Grenade found in ex-RAF terrorist Klette’s apartment building in Berlin-Kreuzberg

The apartment building in Berlin-Kreuzberg in which the former suspected RAF terrorist Daniela Klette lived was evacuated on Wednesday due to a danger. All residents had to leave their apartments in the afternoon and then stood on the street.

The Berlin police announced late on Wednesday evening that a grenade had been found in the apartment building. “So far, our forensic scientists have taken a grenade out of the building on Sebastianstrasse in #Kreuzberg and rendered it harmless at another location,” the police said on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday evening. “Further items are currently being examined.”

In the evening, an officer from the explosive ordnance disposal service brought out an object that resembled a small grenade. He stowed the item in a security box in a car, as a dpa reporter observed.

At around 10 p.m. the exclusion zone was expanded, the entire Sebastianstrasse was cordoned off and some apartments in another building were evacuated. “A building opposite is being partially evacuated to allow additional items to be removed,” the police said.

More weapons were also found in the apartment on Wednesday. This was confirmed in the evening by a spokeswoman for the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office. Previously, the “Tagesspiegel” reported. The evacuation of the house had nothing to do with this weapon discovery, said the LKA spokeswoman in Hanover.

Meanwhile, the police continue to search for the two former RAF terrorists Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg who are still wanted. The Verden public prosecutor’s office confirmed this to NDR Lower Saxony on Wednesday. The “Hannover General” [Bezahlinhalt] had previously reported another arrest. Accordingly, a third person was arrested in Berlin in connection with Burdock. According to the newspaper report, this person is not one of the two ex-RAF terrorists who are still wanted. When asked by NDR Lower Saxony, the Verden public prosecutor’s office neither wanted to confirm nor deny the arrest.

There was already a second attack on Tuesday after Klette’s arrest. The man is now free again after an identity check showed that he was not one of Klette’s accomplices.

The Klette, who was arrested on Monday evening in Berlin-Kreuzberg, is in custody for several robberies in Lower Saxony. According to the LKA, she lived in Berlin under a false identity. Photos available to rbb show that Klette apparently marched at the Carnival of Cultures in 2011 as a member of a music club. According to a neighbor, she had the first name Claudia. According to the LKA, during the search the investigators initially found magazines from a weapon and cartridges, but no weapon.

According to an authority spokeswoman, an arrest warrant against Klette that was obtained years ago by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe is still in force. Klette is being investigated for causing an explosive explosion and attempted murder in crimes in the early 1990s.

Specifically, she is accused of having carried out an explosive attack on the Weiterstadt prison, which was under construction, in March 1993 together with the still wanted RAF terrorists Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg. The explosion caused damage to the building amounting to around 123 million German marks.

Klette is also said to have attempted with other RAF members to carry out an explosive attack on a Deutsche Bank building in Eschborn in February 1990. The explosive did not detonate because the ignition failed. In addition, according to investigators’ findings, Klette and RAF members fired at least 250 shots at the US embassy in Bad Godesberg in February 1991.

Broadcast: rbb24 Abendschau, February 28, 2024, 7:30 p.m