Katharina Bennefeld-Kersten

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Katharina Bennefeld-Kersten (* 1947 ) is a German psychologist and author . She became known when, as the director of the Celle prison , she offered herself up as a hostage in exchange for a social worker on February 26, 1996 when she was being held hostage in her prison.

Professional development

Katharina Bennefeld-Kersten studied psychology and wrote her diploma thesis on causes of suicides, a. a. of prisoners. She also held talks with prisoners. Later it was for the management of the prison Celle-Saline Moor, a men's prison with more than 200 criminals and preventive detention suggested. After the hostage-taking, she then headed the prison for two years. The then Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Gerhard Schröder (SPD), awarded her the Cross of Merit on Ribbon for her courage in 1996 . At the end of September 1997, Katharina Bennefeld-Kersten temporarily lost her post because a state auditor accused her of not having control over the use of staff and the organization of the prison. In October 1997 the allegations were rejected as unfounded by a commission of inquiry and Bennefeld-Kersten was reinstated.

From 2002 to 2012 she headed the criminological service of the educational institute of the Lower Saxony penal system.

In October 2016, Bennefeld-Kersten was appointed by the Saxon state government to the expert commission "Police investigative work and penal execution in terrorist suicide bombers in the Albakr case" under the direction of the former Federal Constitutional Judge Herbert Landau . This was used to clarify the entire process from identification to the failed access to the suicide of terror suspect Jaber Albakr on October 12 in a cell in the prison in Leipzig . After three months of work, numerous site visits and almost 100 hearings from people from very different federal and state authorities, the four-member commission presented its highly acclaimed final report to Prime Minister Stanislaw Tillich on January 24, 2017 in Dresden and explained the results and recommendations to the public. In her report she complains about a “culture of incompetence” and criticizes numerous wrong decisions and rule violations by authorities at federal and state level.

To this day, she is committed to suicide prevention in prisons.

hostage taking

On February 26, 1996, an inmate incarcerated for murder and rape handcuffed, gagged and raped his 48-year-old social worker during a consultation in the Salinenmoor department. The perpetrator, armed with a knife and scissors, threatened to kill the woman afterwards. The then 48-year-old Katharina Bennefeld-Kersten called him and offered herself as a substitute hostage. She was able to convince the perpetrator to release the employee. The inmate gagged and raped Bennefeld-Kersten in the same way before demanding an escape car and ransom. It was only after four and a half hours that Bennefeld-Kersten was able to persuade the perpetrator to give up.

The hostage-taker was then sentenced to a further 15 years in prison and indefinite preventive detention for the attack and the two rapes. He was transferred to another prison.

In 2014, she said, "The hostage-taking and rape are part of my life, but they are not important."

literature

  • Katharina Bennefeld-Kersten: The hostage. Kabel-Verlag, 1998
  • Katharina Bennefeld-Kersten: Eliminated by suicide - suicides in prison: numbers, facts, interpretations in paperback. 2009
  • Katharina Bennefeld-Kersten and Johannes Lohner: Free death? Suicide? Suicide balance ?: When prisoners take their own lives. 2015

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.weser-kurier.de/startseite_artikel,-Ex-Richter-leitet-Kommission-_arid,1482217.html
  2. ↑ Stefan Locke: "An abundance of wrong decisions". In: FAZ.net . January 24, 2017, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  3. ↑ http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/expertenkommission-zum-fall-albakr-schlussbericht-offenbart-pannen-bei-fahndung/19300046.html
  4. ↑ Sabine Rückert : "I felt strong" . In a prison, a sex offender takes a social worker hostage. The head of the prison can be exchanged - and is raped. The story of a victim who retains power.
personal data
SURNAME Bennefeld-Kersten, Katharina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychologist and author
DATE OF BIRTH 1947