1962: Boppard in the perspective of German criminal history - Spectacular escape of bank robber Dieter Freese
At the inglorious peak of their criminal career, the five-member Fresse gang attacked the branch of the Kreissparkasse in Winningen near Koblenz on Wednesday, February 14, 1962, and one person was killed. The police's trail quickly led to Boppard, where the gang members were hiding in a hut on the "Elerberg". A large police force tracked down the bank robbers quite quickly, but when he was arrested the very next day, the 22-year-old gang leader managed to escape his pursuers in a spectacular manner. A nationwide chase followed, the likes of which post-war Germany had never seen before. Repeatedly in the apparently safe net of his pursuers, Fresse managed several times to escape the large contingent of police officers, including special commissions, deployed helicopters and hundreds of ground personnel. After a three-week large-scale manhunt by the West German police, supported by sensational television, radio and press reports, "Inspector Coincidence" helped. On Friday, March 9, 1962, two border police officers pursuing a suspected car thief found the completely exhausted and sleeping Fresse in a snow cave just 100 meters from the Czech border in the Bavarian Forest. A fatal error cost Freese his freedom: he thought he was already on the other side of the Iron Curtain. It is certain that, taking into account the East-West relationship at the time, extradition would never have taken place. On November 2, 1962, the Koblenz jury sentenced the "dangerous habitual criminal" Dieter Freese to life imprisonment. Source: Text information board