Detlev Karsten Rohwedder (16 October 1932 – 1 April 1991) was a German manager and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

, as member of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

. He was named president of the

Treuhandanstalt The ("Trust agency"), colloquially referred to as , was an agency established by the government of the German Democratic Republic to reprivatise/privatise East German enterprises, Volkseigene Betriebe (VEBs), prior to German reunification. Cre ...

, responsible for the privatisation of state-owned property in the former

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(GDR), in September 1990, and served until his assassination in April 1991. He had also served as CEO of steel manufacturer

Hoesch AG Hoesch AG was an important steel and mining company with locations in the Ruhr area and Siegen. In 1871, Hoesch was founded by Leopold Hoesch. In 1938, Hoesch employed 30,000 people. In 1972, the prominent steel producer merged with the Dutch ...

since 1980.

Murder

On Monday, April 1, 1991, at 23:30, Rohwedder was shot and killed through a window on the second floor of his house in the suburb of

Düsseldorf-Niederkassel Niederkassel is a quarter of the city of Düsseldorf, part of Borough 4. It is located on the west side of the river Rhine, bordering Oberkassel and Lörick. It has an area of , and 6,079 inhabitants (2020). It was connected to Düsseldorf when ...

(Kaiser-Friedrich-Ring 71) by the first of three rifle shots. The second shot wounded his wife Hergard; the third hit a bookcase. The shots were fired from 63 m away from a rifle chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO. It was also the same rifle that was used during a sniper attack on the American embassy in February committed by the

Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...

, a

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 ...

far-left terrorist group. An inspection of the scene found three cartridge cases, a plastic chair, a towel, and a letter claiming responsibility from an RAF unit named after

Ulrich Wessel The Red Army Faction (RAF) existed in West Germany from 1970 to 1998, committing numerous crimes, especially in the autumn of 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as the "German Autumn". The RAF was founded in 1970 by Andreas ...

, a minor RAF figure who had died in 1975. The shooter has never been identified. In 2001, a DNA analysis found that hair strands from the crime scene belonged to RAF member

Wolfgang Grams Wolfgang Grams (March 6, 1953 – June 27, 1993) was a member of the Red Army Faction (RAF), a German far-left terrorist organisation. Life Wolfgang Grams was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. His parents, Werner and Ruth Grams, were expelled f ...

. The

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

did not consider this evidence sufficient to name Grams as a suspect of the killing. Grams was killed in a shootout with police in Bad Kleinen in 1993. On April 10, 1991, Rohwedder was honoured in Berlin with a day of mourning by German President

Richard von Weizsäcker Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician ( CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobilit ...

, Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia,

Johannes Rau Johannes Rau (; 16 January 193127 January 2006) was a German politician (SPD). He was the president of Germany from 1 July 1999 until 30 June 2004 and the minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia from 20 September 1978 to 9 June 1998. In the ...

, and Chairman of the Board of

Jens Odewald. The

Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus The Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus (Detlev Rohwedder House) is a building in Berlin that, at the time of its construction, was the largest office building in Europe. It was constructed between February 1935 and August 1936 to house the German Ministry of ...

, the seat of the Federal Finance Ministry, is named in his honour.

Films

In 2020, '' A Perfect Crime'', a documentary about the Rohwedder assassination, was released by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rohwedder, Detlev Karsten 1932 births 1991 deaths 1991 murders in Germany Assassinated German people Deaths by firearm in Germany People from Gotha (town) People murdered in Germany Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany University of Hamburg alumni Unsolved murders in Germany Victims of the Red Army Faction

Murder

Films

See also

References

External links