Police: Heavy military weapons found on ex-RAF terrorist

It was the second shock for her housemates in Berlin-Kreuzberg: first they found out that their friendly neighbor with the gray braid was an RAF terrorist who had been wanted for more than 30 years.

Then the residents of the seven-story apartment building had to leave their apartments on the orders of the police – for their own safety. Because Daniela Klette, who lived underground for more than 30 years, had “heavy weapons of war” discovered, as a spokesman for the Verden public prosecutor’s office said.

War weapons and grenades in residential building

On Wednesday evening, some residents of another house also had to leave their apartments. The road was completely closed. The closure was only lifted early in the morning.

When Klette’s apartment was searched, explosives, several weapons and a rocket-propelled grenade were found, among other things. The Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office (LKA) and the Verden public prosecutor’s office said these included a Kalashnikov, a submachine gun and a handgun with ammunition.

The investigators still have no information about a possible earlier use of the seized Kalashnikov. “This is currently the subject of investigations,” said LKA spokesman Philipp Hasse.

There is “no concrete threat situation” for Berlin. The Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office made this clear. This did not come from either of the items that were initially classified as dangerous. However, it cannot be ruled out that danger could come from the other ex-RAF terrorists Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg, who are still wanted.

Criticism of the authorities

For decades, the left-wing extremist organization Red Army Faction (RAF) was the epitome of terror and murder in the west of still divided Germany. Relatives of the victims criticized the authorities after Klette’s arrest.

“The fact that an RAF terrorist can live in the middle of Berlin undetected and unmolested by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for 20 years is scary to me,” said Jörg Schleyer to “Bild”. Politicians must examine this circumstance and “think about” the consequences. The 70-year-old is the youngest son of employer president Hanns Martin Schleyer, who was murdered by the RAF in 1977.

Journalist discovered Burdock possibly before police

Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) celebrated Klette’s arrest by investigators from the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office (LKA) as a “milestone in German criminal history”. But why couldn’t the left-wing terrorist be tracked down sooner? In December 2023, while searching for Daniela Klette, the podcast “Legion” from the broadcasters NDR and RBB discovered a woman in dance groups in Berlin who looked deceptively similar to her.

For the podcast, Michael Colborne from the research collective “Bellingcat” researched using facial recognition software. The basis was mugshots of the young Burdock. Colborne told dpa that it only took him 30 minutes to determine that the photos on the website of a Berlin capoeira studio most likely showed Daniela Klette.

“The fact that it took someone like me, who doesn’t speak German, such a short time to find a lead that led directly to Daniela Klette makes me wonder how she was able to evade law enforcement for 30 years,” criticized the Canadian Journalist.

The Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office initially did not comment on a possible search using facial recognition software or on the question of whether this would even be legally permissible. The EU General Data Protection Regulation prohibits the processing of biometric data without explicit consent.

More “terrorist murderers” free

Federal police experiments with facial recognition have led to excellent results, said the federal chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG), Rainer Wendt, at the request of the German Press Agency (dpa). However, there is no legal authority to use the technology to search for dangerous perpetrators, terrorists or fugitives. “At the moment the investigators are not allowed to do that, that should change,” demanded the police unionist.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe is responsible for solving the murders of the left-wing terrorist group. Michael Buback, son of Federal Prosecutor General Siegfried Buback, who was killed in 1977, criticized in the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” that the memory of the RAF does not play a special role in collective memory.

“Since only one of the 34 RAF murders has been fully solved, a larger number of terrorist murderers are likely to still be free,” the 79-year-old told the Berlin “Tagesspiegel.” “I can’t give a number because there’s still far too much in the dark.”

Accusations against Burdock

After her arrest, the former RAF terrorist has not yet commented on the allegations. “No, we have no evidence of fact,” said a statement from the Verden public prosecutor’s office and the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office in Hanover.

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, there are still arrest warrants against Klette. She is being investigated for causing an explosive explosion and attempted murder in crimes that occurred in the early 1990s. The 65-year-old is currently in custody for six armed robberies on money transporters and supermarkets in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia between 1999 and 2016.

Specifically, according to the Verden public prosecutor’s office, Burdock, Staub and Garweg are said to be responsible for crimes in Stuhr, Wolfsburg, Hildesheim, Cremlingen, Bochum and Duisburg. The trio is also accused of attempted murder because shots were allegedly fired during robberies.

Garweg, Burdock and Staub belong to the so-called third generation of the RAF. During their active time, the then Deutsche Bank boss Alfred Herrhausen (1989) and Treuhand boss Detlev Karsten Rohwedder (1991) were murdered and Herrhausen’s driver was seriously injured.