evening, Mr. Schmock. -Hello, Mr. Voss.
Mr. Schmok, has Rohwedder's murder been confirmed
by the Düsseldorf Ministry of the Interior?
Yes, it has been confirmed.
The city is in shock.
He was an exceptionally kind man.
He, however, knew the danger he was in because of this new position.
We can be sure that this was a political murder.
Back in the newsroom, the first thing I did was develop the film.
I still remember clearly,
I was horrified by what I saw.
You can see the two shots that had penetrated standard window glass.
One shot killed Karsten Rohwedder.
The second injured his wife, who was standing behind him.
If the local police had implemented the suggested security measures,
they would not have installed standard glass,
but bullet-proof glass,
which would have prevented the shots from penetrating.
To this day, I don't understand
why bullet-proof windows
were only installed on the ground floor of his house.
In my house,
all the windows and doors were designed
to make such a direct attack impossible.
Yes, one can feel both anger and pity.
Anger and pity.
Anger, because what you wanted to protect wasn't protected,
and pity for those who trusted the state,
and whom the state could not protect...
or did not want to protect.
This is the daily news.
The head of the Treuhand in Berlin, Rohwedder,
has reportedly been murdered.
The Federal Prosecutor General declined to confirm
whether the RAF had carried out the attack.
They do not expect to find the perpetrator soon,
or perhaps ever.
Minister of Finance Waigel, who supervised the Treuhand,
interrupted his Easter vacation and traveled to Bonn.
Rohwedder is, I think...
the martyr, or a martyr,
of German reunification.
So, I am deeply...
thankful for his courage...
and willingness to take on
this dangerous job at the Treuhand Agency.
For the good of Germany.
MARTYR
Rohwedder was the head of the world's biggest industrial holding company.
That holding company controlled some 15,000 GDR enterprises.
Shipyards, steel foundries, the textile industry, chemical industry.
By Western standards,
these companies had every problem it was conceivable to have.
Each of these 15,000 companies needed major restructuring.
A colossal task.
It was probably the first time that an agency, like the Treuhand
had to integrate all these companies, to restructure, liquidate, and sell them.
Mrs. Breuel, could you give us your reaction to the assassination?
All of the employees are very sad and feel committed now
to continuing Mr. Rohwedder's work.
That's our job, and we're dedicated to getting it done.
Awful.
Terrible. I'm at a loss for words.
It's terrible. He was my boss.
I'm... sad.
Outraged, actually.
I've been wondering...
where were the measures to protect him?
The day after Rohwedder's murder
I came to the Treuhand office.
It was buzzing.
The wheels were still turning.
There were investors, managers who wanted loans,
investors inquiring about their take over bids.
And I felt totally out of place.
Just imagine:
You're working in an organization and then the leader is shot and killed.
What kind of a sick system does such a thing?
A man gives up a secure position in the West
to come to the East and tackle this whole thing.
All those braggarts in Munich or Bonn or wherever,
comfortable and safe, all talk and no action...
Here was a man who came here and faced this challenge.
And they shoot him? I thought it was sick.
The economy of the former GDR is on the brink of collapse.
The new states of Germany are facing an ever-growing mountain of problems.
Mr. Rohwedder, many people are wondering why you took this on.
5 WEEKS
UNTIL THE MURDER
Perhaps, we can consider your background for some context.
You were born in 1932, the son of a bookseller.
In Gotha, which is in Thuringia.
Did your Central German origin influence your decision?
Yes, I've always been interested
in the so-called "new" states of Germany.
I was often in the GDR during my time in Bonn.
Reunification has meant a lot to me
and that's why, despite all the criticism
and denunciation of my work...
I'm proud to be able to do this job.
And this allows me to see past the difficulties we're facing.
Oversized companies, intransigent staff, outdated machinery,
low productivity, and, above all, products that are difficult to sell.
The Treuhand Agency is overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problems.
-What do you think of Treuhand? -Not much.
-Why? -Their restructuring has destroyed things,
without creating new jobs.
My wife already lost her job.
Everyone is scared.
Today, we're worse off than before.
You feel discouraged,
because you don't know if you'll keep your job or not.
We face rapidly rising unemployment due to a large number...
of collapsing companies.
Yes, the unemployment rate is depressing.
In some areas it is devastating and alarming,
and the people have every right to feel distressed,
because every worker is doing a good job
and that makes decisions like this very hard.
We...
don't take decisions like this lightly at Treuhand.
Whenever we make a decision, we think about what it means for the people.
I've worked here for 18 years.
And at the age of 43 I won't find work, anywhere.
The job center is sending me from one place to the next.
The welfare office is doing the same.
My apartment is a hole in the wall.
I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Honestly.
And with just 500 marks of unemployment benefits,
I'm at the point where I might as well just hang myself right now.
