Fugitive RAF members: How the police proceed with the search

In hiding for 30 years
Ex-RAF members: How the police search for burdock, dust and waste

When a hundred police drove up to the Berlin district of Friedrichshain on Sunday morning, it seemed as if a search that had lasted more than 30 years could end. As if the officers could only a few days after the arrest of the former RAF terrorist Daniela Klette also arrested her accomplices Ernst-Volker Staub, 69, and Burkhard Garweg, 55. The three of them belong to the third generation of the RAF. It soon becomes clear that the investigators have at best come closer to their goal of catching three of the most wanted suspected criminals in the Federal Republic in the shortest possible time. They establish personal details, but they don’t find any dust or food.

Not even during other major operations on Sunday evening and Monday. The investigators apparently suspect that Garweg and Staub are still in Berlin. They are said to have lived there for a time – like Burdock. In addition, Klette and Garweg are said to have been in contact with each other. Since 2015, Klette, Garweg and Staub have been under investigation for attempted murder and various attempted and completed aggravated robberies between 1999 and 2016.

Now the investigators are also under pressure. At the weekend they published new photos that are supposed to show Garweg. They had a construction trailer towed from an area where Garweg is said to have lived under the name “Martin” – in order to investigate him. The investigators found the address of the trailer settlement in Klette’s apartment. The LKA Lower Saxony and the Verden public prosecutor, who are primarily responsible because the incriminated robberies took place there, are blocking almost all questions. Even colleagues apparently inform the Lower Saxony investigators sparingly. It is said that the hundred deployed on Sunday morning were informed a good two hours before the operation.

According to research by the star The investigators from Lower Saxony are said to have only briefly informed their Berlin colleagues before Klette’s arrest. Therefore, only two “very young” patrol officers were sent from Berlin to Klette’s apartment. That was an unnecessary risk. The investigators apparently found a rocket-propelled grenade, a Kalashnikov, a submachine gun, a handgun and ammunition on Klette. “We wanted to coordinate even better with each other,” said the vice president of the Berlin police, Marco Langner, on Monday. That’s what happened now.

According to the “Berliner Zeitung”, the police officers rang the bells of the individual apartments in the building with a photo of ex-RAF member Klette until they came face to face with the person they were looking for. Neither the LKA nor the Verden public prosecutor’s office wanted to comment on the operation.

The big questions remain unanswered. How Burdock, Staub and Garweg were able to live publicly and yet unmolested in Berlin. Which clue ultimately led the police to Klette. And how close the investigators have come to their hope of finding the two men after all. “We assume that we are close,” says Koray Freudenberg, senior public prosecutor in Verden, simply.

Meanwhile, Klette, Staub and Garweg are receiving support from the left-wing scene. The Berlin local group of “Red Help,” for example, wrote in a statement that the arrest of Daniela Klette was the result of “decades of persecution rage.” One expects a politically motivated trial against Klette.

Another support network for left-wing and left-wing extremist activists suspects that the police could have other people from the scene’s orbit summoned in view of Klette’s arrest. “Don’t chat about it on the phone, no bar talk,” they write. A call to remain silent.

They conclude their appeal as follows: “Stop paranoia! Make wanted posters harmless! Health and happiness for Burkhard, Daniela and Volker!”