The deadly bank robbery

A bank robbery that made history took place on August 4, 1971. On that summer day, 24-year-old Dimitri Todorov from Graz and his 29-year-old accomplice, Hans Georg Rammelmayr from Munich, raided the Deutsche Bank branch on Prinzregentenstraße in Munich’s Bogenhausen district at around 4 p.m. The two bank robbers took 18 customers and employees hostage, choosing young bank teller Ludwig Kelnhofer as their negotiator with the police. He had to relay their demands for a ransom of 2 million marks, a getaway car, and free passage from the police by telephone. They issued the following ultimatum: if their demands were not met by 10 p.m., they would initiate a so-called “retaliatory action of misery.” In this action, one hostage after another would be killed. To give weight to their demands, they claimed to be members of the terrorist organization “Rote Front” (Red Front). The two bank robbers were petty criminals with previous convictions who wanted to make it big with the bank robbery. They were inspired by a bank robbery in Toulouse, where the police had let the hostage-takers get away with their loot. Dimitri Todorov came from a broken home and had dropped out of school as well as two apprenticeships as a toolmaker and a salesman. Hans Georg Rammelmayr was a trained chemigrapher. Both had gone astray and had become friends in prison. With the bank robbery, they wanted to become real gangsters who would use the ransom money to build a new life for themselves. But everything turned out quite differently. The bank robbery with hostage-taking was the first in post-war Germany. Accordingly, there was great uncertainty and instead of the police, Chief Public Prosecutor Erich Sechser took charge of the operation. As television reported live on the bank robbery, up to 5,000 onlookers crowded around the barrier tape. The atmosphere was almost like a folk festival. Opposite the branch, Bavarian Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauß and Interior Secretary Erich Kiesl were able to watch the spectacle from the front row, as they were dining at the Käfer restaurant, which was directly opposite the branch. Since the police did not have any snipers, three police officers who had hunting licenses were chosen for this position and practiced target shooting in a gravel pit near Riem. The police officers with rifles took up their positions in the surrounding apartments in order to incapacitate the hostage-takers with gunfire as they left the branch. At around 10 p.m., the police officers first placed food and drinks in food baskets in front of the bank’s doors. Then, one hour later, at 11 p.m., the bank robbers were handed the ransom and a BMW as a getaway car. After 40 minutes, the young bank teller Ludwig Kelnhofer was sent out of the branch together with 20-year-old Ingrid Reppel. She was one of five remaining hostages who had volunteered for this. Ingrid’s hands were tied and she wore a balaclava over her head. Ludwig put her in the passenger seat and pressed the ransom money into her hand. Then he returned to the branch. Hans Georg Rammelmayr then left the branch wearing a red balaclava and carrying a Russian submachine gun. But instead of the police shooting him immediately, he was able to get into the getaway car undisturbed. Only then did the police open fire. Rammelmayr returned fire. He died in the hail of bullets. But he had fired three shots at Ingrid before he breathed his last. After the wild shootout, in which 50 to 200 shots were fired, the mayor of Munich ran to the getaway car to rescue the young bank employee. She died in the hospital during emergency surgery. She had been hit by a total of five bullets, two of which came from the Munich police. After the firefight, the police stormed the branch. Todorov also fired shots, but fortunately no one was injured or killed. Todorov was overpowered and arrested. On October 13, 1972, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for unlawful detention, robbery, and five counts of attempted murder. In prison, he completed his high school diploma and studied social sciences for several semesters. After 22 years in prison, he was released on parole in 1993 and actually wanted to open a bank account at the bank branch he had robbed. Macabrely, the teller was one of his former hostages. Of course, Todorov did not get a bank account there. In 1998, he was sentenced to prison again for drug offenses. In 2002, he published the book “22 Years in Prison: Autobiography of a Life Sentence.” The bank robbery and hostage-taking not only caused a great stir, but also led to the criminal offense of robbery and hostage-taking being significantly modified in 1971. It also triggered the introduction of the “final rescue shot” in Bavaria. This is a targeted shot fired by police officers to kill the perpetrator when all other means of de-escalation have been exhausted. Since the bank robbery, the lead has no longer been with the public prosecutor’s office, but with the police. In addition, the establishment of a special task force began in 1972.