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Witness History

The Gladbeck Hostage Crisis

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.51.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2018

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An intriguing story from West Germany in August 1988, of a bank robbery, a three-day car chase that had the country holding its breath, and a journalist who got a little bit too close to the story. Tim Mansel has been hearing from one of the people at the centre of this crisis, journalist Udo Roebel.

Photo: Holding a weapon in his hand, kidnapper Hans-Jürgen Rösner calls on journalists and spectators to free the way in the city of Cologne, August 1988 (Press Association)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

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Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

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Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

0:21.0

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

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searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds just before this

0:30.3

BBC podcast gets underway here's something you may not know.

0:34.4

My name's Linda Davies and I commission podcast for BBC Sounds.

0:38.3

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely

0:46.0

engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:54.2

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0:57.6

And that's just a few examples.

0:59.4

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected.

1:02.6

Find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

1:05.8

You're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Tim Manzel.

1:12.0

Today we're going back to West Germany in 1988, a bank robbery, a

1:17.0

a three-day car chase that held the whole country spellbound and a journalist who got a little bit too close to the story.

1:25.6

Two West German bank robbers and a female accomplice are still on the run this morning after

1:30.0

they shot dead a 15 year old boy. It's the 18th of August, 1988. The two men have been

1:36.6

on the run for two days after holding up a bank, taking hostages and killing a teenager.

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