Holger E., detective of Kurtz Detective Agency Dortmund, met in June 2019 with Tobias Rathjen, the alleged Hanau attacker. In conversation with Radio 91.2 – Mein Dortmund!, the private detective describes the path leading to the meeting with Tobias Rathjen and, of course, the approximately two-and-a-half-hour encounter itself at the Dortmund restaurant Dieckmanns.

 

A short audio excerpt of the interview is available here. Below is a transcript of the entire segment:

Detective: “Never Aggressive”

Radio 91.2: “The Hanau attacker, Tobias Rathjen, wrote down his worldview in a ‘manifesto’. He felt persecuted by an intelligence service and believed that certain peoples should be completely annihilated. The story about an intelligence service supposedly eavesdropping on him had apparently been told by him to several people long before the crime. Allegedly also to the police, who were unable to make anything of it. And to private investigators – including detective Holger E. of Kurtz Detective Agency from Wuppertal. He met with him, says Holger E. This took place on 7 October in Dortmund at Dieckmanns on Wittbräucker Straße. Holger E. recalls:”

 

Detective “Holger E.”: “He was of the opinion that there was a superior authority that had been eavesdropping on him since childhood and was also exploiting his thoughts.”

 

Radio 91.2: “Holger E. has told us about his meeting with Tobias Rathjen. Why the detective did not subsequently go to the police, and much more, he now tries to explain to us – right here with me.”

Tobias Rathjen: Delusions Since Early Childhood?

Radio 91.2: “The Hanau attacker, Tobias Rathjen, apparently had contact last autumn with a private detective from Dortmund. Rathjen felt persecuted and believed he was being bugged by a superior organisation. He told this on 7 October to a private detective from the Kurtz firm in Wuppertal. And indeed here in Dortmund, in the fireplace room of Dieckmanns on Wittbräucker Straße. Private investigator ‘Holger E.’ remembers how Tobias Rathjen read from his ‘manifesto’.”

 

Detective “Holger E.”: “What had happened in his life. Among other things, it was already there that at a very young age he had noticed he was being monitored, that someone had entered his brain and was extracting things from it. And that this had continued over the years. When I asked him why he believed he was so important that someone would monitor him from the age of five, he said: ‘My thoughts later shaped world politics. Trump only came to power because of my line of thinking.’”

 

Radio 91.2: “Tobias Rathjen wanted to engage the private investigator to clarify who exactly was eavesdropping on him and embedding themselves in his mind. From these descriptions, it was immediately clear to the private investigator: the man was ill.”

 

Detective “Holger E.”: “When he started saying that at one, two or three years old he already had the feeling that someone was tampering with his brain … But in my profession, I deal with such people very frequently. All sorts of people come to us – young and old – who have problems, who believe they are being persecuted, who say: my neighbour is irradiating me with microwaves. Or: something drips from the ceiling above me; when a drop hits me, I get burns on my body. From a professional point of view, it was interesting for me simply to hear: how far has this man progressed in his schizophrenic thinking?”

Why Did the Authorities Not Examine Tobias Rathjen?

Radio 91.2: “According to his own statement, the private investigator declined the assignment. But he did not report the apparently psychologically ill Tobias Rathjen to the police either.”

 

Detective “Holger E.”: “No, I detected no aggression or violent tendencies in him. He never made racist remarks. I believe that Mr Rathjen, the attacker, had himself sufficiently under control to conduct completely normal conversations without revealing his, let us say, second self – namely that he was being monitored and that he carried these delusions, this persecution complex, within him.”

 

Radio 91.2: “And in the end, ten people and the attacker himself had to die. The question remains: could this not have been prevented? Especially since Tobias Rathjen had allegedly gone to the police repeatedly for years to report his persecution delusions. In November, he filed a complaint with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office – nothing happened, although the man possessed a firearms licence and corresponding pistols. The private detective from the Kurtz firm allegedly did not know this. But the authorities should have reacted, he says:”

 

Detective “Holger E.”: “He also went to the police after my conversation with him, not long afterwards, and reported it himself. In my view, a mistake was made there. Someone should have taken a proper look, should have run him through the system and would then have had to realise: the man is a weapons holder. He has schizophrenia and owns weapons? Today I see that as a mistake by the authorities.”

 

Radio 91.2: “The case of the Hanau attacker, Tobias Rathjen – a psychologically ill racist suffering from delusions of persecution with a firearms licence. Ten people and he himself are dead. According to its own statement, Kurtz Detective Agency offered the police full support at the end of last week.”

Our condolences go to the victims and their families.

Kurtz Detective Agency Dortmund

Meißener Straße 62

44139 Dortmund

Tel.: +49 231 8401 0065

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-dortmund.de

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