Gladbeck

- Season 1

(2018)

When 2 criminals decide to rob a bank, a hostage crisis ensues.

The hostage crisis intensifies when the bank robbers decide to hold a bus full of passengers to ransom.

After the bank robbery on August 16, 1988, Hans-Jürgen Rösner and Dieter Degowski are still on the run. They drive unhindered across Germany with their two hostages. A host of journalists is always there live via television and radio - a crime in real time. While the hostages are in mortal danger, the bank robbers are interviewed in front of the cameras, talk to passers-by and go shopping, while the police force and legislation changes again and again depending on the federal state and one access option after the other remains unused.

Even when the hostage-takers take control of an entire bus and shoot a little boy, the hitherto unimaginable media hype and the helplessness of the police persist. The crime kept the republic in suspense for 54 hours. When the police finally intervene, exactly what they wanted to prevent happens: Another hostage and a policeman die. The two kidnappers and their accomplice survive. Events that still have an impact 30 years later.