Celle Hole (german: Celler Loch) was a breach in the outer wall of the

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. First used on July 25, 1978, the name was part of a campaign by one of the

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

secret services ( Landesbehörde für Verfassungsschutz) and the

GSG 9 , formerly (), is the police tactical unit of the German Federal Police ''(Bundespolizei (Germany), Bundespolizei)''. The state police (''Landespolizei'') maintain their own tactical units known as the ''Special Deployment Commando, Spezialein ...

in an attempt to lay blame on the Red Army Faction, West Germany's most active and prominent left-wing terrorist group. However, the incident was revealed in 1986 to be a plot by the government, a

false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...

operation, much to the embarrassment of the government. The Verfassungsschutz used the name 'Operation Fire Magic' (german: Aktion Feuerzauber). The secret services used a stolen Mercedes-Benz SL (R107), driven by two criminals named Klaus-Dieter Loudil and Manfred Berger who were recruited by the secret services. In the car were forged passports, one of them with a photograph of Sigurd Debus. Serial numbers of the passports showed that they were stolen from German authorities. Mr. Debus was an inmate in the Celle prison. He was considered as a Red Army Faction terrorist suspect. Some tools to be used for a prison escape attempt were brought secretly to Debus' prison cell by the secret services. The action should have had taken place one night earlier when twelve secret service officers, one GSG 9 demolition squad officer and Jürgen Wiehe, a civil servant in the Ministry of the Interior of the state of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, waited for the right moment to detonate the bomb on July 24. But they had to interrupt the action since two lovers coming from the nearby funfair entered the danger area. So the action was deferred. On July 25, 1978, at 2.54 a.m., the bomb was detonated at the outer prison wall, but caused minor damage. No inmate was able to escape. The Mercedes was later caught in Salzgitter (80 km away) in a police roadblock, with the driver having already escaped. The false passports and some ammunition were found in the car. In Celle, a 1.5 square meter hole, named the Celle Hole (Celler Loch), was left in the outer prison wall. A handgun, model Walther PPK 7.65, which was the official pistol of one of the secret service officers, as well as a rubber dinghy, were found. The Celle prison is situated close to the bank of the river

Aller Aller may refer to: Places Rivers * Aller (Germany), a major river in North Germany *Aller (Asturian river), a river in Asturias, Spain *River Aller, a small river on Exmoor in Somerset, England Inhabited places in the United Kingdom *Aller, Devo ...

. After the detonation, Debus' conditions of detention were aggravated "for security reasons". The secret service had planted escape tools into Debus' cell, which were found in the search after the attack, and was supposed to prove Debus' participation. Hence, the detainee started a hunger strike as a protest against this. Sigurd Debus died on April 16, 1981 shortly before the date of his discharge from prison.

References

*Christa Ellersiek, Wolfgang Becker: ''Das Celler Loch. Die Hintergründe der Aktion Feuerzauber.'' Verlag am Galgenberg, Hamburg 1987, {{ISBN, 3-925387-30-7 *http://www.taz.de/index.php?id=archivseite&dig=2007/05/09/a0046 *https://web.archive.org/web/20090430095753/http://www.zeit.de/1987/25/Feuerzauber-mit-dunklen-Figuren 1978 in West Germany 20th century in Lower Saxony False flag operations Intelligence operations Diversionary tactics Propaganda techniques Psychological warfare techniques Law of war Deception