image sourceBKA/Interpol
- author, Tim Manze
- position, BBC News Berlin
Daniela was living a quiet life. She would walk her dog and tutor her neighbor’s children in math.
But when he was arrested in late February, police seized millions of euros in cash and five weapons from his apartment. Among these weapons were a Kalashnikov and a rocket launcher.
Daniela is 65 years old and has been on the run for the past 30 years. She was wanted by the police in connection with crimes committed by the ‘Red Army Faction’ (RAF), a left-wing militant group. The group was active in the 1970s and 1990s.
This militant group was initially called the ‘Bader Menhof’ group. This group used to kidnap or kill senior figures in important business and industrial sectors to fulfill their political ambitions. Within a generation no one can forget the crimes committed by this group in Germany.
A podcast team in Berlin tried to locate Daniela using a facial recognition device.
The podcast aired a few days before Christmas, a few weeks before Daniella’s arrest. However, the police deny this and say that they got initial information about it from a citizen.
image sourceGetty Images
Petra Terhoven, an expert on the history of political violence at the University of Göttingen, says: ‘The RAF is imprinted on the minds of the German people, especially those living in West Germany.’
Later this year, German television will air a new four-part drama about Deutsche Bank chairman Alfred Herhausen, who was assassinated shortly after the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989. A sophisticated roadside bomb targeted his car while he was on his way to work.
In 2020, Germany’s first original Netflix series ‘A Perfect Crime’ focused on the murder of Detlio Roveder. He was the head of an organization called Dessalt, which was set up after German reunification to privatize all state-owned industries in the former East Germany.
Detlio was shot dead in 1991 through a window in his home in Düsseldorf. So far, the perpetrators of none of these murders have been arrested.
The Netflix series was produced by the Betz Brothers production company. Talking about his series, its co-director George Shushantala says that he was looking for a project that would get the whole country talking. He says, ‘It was a big job and suited the occasion. This should have started quite a debate.’
‘A Perfect Crime’ mentions the letter found by the RAF at the crime scene claiming responsibility for the murder of Datlio. It also gives rise to scenarios as to who killed them.
Historian Petra Terhoven warns of the dangers of downplaying the RAF’s crimes. According to him, too much attention has been given to the perpetrators while little importance has been given to the victims.
One of the victims who received perhaps the most attention in the documentary is Alfred Harasen. Apart from being a charismatic and influential banker, he was also a friend of then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
A new documentary will also air later this year as a four-part television drama. The writer of this film, Tanja Langer, has made Alfred Harasan a part of the legend.
She says about her novel, ‘When I was writing my novel, it was important for me to pay homage to this person. The novel is based on the relationship between a young woman and an elderly banker. Tanja and Alfred remained close friends till the end.’
Although the RAF accepted responsibility for Alfred’s murder, in Tanja’s opinion the case is not that simple. He researched his novel for years and spent a lot of time in the archives of the former East German secret police, the Stasi.
“My study is that even if the RAF did not commit the murder, there may have been some other people involved,” she says.
It is this uncertainty that is somewhat of a continuing interest. There are still many unsolved murders from the 1980s, and it is possible that Daniela Kulet, who is now in prison, knows something about them.
Not long before his arrest, a podcast company in Berlin, ‘In Done’, started looking for him. He was contacted by a listener who said he had been to a party where a woman claimed to be Daniela Kulet. “It’s a very strange story,” says series creator Patrick Stegman.
‘In Done’ hired an artificial intelligence expert who developed a software to identify Daniela and identified her face from a picture of her on an old advertisement poster released against her.
It was found on the face of a woman named ‘Claudia’ who was living in Berlin. But when these podcasters went looking for them, they were nowhere to be found. Two months later, when Danila Kulet was arrested, it became clear that he had identified the right woman with the software.
Patrick Stegman remembers when he heard the news of the arrest. “There were strange feelings at that time,” he says.
Prosecutors are still gathering evidence against Daniela, but charges have not yet been filed against him. Petra Terhoven is still not sure Daniela will be willing to help in any way in getting to the facts of the old crimes.
“The majority of ex-RAF members don’t talk about the past,” she says.
According to him, ‘It’s like a political sect, it’s a sort of silent ‘group’ and so maybe they’ll stay silent.’
