The posing of the criminal Dieter Degowski, it can be seen that he is already very haggard
In 1988, one of the craziest hostage-taking events in history was staged in Gladbeck, West Germany. The whole process lasted 54 hours, and almost the entire process was broadcast live. When people sit at home, they can watch real police chase scenes, and they are real. The media at the time was crazy. After the incident subsided, the work of the media was greatly criticized, and the journalist became a disgraceful profession.
Looking back at the Gladbeck hostage incident, it remains a great tragedy because two hostages died; because the police let the situation spiral out of control; because journalists obstructed attempts to resolve the crisis peacefully.
The criminals have yet to be caught, and the media is going crazy
"The Gladbeck incident is a tricky thing for the police, but it's too appealing for the media. If that were to happen now, journalists would stop following the story. But at the time, we were all caught up in some sort of madness. The editor-in-chief of the Cologne newspaper at the time said.
so? What really happened to Gladbeck in 1988? Let's review it.
Deutsche Bank photo
It all started out with a bank robbery. On 16 August 1988, Dieter Degorovsky and his partner Hans Jurgen Rosner entered the Deutsche Bank branch in Gladbeck, Germany. They threatened bank staff with weapons and carried out robberies. The police quickly arrived at the bank. After about a day of negotiations, the police agreed to provide a car for the two armed robbers, allowing them to take away hundreds of thousands of Deutsche Marks. The criminals left with two bank staff members as hostages.
The two robbers began to circle around with the hostages. They even stopped at a certain block and picked up Rosner's girlfriend, Marion Loebrich, for the bus. Early the next morning, they parked their car on the outskirts of Bremen.
Dieter Degowski and Rosner hijacked a bus
In Bremen, after several unsuccessful attempts by police to intercept the vehicle, the criminals hijacked a bus carrying more than 30 passengers. Reporters, who had already learned about the case, crowded the bus stop, waiting for the hijacked vehicles to pass by, some of whom took pictures of the buses. Dieter Degowski even told the driver to stop, with a gun in his hand, and held an impromptu press conference on the street.
Hijacked bus
Finally, the bus went to Hamburg. On the way, there was a stop at a gas station when Rosner's girlfriend was going to the bathroom and the two hostages were released. The police were furious at this point, they had been tracking the vehicle for a long time, but there was nothing they could do. Rosner's girlfriend was seen going to the toilet, and police detained her at the exit of the toilet. This is a mistake made by the police. Dieter Degowski issued an ultimatum to the police: release Marion within 5 minutes or kill a hostage. 5 minutes passed quickly, and the police were still at a loss. Dieter shot a hostage in the head. Marion was released and returned to the car again.
Inside the hijacked bus, the front row is the two hostages hijacked later
The bus departed again and soon crossed the Dutch border. The criminals then abandoned the bus and demanded from the police that a BMW be needed. They took two hostages (both women, friends) and transferred them to a BMW provided by the German police. At 7 a.m., the car returned to Germany.
Dieter Degowski and Rosner continue to stage their farce. In Bremen, they were surrounded by journalists, which attracted the attention of millions of TV viewers, and a live crime record set a record for the highest ratings. Excited Rosner revealed his tattoo and shouted to reporters: I'm going to end it all. He then put the barrel of the pistol in his mouth. At one point, it was suspected that Rosner had a talent for acting, too capable of acting.
Rosner was interviewed with a gun in his hand
Only Udo Robert, a reporter on leave, did not know what was happening. He had seen such a thunderous case on television in a café. Although Robert is on vacation, the journalist's professional sensitivity draws him in. Robert rushed to work at once. What Robert didn't know was that he would be part of the incident.
At the newspaper where Robert works, he got the news that a criminal's vehicle had just been seen parked near a shopping plaza in the center of Cologne. It was just a stone's throw away from the newspaper. Robert thought the opportunity had come, and he rushed downstairs and rushed over. There were five haggard-looking people in the car, on the verge of collapse. Rosner and his girlfriend Marion were in the front row, and Dieter Degowski sat in the back row with two hostages, guns in hand.
Dieter Degowski held the hostage's neck with a gun
The car was surrounded by hundreds of reporters armed with cameras, microphones aimed at open windows. The hostage was answering reporters' questions, even though she had a pistol around her neck. She smiled faintly and said: I believe that everything will be fine. In fact, she was afraid of police intervention, because then she might die. Dieter Degowski was clearly in a state of drunkenness, boasting that he had killed people, while Rosner kept repeating his words: We are not going to give up.
A photojournalist set up a ladder to try to find the most powerful angle to shoot. A TV reporter noticed the gun in Dieter Degowski's hand, and he asked the person next to him: "Do we need a picture of the gun on the hostage's head?" "It seems funny, but it's really resentful." This has crossed all moral boundaries, but that's what happened.
Wearing a black suit was the journalist Robert
A reporter is trying to get in touch with the bandits. He was in his 30s, had short hair, wore glasses, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. You can see that he is excited. He was telling onlookers to keep them out of the car, which was dangerous. This person was the reporter Robert who had just arrived.
The situation was really dangerous, and Rosner was already in a very nervous state. He got out of the car and pointed a gun at the crowd, asking Robert aloud: Where is the nearest highway entrance? At this time, Robert's brain was racing, he wanted the news and the situation could be controlled. He made a decision: get in the car and show the bandits the way. Robert sat in the back seat of the car. The car slowly pulled out of the crowd.
The hijacker pointed a gun at the crowd
Robert stayed in the car for about 40 minutes, after which the car stopped at a gas station, and after dropping him, the car drove away. Reporters quickly surrounded Robert in the middle and began to throw out a lot of questions to interview him. According to Robert's later recollections, it was Robert who suddenly felt fear, his legs were weak and trembling, as if he would soon die.
Soon after the criminals' cars hit the highway, the police finally decided to start the operation. After receiving the order for a surprise attack, the police attacked the criminals' BMW car. A fierce gun battle began, and of course how could two criminals have just passed the police? Eventually, Dieter Degowski and Rosner were arrested, and Rosner's girlfriend Marion was detained. Unfortunately, a female hostage was shot in the chest and died on the spot. The reporter Robert learned about what happened at the police station, and he felt quite guilty. A young girl was killed by bandits a few hours ago, and he was still thinking about how to make up an attractive story!
After the police assaulted, the crowd stood on the overpass and watched
In the end, the judge sentenced Dieter Degovsky and Rosner to life in prison, and Rosner's girlfriend Marion to nine years in prison. The state legislature's official investigative report was harshly critical of the news media community. It was the first and only criminal incident in Germany to have direct intervention by journalists. Media workers have been widely criticized for their unethical behavior, especially when they interviewed the hostages before the case was over. Therefore, the German Federal Press Commission prohibits any interviews with the perpetrators while the crime is in progress, and prohibits any reporting!
Pictures from the Internet, invasion and deletion!