User reviews

This is without a doubt one of the most painfully disturbing documentaries I've ever seen and believe me when I say I've watched a lot over the years.

The filmmakers have done a stellar job of pulling all the key events together, and making a 1hr 30min movie from what must of been over 50+ hours of footage.

If you've ever had an axe to grind with how morally bankrupt the news media is and how inept the police can be this drama is only going to solidify your position further.

I came away from this film in pain for the innocent people involved and pretty wrung out from the intensity of the situation. It has stayed with me and I've thought on it long and hard. One can only imagine how the key news men and women and police must have felt afterwards. I'm surprised if they could ever look themselves in the mirror again without feeling pangs of guilt.

The poor victims of such pointless rage makes the heart bleed. My only gripe is that you don't feel anyone was really taken to task over their poor handling of a very traumatic situation. I think I'll need to do some extra reading to find out what happened to key figures after the dust settled.

This is well worth a watch but beware of the gruelling intensity and the days of analysing you'll undoubtedly feel after viewing!!

Honestly, the police in this situation were terrible! This should be shown to every police force in the world on how not to manage a hostage situation. Unbelievable!

This is a bizarre and enthralling watch. I recommend it. But what it confirmed to me is how the media are parasitic scum and only getting worse. Yes it is their job to report on something like this, but not get involved in it and not place themselves right in the middle of it hindering any attempt the police would have of controlling the situation. Disgraceful, and we've seemed to have learnt very little as the media are still doing this crap to this day. Becoming the story not just reporting on it. Journalism is dead. Has been for a while now.

Actually I wouldn't say there was a syndrome. It was just the first thing that came to my mind (it does sound catchy and yes the pun with Stockholm is obviously intended). It did have repercussions though. The way it was handled and what was allowed to be done since then.

Because it was quite crazy. Now there were no cell phones back then, when this happened, but rich people had car phones. But let's not get too ahead - I just said this to give you an insight what time it was and what was possible technically speaking.

This documentary tells you right from the start that it is edited from the raw material that was shot back then. Mostly video footage but also some photographs too. So you will also get original audio from back then - no commentary or anything to explain or give you an opinion on what is happening.

Of course you can argue the way it is edited is already a commentary itself. Still the happenings speak for themselves. And they tell a bizarre story to say the least. The way the police and the press handled the whole hostage/kidnap situation was ... bad to say the least. Add to that a lot of individuals who were just there to gawk ... to get excited about a horrible situation. It is by the way beyond parody to hear some of those gawkers speak to reporters (who are mostly not better as I already said): they seem unable to see the ignorance when they say no one should be there. One even admits he shouldn't be there either ... gawking and just adding pressure to a situation that was ready to explode any moment anyway. But of course he was still there ... and stayed there.

There seems to be limited series about this too. I may watch this if I get the chance too. But for now, this was more than enough madness - there is only so much a human can take - no pun intended.

The doc show a terrible hostage situation, with media out for blood and just terrible police incompetence.

What's even more sad is that it's not better today. Just look at the police in Uvalde, Texas, that stood in the corridor waiting for an hour while kids were slaughtered.

I went to school in Bremen before departing for the United States later that year; this happened shortly after summer break. The Italian boy who was shot at the service area was a year younger and from a different district, but many people in my class were badly shaken. Some pupils came up with the idea of a vigil, a novelty at the time, and only then the school realized they had to discuss what happened. We asked the teachers why the police apprehended the criminal's girlfriend without thinking how they might react, and of course they had no answer.

Of course, the media's behavior was the most shocking aspect. Peter Meyer, the AP photographer who asked Rösner for an interview and offered the hostage takers to use his phone, is shown here criticizing the police for not addressing the criminals' demands. Udo Röbel, who guided the criminals out of Cologne later became chief editor of Bild, Germany's largest daily. And Frank Plasberg (not shown), who conducted an interview which was not aired, became one of Germany's main talk show hosts.

Given that dozens of journalists surrounded the criminals in Bremen and Cologne, they had many opportunities to overwhelm or disarm them, but chose to click away instead. And to be fair to the police, what could they do in a situation when the journalists were acting like a human shield? There was an ethics inquest, as a result of which interviews in a live hostage situation were forbidden, but no one expressed remorse at the time. Bremen's Senator of the Interior (responsible for the police) resigned, that was it. In the film, one journalist asks Degowski (who had not slept for three days) to press his gun against Silke Bischoff's neck, the striking 18yo who died during the botched rescue attempt. There were no criminal charges, and the resulting photo is still being used.

So yes, this is painful to watch and a testament to the degradation of news media, which was only beginning. However, the lack of commentary comes across as cheap. Why did they not ask the journalists for comment given how well-known they became through this event?

This was a very compelling and intense watch!

Mainly because this documentary was made with only authentic news fragments, press footage and police communication without any narration.

The disgusting behavior of the press and the public and the amateurish way the police handled this situation made my blood boil.

Those interactions with the hostage takers and hostages were so bizarre to see... You learn to know the hostages, feel for them and hope for a good outcome. Even though you know it won't end well for everyone involved.

It all felt a bit too real (?)... :s Very disturbing!

This one will stick with me for a while... definitely worth watching!

I never would have expected that a movie / documentary created by only using news snip-its, could be so good.

It is the first time that I see this type of documentary, and the story just captures you. I never before heard of the events so I was really at the edge of my seat, watching how the situation would develop.