And I'll take my kids with me. I will.
I'm telling you. I won't leave them alone here.
Did you really turn the gas on yesterday?
I just didn't know what to do anymore.
We'll get through this.
We'll fight.
OCTOBER 1989
18 MONTHS UNTIL THE MURDER
BERLIN, CAPITAL OF THE GDR
Nobody went hungry in the GDR. Everybody had a home.
Nobody was homeless.
Things like that were well organized in the GDR.
The companies functioned. The people worked hard.
But it was a hamster wheel.
Nothing came of it. It didn't produce any wealth.
If the Berlin Wall hadn't fallen in 1989,
in two, three, less than five years, the whole thing would have imploded.
The internal structure of the system...
was collapsing from within.
No violence!
People were no longer willing to stand up for its intrinsic values.
Freedom!
Thousands of mostly young people in many cities
are demanding freedom and political reform.
This November 9 is a historic day.
The GDR announced that its borders are now open to everyone.
The gates in the wall are wide open.
Everyone who was in politics back then will remember November 9
until the end of their lives.
However... amidst the joy
there was an immediate question:
And what now?
What's in the future for the Minister of Finance?
At the Ministry of Finance, we had already started to consider...
days in advance
what had to happen to lead the GDR out of its devastating economic situation.
To this day, I'm still impressed by the innovation
of our Ministry of Finance.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell.
From November on...
I was in a heightened state of alertness and vigilance,
like I had never experienced in my life.
There was a two-volume manual on the GDR.
I bought it so that I could learn about all the different institutions.
And there were also studies on the economy of the GDR.
I studied all of it, and then I said to myself,
with my youthful hubris at the age of just 44,
"Nobody knows more about the GDR than I do now."
And I tackled things with that mentality.
It was a decisive moment,
to restructure the economic and social order of the GDR.
So that meant...
Introducing competition, private ownership and an independent monetary policy.
We had already thought about all this for the people of the GDR.
On November 14, I received a call from the Council of Ministers.
"We need you in the government."
Half an hour later, I held the highest office of my life.
It was my second son's birthday that day.
Wonderful!
And then it started.
I didn't sense any malice in the national or international press.
It was rather, "She is brave."
Or, "In her line of business, she wants to make a difference."
That was the basic tenor.
Christa Luft openly stated the government's plan
to make a radical, yet controlled, transition to a market economy.
We're aiming for a market economy
that proves to be economically efficient and internationally competitive.
We wanted to allow free trade
and to support small independent businesses.
We had passed a joint venture law in the People's Chamber.
These things weren't just on paper, some of them had already been introduced.
For a few weeks we really believed
that the country would make major progress and get better.
That a GDR would develop without the problems
of the past, meaning the Stasi and the oppression
and the political cronyism. We thought it would be more open and relaxed.
A sort of paradise.
And many people tried to realize their dreams.
Every other person opened a cafe or a bar.
They were like kids in a toy shop who were finally allowed to play.
You could sense their joy as they said,
"Here you go, some white wine...
Yes, we're only open in the evenings."
Often they were apartments in back buildings,
where people had started meeting and drinking in the evenings.
Everyone did what they thought was right.
One person sold sausages,
another had salads with olives and exotic stuff like that.
Everyone was living out their dreams with an incredible sense of joy.
We must find our own way, use the chance we have now.
There's a lot to change here,
but we want something different from West Germany and capitalism.
Nations, hear the signal!
We want this to remain our country
and we don't want anyone else to decide its fate.
Sometimes I felt out of place
and the men felt awkward, too.
Near the beginning of my tenure in January 1990,
I had a meeting with around 15 managers from the former East German states.
I was the only woman!
And I had to give the introductory speech.
You've been accused of beating around the bush,
for not using the term "social market economy" yet.
What kind of regulatory framework do you envision?
Come on, that's not fair.
I only had, I don't know, three minutes to talk.
And I made it very clear
that we are working to create a functioning domestic market
that operates according to market principles.
That was when I met Rohwedder for the first time in real life.
He was a giant...
an impressive figure.
He played up his experience as a restructuring expert.
He had developed that expertise at Hoesch, which was well-known.
Rohwedder said what needed to be done.
The GDR companies had to prove themselves on the global market.
That was crucial.
But not every company had to be privatized immediately.
I believe if the GDR continues to develop at this pace,
we will soon have a framework
that will provide jobs and a good standard of living.
We must create a sense of a new beginning,
and this works best if both parties cooperate constructively.
I also got the impression
that he wasn't someone who goes in like a bull in a china shop.
He was cautious...
and considered, not zealous or vain.
But he did want to leave a legacy.
Thank you for coming.
Now back to the studio in Berlin-Wedding.
My political experience had taught me
that things had to mature until a certain time...
like a fine cheese.
