Klaus Steinmetz

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Klaus Steinmetz (born February 3, 1959 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ) is a former undercover agent of the state authority for the protection of the constitution in Rhineland-Palatinate .

Life

Steinmetz grew up in Landstuhl . During his studies in Kaiserslautern, he worked in a left-wing alternative group and was an AStA consultant. In 1985 he was recruited as an undercover agent for the Rhineland-Palatinate constitutional protection authority and provided them with information about the autonomous and anti-imperialist scene. In 1989 Steinmetz broke into a car dealership in Ingelheim am Rhein with an accomplice , but was arrested at the scene. The Bingen District Court sentenced him to an eighteen-month prison term without parole . This first judgment was overturned by the Mainz District Court and Steinmetz was instead sentenced to a sentence of twelve months on probation.

In 1991 Steinmetz was so deeply involved in the left-wing radical scene that he came into contact with the immediate environment of the left-wing extremist terror group Red Army Faction (RAF). He received an invitation to Paris through a friend , where he met Birgit Hogefeld on February 26, 1992 . At the time of contact, however, Hogefeld did not yet give her name, so that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution knew that Steinmetz was connected to the RAF, but could not assign the person's identity for the time being. This contact made it possible for the law enforcement authorities to introduce an undercover agent to the RAF's command level for the first time .

Steinmetz met Hogefeld again in Boppard and from April 14th to 17th, 1993 in Cochem . He met a male person whom he could identify as Wolfgang Grams . Shortly afterwards there was a meeting in Bad Kleinen , this time the Federal Criminal Police Office and GSG-9 officials were on site. In the course of this GSG-9 deployment , Birgit Hogefeld was arrested; RAF member Wolfgang Grams, who also arrived at Bad Kleinen train station around 2 p.m. on June 27, 1993, shot and killed the GSG-9 officer Michael Newrzella. Grams was hit five times in the exchange of fire, fell on the tracks and shot himself with a head shot in the temple. The circumstances of his death were initially doubted due to inconsistencies and various testimonies and incorrect behavior of the investigative authorities, but then confirmed by several court judgments. He was brought by helicopter to the emergency room of the Medical University of Lübeck, where he died of his injuries at 5:30 p.m. Steinmetz was temporarily arrested, but then released and handed over to his undercover agent from Mainz. At first nothing was known about the role of Steinmetz; in the mass media he was suspected as another member of the RAF who could be arrested in Bad Kleinen. Due to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Wolfgang Grams, however, his identity could no longer be withheld from the public. With this, the intention of the constitution protection to continue using him as an undercover agent failed.

After the V-Mann activity became known, Autonome from Wiesbaden published an "alternative profile " against Steinmetz and distributed it across Europe. The former undercover agent then went into hiding.

Steinmetz himself sought a public dialogue with his former friends from the autonomous scene and presented his role as a "mediation attempt" between the state and left-wing extremist groups. He claimed that he had not been informed of a planned arrest or the use of the police and GSG-9 to be. Following the events in Bad Kleinen, other people from the RAF environment were arrested. Steinmetz appeared in the following years as a witness for the prosecution in court proceedings against alleged sympathizers of the RAF.

Since August 1993 he has been part of the witness protection program of the Rhineland-Palatinate Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

literature

Web links

  • Answer of the federal government to the small question of the MPs Manfred Such, Volker Beck (Cologne) and the parliamentary group BÜNDNIS 90 / DIE GRÜNEN. German Bundestag, printed matter 13/4812 ( PDF , on the question "V-Mann Klaus Steinmetz, explosives attack in Weiterstadt and the protection of the constitution").
  • Research group Infoladen Wiesbaden: Statement from Wiesbaden on the first three weeks after Bad Kleinen and on the informant Klaus Steinmetz. In: SocialHistoryPortal.org (PDF) .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Butz Peters : Deadly Error - The History of the RAF . ISBN 3-87024-673-1 , pages 686-688 (short vita).
  2. ↑ Grape harvest campaign. In: Die Zeit , August 20, 1993.
  3. ^ Heribert Prantl : RAF disaster in Bad Kleinen: Shocking use. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 27, 2013, p. 2.
personal data
SURNAME Steinmetz, Klaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German intelligence agent, undercover agent of the state authority for the protection of the constitution in Rhineland-Palatinate
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd February 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigshafen am Rhein