This is just unbelivable. We are watching footage of a press without morals and decency, only the pictures and they speak for themselves. The bad police work, what the victims must have felt... just an unbelivable event.

So many questions regarding judicial failure, media exploitation, and hostage-trading arise when you watch this true-crime documentary unfold. It's only 90 minutes long but what keeps it going is how the hostage-takers forge an unlikely connection with journalists covering the story - the latter going as far as being unsanctioned mediators. The 54-hour-long hostage situation is tense, and the interviews given by the perpetrators while they're committing the crime make your jaw drop. All three deaths could have been averted, if the right set of people had made timely decisions. The events are thoroughly gripping, even when they border on distressing.

Shocking and devastating. I 'm still cannot believe this really happened. In a masterclass editing of one hour and half from 50 hour of real footage you will follow the compelling events of this tragedy and farse. It is so emotional involving that sometimes you want to scream with pain this is impossible and unacceptable. The frightened eyes of Silke Bischoff reflecting the beauty and innocence of youth and good brutalized and at the mercy of the evilness of the criminals and of the cinism and opportunism of mass media,politics and police are impossible to forget and will remain with you.

Once you turn this on, you will not be able to turn it off, no matter how morbidly voyeuristic and disturbing. You will be disgusted with the media and yourself.

You've been warned.

One can't help but wonder if the media involvement only made this situation worse.

When i was a little kid living in Germany this event took place i didnt understand it all back in the day, crazy to come back after the years and see it as a adult , its all real Footage and its straight forward , r.i.p to the innocent people who lost thier lives on that day. But maybe something Positive at the end , so much changed since then in term of Police/Special units what is a good thing,this Documentary shows.a early failure in german Police work in how not to deal with gangsters type of guys, Tragic but from there they learn , this Documentary was very good, but no happy ending and a tragic event.

I found this documentary interesting and infuriating, but it was painfully slow.

Media narcissism and police incompetence was amok. Crazy how reporters were allowed to interview these criminals while they were committing the crime. Sadly our media has become worse. Hopefully this story will serve as a warning, but unfortunately, people are more stupid than before.

As "Gladbeck: The Hostage Crisis" (2022 release from Germany; 91 min) opens, it is August 15, 1988" and we are in Gladbeck, Germany. Two deranged criminals have just robbed a small branch of Deutsche Bank, and decide to take the 2 bank employees as hostages. They demand 300,000 Deutsche Mark and a BMW as getaway car. It marks the beginning of a couple of shocking days...

Couple of comments: this is directed by veteran and well-respected German documentarian Volker Heise. As the film notes at the very beginning, the entire movie consists of actual footage and audio from 1988. No talking heads looking back and commenting. This is all happening in real life. And some of it is absolutely surreal. How 2 kidnappers were to in effect hold an entire country hostage, with plenty of help from the media's actions AND the police's inaction it must be said. As we watch these events unfold, I, and I suspect many other viewers, had absolutely no idea how it would all unfold, and that makes this such a compelling documentary. Afterwards both the media and the police were heavily criticized for their roles in the hostage drama.

"Gladbeck: The Hostage Crisis" premiered on Netflix two weeks ago, and I just caught up on it. If you have any interest in true crime documentaries, or in a late 80s time capsule of what West Germany was like at that time (one year before the reunification), I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

They did this because they saw a crime show on tv and wanted to do it. Bizarre. If our demands are not meet. Bang Bang. Here again in this show it wasn't the guns it was the mental health of the hostage takers and watching crimes shows on tv. Mimicking the shows. This show is beyond comprehension. And in 1988.

This is a documentary that is uniquely shown to us by real life camera footage recorded at the time of the incident, in August 1988.

Being over 30 years ago, the majority of people watching this will find it extremely hard to relate as to how something like this was allowed to happen. If it was these days things would've gone very differently, but at the time (more so specifically this incident), the Police and SWAT didn't really seem to have much of a clue.

Shocking and well put together, definitely worth the watch!

The documentary itself is put together really well and does a good job of telling the story.

The cops, though? And the media? Incompetent. Clumsy. Inept. So mind-numbingly inadequate. Cops don't care about their jobs at all, and reporters care too much for the wrong reasons. It was a circus, and everybody had their fun except the hostages and the criminals.

I'm horrified.

An exemplary archival documentary that takes viewers on a harrowing journey through one of Germany's most intense standoffs. Crafted with precision, the film is a collage of real-time footage and news broadcasts that capture the tension and drama of the 1988 hostage situation. Without the intrusion of a contemporary narrative voice, the documentary allows the original reporters' on-the-scene urgency and raw emotion to guide the storytelling, creating an immersive experience that feels as immediate as the day the events unfolded.

The filmmakers' commitment to authenticity is evident in their respectful handling of the sensitive material, ensuring that the gravity of the situation is never lost amidst the historical retelling. The documentary serves not only as a gripping recount of the crisis but also as a poignant reminder of the era's political and social climate. The archival footage, expertly edited, allows the audience to grasp the complexities and dangers faced by both the hostages and the law enforcement agencies involved.

"Gladbeck: The Hostage Crisis" is a testament to the power of archival material in recounting historical events. It stands as a tribute to the courage of the hostages, the perseverance of the negotiators, and the dedication of the journalists who brought the story to the world. This film is a must-see for history buffs and documentary enthusiasts alike, offering a unique and impactful window into a moment that shook Germany and captured the attention of the international community.