But then it has to be eaten.
Otherwise it starts to smell and it's too late.
A process had begun, which, of course, I wished would end in reunification.
I was completely convinced that the GDR was worthless.
Naturally, the GDR was of another opinion.
But it didn't matter what the GDR's assets were worth.
The truth would come out eventually.
At the end of January,
I thought I had a viable and well-informed concept
for a monetary union.
It was a 15-page document.
It had to stay a secret for another 14 days
until we had made all the necessary preparations.
And in mid-February, it was time.
FEBRUARY 13, 1990
14 MONTHS UNTIL THE MURDER
MINISTER OF FINANCE
The Ministers of Economics Luft had approached us
and demanded a special subsidy of 15 billion Deutschmarks.
There were also some West German politicians,
even cabinet ministers, who told me,
"Maybe instead of fifteen billion, you could give them
ten or eight, or at least seven.
You'll have to do that."
Back then I said, "No."
We flew from Schoenefeld Airport to Bonn.
Then we took a helicopter
and landed in the garden of the West German Chancellery.
Helmut Kohl was standing outside, lined up with his whole team.
It felt like we were going to a funeral.
They were all quite somber.
Then we were invited in.
Half the cabinet members were sitting in the NATO room.
Next to Kohl, sat Waigel and many others.
Kohl...
was sitting up front like a Buddha.
And...
he told us how great everything was,
and how in a few weeks it would all be complete.
And then each of us was allowed to speak.
"Chancellor,
GDR's economy is in bad shape.
However, what we need is an injection of penicillin,
and not a lethal injection.
Give us time.
We need two, three, maybe four years
to prepare for a step like this.
Otherwise not everyone will make it."
Phew! And then he said...
Back then I said, "No.
That economic system
won't get a single pfennig or mark
However, we'll give you even more,
but only if you establish
a fundamentally different economic and social system."
That's when we thought of...
offering the GDR a monetary union,
contingent on certain conditions.
They didn't want to hear about it.
The government wouldn't agree to give us a penny.
Waigel said, "No.
Completely impossible. And we need to speed all of this up too."
MINISTER OF FINANCE
This was, of course, one of the most interesting,
challenges I ever came across
in my political life, in my life as Minister of Finance.
Never had a whole national economy
been transformed that way before.
Rohwedder warned against a monetary union between East and West Germany.
He called it a high-risk project
that would cause many GDR companies to go bankrupt
if they were suddenly exposed to international competition.
This could lead to high levels of unemployment.
We were looking for a special person to be President of the Treuhand,
someone who could tackle this enormous and unusual task.
And Rohwedder had very special qualifications for the job.
Helmut Kohl and I both believed
we should ask him to take it on.
Rohwedder, CEO of the Hoesch company based in Dortmund,
is set to privatize the GDR's formerly state-owned companies.
It's quite likely that at first,
Rohwedder wasn't aware of the scale of what was to come.
He hesitated about taking over the chairmanship of the board.
I remember that.
He hesitated, but it was inescapable.
He let himself be held responsible.
He served...
Let's just say it: He served his fatherland.
9 MONTHS
UNTIL THE MURDER
Mass layoffs began soon.
For the first time,
people who had always had secure jobs now had to flock to employment services.
Next please!
The East Germans were crushed by this incredible sense of frustration.
The anger towards the Treuhand was really strong.
JOBS FOR ALL!
You're one of the most-hated West Germans in all of East Germany.
One stroke of your pen causes thousands of job cuts.
760,000 people have already lost their jobs in the new German states.
How, Mr. Rohwedder, do you cope with this on a human aspect,
when economic reasons require you
to put many people out on the street?
Rohwedder was the most threatened person
in all of Germany at the time.
The risk assessment I personally signed
was forwarded to all the security-related authorities in Germany.
The Federal Public Prosecutor and the Ministry of the Interior.
We came to the conclusion
that Rohwedder is a K-106 person.
This decision implies that we categorized Rohwedder
in the highest threat level there is.
Anti-terror Concept 106.
This category stipulates:
High risk people are to be monitored via "covert measures."
These would show whether the VIP was being "targeted by terrorists."
The K-106 decision
meant that the local police were to monitor Rohwedder's surroundings
and inform him of suspicious activity.
Through covert operations we would anticipate
specific attacks on Rohwedder.
That is the purpose of K-106.
This is where the Rohwedder family lived.
It is in Villa Maximilian.
The house was in an area where people weren't short of money.
The area is full of grand villas.
It's an area where strangers attract attention.
Outsiders draw attention.
Even I would have attracted attention.
In 1991, when Rohwedder was murdered,
I was working for the Düsseldorfer Express
as a crime reporter.
And I'm still there today.
TREUHAND-BOSS ROHWEDDER MURDERED!
