Alfred Herrhausen (30 January 1930 in
Essen – 30 November 1989 in
Bad Homburg vor der Höhe
Bad Homburg vor der Höhe () is the district town of the Hochtaunuskreis, Hesse, on the southern slope of the Taunus mountains. Bad Homburg is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. The town's official name is ''Bad Homburg v.d.Höhe'', w ...
) was a German
banker
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Becaus ...
and the Chairman of
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...
, who was assassinated in 1989.
[ He was a member of the Steering Committee of the ]Bilderberg Group
The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defi ...
and from 1971 onwards a member of Deutsche Bank's management board. An advisor to Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...
and a proponent of a unified European economy, he was also an influential figure in shaping the policies towards developing nations.[Protzman, Ferdinand]
"Head of Top West German Bank Is Killed in Bombing by Terrorists"
''The New York Times'', 1 December 1989. Accessed 5 January 2016. He was assassinated, probably by 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 ...
far-left terrorist group 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 ...
, when an explosively formed projectile
An explosively formed penetrator (EFP), also known as an explosively formed projectile (EFP), a self-forging warhead, or a self-forging fragment, is the product of a shaped charge designed to penetrate armor effectively. As the name suggests, the ...
penetrated his armoured convoy.
Assassination
Herrhausen was killed by a sophisticated roadside bomb shortly after leaving his home in Bad Homburg on 30 November 1989. He was being chauffeured to work in his armoured Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
, with bodyguards in both a lead vehicle and another following behind. The 7 kg bomb was hidden in a bag on a bicycle parked next to the road that the assassins knew Herrhausen would be traveling in his convoy. The bicycle had been consistently parked ''sans'' explosive in the same location along Herrhausen's route for an extended period of time before the assassination, and it was therefore ignored by Herrhausen's security. The bomb was detonated when Herrhausen's car interrupted a beam of infrared light as it passed the bicycle. The bomb targeted the most vulnerable area of Herrhausen's car – the door where he was sitting – and required split-second timing to overcome the car's special armour plating
Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fight ...
. The bomb utilized a Misznay–Schardin mechanism. A copper plate, placed between the explosive and the target, was deformed and projected by the force of the explosion. The detonation resulted in a mass of copper being projected toward the car at a speed of nearly two kilometers per second, efficiently penetrating the armoured Mercedes. Herrhausen's legs were severed and he bled to death.
Members of the Red Army Faction claimed that Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
was their handler in Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
.
Aftermath
No one has ever been charged with the murder. For a long time, the German federal prosecutor's office listed Andrea Klump and Christoph Seidler of 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 ...
as the only suspects. The Federal Criminal Police Office (Germany)
The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (in German: ', abbreviated ') is the federal investigative police agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. It is headquartered in Wiesbaden, Hesse, and ma ...
presented a chief witness, Siegfried Nonne, who later retracted his statements in which he claimed to have sheltered four terrorists in his home. His half-brother Hugo Föller furthermore declared that no other persons had been at the flat at the time. On 1 July 1992 German television broadcast Nonne's explanations of how he was coached and threatened by the Verfassungsschutz
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (german: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungss ...
, the German internal intelligence agency, to become the main witness. In the same year, the Alfred Herrhausen Society was established to honour his memory. In 2004 the federal prosecutor dropped the charges against the Red Army Faction; the investigation was to continue without naming a suspect. Certain German and US media connected the assassination of Alfred Herrhausen to the Staatssicherheitsdienst ( Stasi) of the GDR.
In 2008, journalist Carolin Emcke published ''Stumme Gewalt'' (''Mute Force''), a memorial to Herrhausen, her godfather, encouraging dialogues between groups in societies, dialogues without violence, revenge and disrespect. She received the Theodor Wolff Prize
The Theodor Wolff Prize is a German journalism prize. It has been awarded annually since 1962 in five categories, equal prizes of €6,000, by the . In addition, at irregular intervals, journalists are awarded the Theodor Wolff Prize for their life ...
for the text.
In popular culture
*The 2001 German documentary film '' Black Box BRD'' retells the lives and deaths of Herrhausen and 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 ...
, a RAF member who was a major suspect in the attack on Herrhausen.[Thomas Moser: ]
Andreas Veiel: Black Box BRD. Alfred Herrhausen, die Deutsche Bank, die RAF und Wolfgang Grams.
' Deutschlandfunk, 23 December 2002
*The assassination is depicted in '' Deutschland 89'' episode 4.
See also
*List of unsolved murders
These lists of unsolved murders include notable cases where victims were murdered in unknown circumstances.
* List of unsolved murders (before 1900)
* List of unsolved murders (1900–1979)
* List of unsolved murders (1980–1999)
* List of u ...
References
External links
Gravesite
at Waldfriedhof Bad Homburg, Germany. ''"We must say what we think. We must do what we say. We must also be what we do."''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrhausen, Alfred
1930 births
1989 deaths
Assassinated German people
Businesspeople from Essen
Deaths by improvised explosive device
Deutsche Bank people
German bankers
German chairpersons of corporations
German corporate directors
German murder victims
Male murder victims
Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group
Unsolved murders in Germany
Victims of the Red Army Faction