“We carried out these robberies as our work and our source of income.”
In a courtroom in northern Germany, the past and the present seemed to sit in the same air, heavy and unsettled.
Daniela Klette, once one of Germany’s most wanted fugitives, has now been sentenced to 13 years in prison for a series of armed robberies carried out over many years while she lived underground.
She is 67. And for more than three decades, she managed to stay hidden under false identities, moving through cities while authorities searched without success.
The court in Verden found that she worked with two accomplices, Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, in a string of robberies targeting cash transport vehicles and supermarkets between 1999 and 2016. Prosecutors said the group stole more than two million euros during that time.
Inside the courtroom, there was tension even before the sentence was read out. Security was tight. Supporters were present. At moments, the atmosphere broke into noise as emotions spilled over.
“Free Daniela,” some voices shouted from the public gallery during the proceedings.
Klette did not appear as someone surprised by the outcome. Throughout the trial, she had remained defiant, with her political past never far from the surface of the case.
Her name is still tied to the Red Army Faction, the far left militant group that emerged in Germany decades ago and became known for kidnappings, bombings, and attacks on state and business targets during the 1970s and 1980s.
But the case before the court was not about those earlier years. It focused on the later period, after the group had effectively dissolved, when prosecutors said Klette and her alleged partners turned to robbery to fund life on the run.
Investigators described a pattern that lasted years. Cash vans were followed. Supermarkets were hit. Identities were carefully hidden. And the money, according to prosecutors, kept them moving between apartments and cities without being caught.
“They carried out their robberies in a highly coordinated way,” a presiding judge said during the proceedings.
Klette’s arrest only came in 2024, after more than 30 years in hiding. She was found in Berlin living under an assumed name, something that stunned investigators who had been searching for her for years.
At the time of her arrest, police reportedly found weapons, cash, and false identity documents in her apartment, adding weight to the prosecution’s argument that she had been living a carefully constructed double life.
The verdict in Verden does not close all chapters of her legal troubles. Separate accusations linked to older alleged militant activity are still part of ongoing proceedings, meaning the story around her past is not fully settled.
Outside the courtroom, reactions were divided. Some saw the ruling as long overdue accountability. Others treated her more like a symbol of an unfinished political era in Germany, where the legacy of the RAF still triggers strong emotions on both sides.
What stood out in court was not only the sentence, but the contrast in tone. A life that moved through underground years, hidden identities, and political violence eventually ending in a very ordinary legal conclusion, a number on paper, 13 years.
“She lived in plain sight for years without being found,” one report noted during coverage of the trial.
For now, she goes back into custody, while authorities continue to look for her alleged accomplices, who remain on the run.
And even with the sentence delivered, parts of the story still feel unresolved, as if the final word has not fully been written yet.