The attack was planned a long time in advance.
The way it was carried out...
It should have attracted attention.
Unfortunately, no police noticed,
and no bodyguards noticed either.
Because they weren't there.
He was secluded in that house,
and the only time he saw the police
was maybe every four hours when a patrol car passed.
12 DAYS
UNTIL THE MURDER
Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation,
"Treuhand Task Force.
Safety precautions were taken at Dr. Rohwedder's house.
It was found that the video surveillance system,
had been switched off on the day of the attack.
The last recordings are from March 21, 1991."
The Rohwedder case has been on my mind ever since.
And I had always wanted...
to speak with Mrs. Rohwedder about it.
There were two telephone interviews...
with her.
Mrs. Rohwedder complained bitterly.
Almost crying on the phone,
that her husband would still be alive today
if more had been done to keep the two of them safe.
"When he was brought back home on Holy Thursday
by his two liaison officers,
I said that to them.
They responded coolly,
"What do you expect?
Are we to come across the river by boat?
We have covert investigations in place."
I suggested the house be protected with a guard sitting at the door.
Anyway, they didn't do anything."
NIGHT OF THE MURDER
Now, I come to the day of the attack.
As part of the security operation,
the Rohwedder house was checked on April 1, 1991 during the late shift
at 3:05 p.m., 5:55 p.m., 8:10 p.m.
There was no check carried out during the night shift.
There were clear signs that something was brewing.
The phone would ring,
but when we picked up, there was silence.
Then our doorbell rang at night.
I looked down, but there was nobody there.
Mrs. Rohwedder was full of bitterness
that nothing had been done.
And three and a half hours later, her husband was dead.
Preliminary report of the autopsy of Detlev Karsten Rohwedder.
Bullet lodged in the chest, having entered the back,
directly to the left of the center of the body,
perforating it from the lower left to upper right.
The thoracic spine was transected and shattered
at the level of the fifth thoracic vertebra,
completely severing the spinal cord.
Trachea was completely transected.
Cause of death: internal hemorrhage.
A very disturbing image.
For such a career to end that way.
If I can put it like that.
It's also an indictment of the state...
this image.
That it was incapable
of keeping a person like that
from being killed.
POLICE
At 6 p.m. this evening,
a bouquet of flowers lies on the hedge
outside the Rohwedder house in Oberkassel.
Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, head of the Treuhand
was not given the highest level of protection by the police.
The Chief of Police of Düsseldorf didn't protect Rohwedder
the way he should have been protected.
They decided not to do it.
This was a willful act.
There was no coordination.
The State Criminal Police in Duesseldorf was a very weak police force
when it came to counter-terrorism,
a very weak criminal investigation agency.
In fact, it was the weakest in the whole of Germany.
Everyone tried to pass the blame.
I got the impression that it was complete chaos.
That also concerned the matter of the windows.
There was bulletproof glass installed downstairs,
but not upstairs.
"Security employees of Hoesch, charged with the safety measures,
responded during a telephone interview
that the Rohwedder family requested
bulletproof glass only on the first floor."
Mrs. Rohwedder said
that they also wanted the upstairs to be protected.
"That's my husband's office
and we want to have the special glass there, too."
The Federal Prosecutor General and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation,
that I questioned several times,
refused to provide any information,
saying it would impact Germany's security interests.
Lead by the Federal Criminal Police Office,
a special Treuhand Task Force was established by the Düsseldorf Police.
By their own admission, they've made hardly any progress.
They've received more than 100 leads from the public,
but few of them were promising.
Nothing. We had nothing.
We didn't know if it was a man or a woman,
if it was two, three, or five,
whether they came by train, car, motorcycle, or a boat down the Rhine.
I chartered a helicopter on April 3.
I wanted to document what had happened...
from the air.
It cost a thousand, but it was worth it.
I saw the crime scene from the helicopter,
because I wanted to know how the perpetrators had arrived.
I saw the Rohwedder house underneath me from the air.
I could still see the police barrier tape.
I could still see a lot of patrol cars.
And I could still see the chair.
It was apparently the chair where the sniper had sat.
The sniper had hidden in a community garden.
Armed with a gun, he sat here on this garden chair
until his victim went into the study.
They also found binoculars at the crime scene...
a hand towel and a letter claiming responsibility.
The letter claiming responsibility that was found at the scene
is still being analyzed.
We concluded the letter was authentic
and it matched our assumptions.
We had said from the start
that if there was an attack on Rohwedder,
we'd receive a justification like this.
In the letter claiming the attack on Rohwedder,
the RAF described
how the factories
were being crushed,
and how the Western system was being imposed on them
without any care for the fate of the people.
Those are the exact words you'll find in the RAF letter.
I can read it to you. I have it here.
Subtitle translation by Marisa Pettit