On April 1, 1991, Detlev Rohwedder, president of the Treuhandanstalt, was shot in his house by a sniper.
Rohwedder's Treuhandanstalt was particularly hated in the East German working class because it organized the privatization of thousands of East German enterprises, resulting mainly in plant closures and mass layoffs. The Red Army Fraction claimed responsibility for this execution at the scene.
The recently released four-part Netflix documentary "Rohwedder-Union and Murder and Freedom" presents no new facts about the crime. What distinguishes the series is the extensive embedding of the crime in its historical context. Rohwedder is shown as a convinced functionary of capitalism, who was hoisted to this post by FRG imperialism because he had already proven in his earlier management jobs that he would go beyond workers' existences without hesitation for the sake of capital multiplication. Under his leadership, the Treuhand brokered deals at knock-down prices to West German capitalists who acted like colonial masters. There is no shortage of original material from the East German working class either. They speak of the justified anger and desperation over the lack of work and prospects decreed by Treuhand. One can sympathize with the people who in interviews after Rohwedder's murder express gloating joy.
In the last two parts, the series then becomes creative. They present alternative theories of perpetration. In the end, were they veteran Stasi agents or even the FRG state itself? As an indication of this, the documentary takes the complexity of the crime, which exceeds the abilities of the RAF, and in the end contradicts itself. Even in the first episode it was emphasized that the tactical-operational skills of the 3rd RAF generation had reached a remarkable level. In the absence of evidence, no theory seems more credible than the RAF's confessionalism. What is really remarkable, however, is that the experts interviewed, former high-ranking police and secret service officers, consider it possible or even probable that the FRG was the perpetrator. In their opinion, Rohwedder was a pawn sacrifice intended to weaken the East German resistance movement of the new Monday demonstrations. The so-called constitutional state gives a deep insight into this.
