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When the suspected RAF terrorist, who had been wanted for decades, was discovered and exposed, she had to go to the toilet for a moment. Two police officers had just rung the doorbell and the identity check in Berlin-Kreuzberg was a complete success. The officers were probably quite surprised themselves: Klette didn’t offer any resistance – but she just had to step out for a moment and then she’d come with us.
The police officers’ alarm bells should have rung. “Just a quick trip to the toilet” is something we know from every crime novel and is probably the oldest crook trick of all. But Burdock was allowed to go to the toilet. What the officers in the hallway outside didn’t know: Klette was writing a text message to Burkhard Garweg, her old RAF terrorist accomplice, behind the closed door. “You have me,” it said. After this clear warning, she flushed her cell phone’s SIM card down the toilet and then followed the officers to the post.
The short text message probably enabled Garweg to escape. He lived in a trailer just a few kilometers from Klette’s apartment in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Like Burdock, he didn’t live entirely in hiding. He went out to buy food and cigarettes and walked dogs. And apparently forged passports at a very high level in his trailer.
Burdock and Garweg were in contact
Garweg and Klette were on the run for almost 30 years. Somehow you obviously feel pretty safe after such a long time – the two sent each other cell phone pictures and chatted. At least the police found the photos on Klette’s phone, which doesn’t require a SIM card. Since then we have known what Garweg looks like today, and the noose is tightening around him too. But he is not composed.
Klette and Garweg were members of the so-called third RAF generation, terrorist descendants of Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof. In the 1970s, the RAF wanted to destroy the West German state, the West German democracy, murdered, robbed and pillaged. The RAF left-wing terrorism burned itself into people’s souls; it was traumatic. Leaden years. And the search for the perpetrators never ended.
Questionable police errors
The arrest of Daniela Klette could have been the key to further arrests, but that was botched. The police also made hair-raising mistakes after Klette’s arrest: only days later did the officers find a Kalashnikov and a bazooka in an unlocked cupboard in Klette’s apartment. The first search apparently wasn’t particularly thorough.
Over a kilo of gold and tens of thousands of euros in cash were also found. The loot from robberies of money transporters and shops with which Klette and Garweg presumably financed their underground life. Garweg will probably still have a few euros in his pocket to finance his escape; it could take longer. He will probably be able to identify himself as a passport forger – it is suspected that he has fled abroad.
What is certain, however, is that when you have him in your sights and an attack is imminent, not only two police officers, but a special task force armed to the teeth will be on site.
And Garweg will definitely not be allowed to go to the toilet again.