“A Perfect Crime” for an Imperfect World
By: Jeff Ehren
Tags: Netflix, Germany, Politics, Documentary, Nazis

“A Perfect Crime” for an Imperfect World

The German Netflix docuseries covers the assassination of Detlev Rohwedder, the head of Treuhandanstalt (also known as Treuhand), an East German Privatization and Restructuring Agency. Rohwedder was killed in 1991 when three bullets fired from a long-range rifle were shot into his home.

Why the murder was important

When it was decided to reunite East and West Germany, a process had to be put into place. The overly simplistic view is to state that it came down to Socialism versus Capitalism. The two economies didn’t match, and the East German companies needed to be absorbed into West Germany. Therefore, the Treuhand was created in 1990 to take control of East German companies that were state-owned and determine their fate.

Detlev Rohwedder was appointed to head the agency. The path to privatizing the East German companies immediately led to layoffs and the closing of companies. Unemployment skyrocketed and the future for many in East Germany became unclear.

Rohwedder was the face of this transition. He was put in front of the politicians to take the blame for everything. He became a hated man by many. Eventually the workers took to the streets and protested.

But once Rohwedder was killed, the protests stopped. The people went home. The former East German companies were sold. The documentary states that 94% of the companies were taken over by West German and international investors whereas 6% remained with the people of East Germany.

Who truly benefitted from Rohwedder’s death?

The suspects

The RAF

The Red Army Faction (RAF) was a terrorist organization that went through several incarnations, or generations. During the reunification, the RAF was in its third generation.

Lutz Taufer, who spent 20 years in prison, was a member of the RAF:

“RAF, of course, was communist, socialist, leftist in some form. We hoped to fight the global system which gave rise to both fascism and colonialism. We wanted to fight, overcome, smash this system, so that a different system, a more humane society could take its place. I was part of the first post-war generation in a country that started two world wars. I grew up in a culture in which fascism was not yet unpopular.”

Silke Maier-Witt was also a member of the RAF:

“When I was 16, 17-years-old, I became aware that six million Jews had been killed during World War II. Today I know that my dad was an SS member. His only reaction was, ‘Who told you this nonsense?’ This is where I got my motivation to escape such narrow-mindedness. Around the same time, the Vietnam War was going on.”

They took to the streets to protest. But they were met with contempt by some German citizens. Though there is no doubt that the RAF committed violent crimes, the documentary brings into doubt whether they even existed during the Rohwedder assassination. Taufer and Maier-Witt each think that it doesn’t necessarily make sense for the RAF to commit such an act.

Along with this opinion, the level of expertise for certain crimes, including the Rohwedder assassination, can lead one to believe that person(s) with professional training committed them. This is one reason the Stasi have been suspected. And with this theory, it is possible the RAF had been framed.

For the Rohwedder case, there was an RAF statement left at the scene as well as a hair belonging to RAF member Wolfgang Grams. However, he died in a shootout during his attempted arrest — though it was under suspicious circumstances.

The Stasi

There was a hated and feared group of professionally trained secret police in East Germany called the Stasi. The documentary conveys there were reports that the Stasi had hidden money — something Rohwedder would have found.

To support the Stasi theory, these men were trained, obedient, and they were about to lose their jobs. One could have been a colonel in the Stasi one day and then be a “regular” worker the next.

Lieutenant Colonel Eberhard Böttcher of the Stasi said he joined to prevent another world war. But he didn’t see the end of the GDR coming:

“The GDR had to perish in the face of West Germany, because it had lost all its allies. That’s the truth! Because of Gorbachev’s betrayal, our country perished. My world came crashing down. I was depressed, sad. And my job was gone. We had to go.”

The members of the Stasi had to find new jobs. Because they were so hated, the media would find them at their new jobs and ask if they were once Stasi members. There was even talk of labeling them as a criminal organization.

Rohwedder openly said that he didn’t want any former Stasi working at Treuhand. It is possible that former Stasi members carried out the assassination. But as a singular act of revenge, it doesn’t fit the narrative of the Stasi. However, a former Stasi member could have been hired to do the job.

The West

The groups of people who seem to have the most to gain from Rohwedder’s assassination were capitalists and the politicians who supported them.

Kurt Hillman of the GDR Ministry for Foreign Trade:

“I don’t know what to call them…those who exploit things wherever they find something to exploit. They invaded our little country like locusts and…I would like to say, they not only added to the chaos, they also aggravated the personal misery of the people.” … “The GDR was an anti-fascist state, and that made it a better Germany. You have to remember that any Nazi who was keen to get away, who did not want to be caught and tried by the Russians, made their way to the Western Zones. This led to the Western Zones being crowded with Nazis of all descriptions. The same people who wanted to kill me too, just a few years earlier, because I am Jewish.”

My opinion

If we ask who benefitted from the murder, then the answer is undoubtedly “the West.”

It is unfortunate that there are so many “bad guys” to point the finger at, but it is easier than facing historical facts. The fact is that Operation Paperclip was a sanctioned move and it allowed Nazis to come to the United States. Along with this official move, there were many Nazis and Nazi sympathizers who fled to the West. Though they may not have been welcomed publicly, there were Nazi rallies held in the United States shortly before the country entered the war effort.

For nearly half of a century, fascist and fascist-leaning people were members of capitalistic societies in the West. As the Cold War came to an end, there was an opportunity for Germany to become reunified and capitalist.

The protests by the workers in East Germany were a nuisance to the West. But unlike tactics used in the United States, using brute force on the streets didn’t work in East Germany. Luckily for the West, there was one person who was so hated by the protesters that his death squashed the efforts to resist.

If we can look past the one face that is put in front of the camera, we can recognize that there are forces at work behind the scenes. If we could look past the shouting face on screen, we could realize that there are tens of millions of people (or more) who fuel the fires of hatred.

Given this, is it really any surprise the United States elected who it did after its first black president? Is it any surprise that tens of millions of US citizens voted for him again? Is it any surprise that Nazis took to the streets in the United States in recent years? Is it any surprise that anti-fascists are being labeled a terrorist group?

If you are surprised, then the murder of Detlev Rohwedder was indeed a perfect crime.