By Michael Behrendt, Maren Wittge and Olaf Wagner
Frank S., called Sero, was present at the spectacular bus hostage-taking in Steglitz, chased the tunnel gangsters from Zehlendorf and department store blackmailer Dagobert. In the 3rd part of the BZ series, he tells of his missions with the Berlin special forces.
Legends are born in 50 years. Berlin has a SEK legend. Name: Frank S. Today 63 years old, manager of a security company. For 21 years he was part of the special task force and was involved in more than 1500 arrests. And he has clarified the most dangerous situations in Berlin. He was never injured.
SEK legend Frank S. (63) smiles friendly at the camera. Today he is the head of a security company Photo: Olaf Wagner
We meet him in our garden. Sero, as he is nicknamed, comes to barbecue. He brings wine, but only drinks water himself. Asks if he can help. “No, sit down and tell me.” Sero smiles. “I don’t even know where to start…”
Well, for example with the spectacular bus hostage-taking on April 11, 2003. On that day, the bank robber Dieter Wurm and an accomplice robbed a bank in Steglitz, made small loot and then kidnapped a BVG bus and its passengers. He gradually released them and chauffeured them across the city.
In tow officers of the Mobile Task Force (MEK). And Sero with his boys. MEK vehicles finally braked the bus at Sachsendamm in Schöneberg, right in front of a sports hall. A perfect place for an access. Only the driver, a radio journalist and a policewoman were on the bus. This gave Wurm two guns. And credibly threatened to use them.
A picture from earlier times: The young SEK officer Sero with his teammates Photo: Olaf Wagner
The usual demands followed. Getaway car, helicopter, safe conduct. “A stationary location is no longer mobile,” says Sero. “It was clear – the thing will end here.” Sero took off the mask and negotiated with the gangster. He was already in the sights of the snipers.
But Sero wanted to try something else: “We chatted. He said I should shoot him.” So Sero said, “Okay, then I’ll get a gun and kill you.” Wurm suddenly wanted to talk again. Then a favorable situation, the SEK man drew his pistol and shot Wurm twice in the shoulder. Not in the head.
His colleagues then entered the bus from all sides and freed the rest of the hostages. Among the rescuers was SEK man Roland Krüger, nicknamed “Boulette”. He was shot dead during a deployment in Neukölln that same month.
What’s it like shooting a human?
What’s it like shooting a human? Sero doesn’t hesitate: “Like using my fists or driving a car. I need to be able to do it if need be.”
In the family and among his colleagues, Frank S. has always been considered “crazy”. That is meant affectionately. As a kid, he jumped off the 10-meter board at the outdoor pool – without being able to swim. Professionally, he knew, it had to be something extreme. Two years before graduating from high school, he and his father saw a report on the ARD “Weltspiegel” about the “leather necks”, the US marines.
That was the spark. After the 11th grade he reported to the police. Pressed 90 kilos at the entrance test on the bench. As a 19-year-old, his boxing trainer certified that he had the power of a heavyweight. In 1986 he changed within the police force to the SEK. And stayed there for 21 years.
He hunted down the department store blackmailer Dagobert
At the end of 1990, Sero and a colleague were the first to stand on the roofs of the squats on Mainzer Strasse in Friedrichshain. And when the bank robbers, who went down in German criminal history as tunnel gangsters, equipped the bank branch on Breisgauer Strasse in Zehlendorf with hand grenades in order to be able to escape at the end of June 2005, Sero stormed into the basement with just one colleague.
“Unfortunately, the gangsters had already disappeared into their hole. We wanted to keep the expected casualties from the shells low. That’s why there were only two of us.” Just a lunatic…
Late 1990: When the occupied Mainzer Strasse was cleared, Sero was one of the first officers to stand on the roofs Photo: picture alliance/dpa
He hunted down the department store blackmailer Dagobert, arrested brutal ex-Securitate agents of the former Romanian secret service on the roofs of Berlin after a minute-long brawl. “We could have shot. But we wanted to settle it without bloodshed.”
Sero knew what the last question in the conversation in our garden would be: “So, don’t you miss all that?” He grins, then says honestly: “Every damn day.” But it’s all over at some point.
Then he borrows the reporter’s boxing gloves again to show his son a few tricks for the next training session. The little boy’s conclusion after the exercise session: “Dude, he’s fast. In an emergency, I would never have seen those things coming.”
Learned is learned.
The hostage-taking at Kottbusser Tor
A city held its breath. On October 26, 1998 at 11:30 a.m. at Kottbusser Tor (Kreuzberg), a mentally ill man from Algeria snatched her three-year-old boy from a mother’s arms and took him into his power. For hours he pressed a large knife to his throat and threatened to kill the child.
The perpetrator demanded a plane ticket to his home country and a connection to the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
October 1998: The little boy remained calm for six and a half hours despite the blade on his neck Photo: BILD
SEK man Axel L. was the first on site and took over the difficult communication with the perpetrator together with a negotiator. A sniper sighted the Algerian, who was crouching on the ground, from six meters away. The child sitting on his lap could have been injured by a shot in the head.
Axel L. spoke to the man for hours to prevent an impending tragedy. When the perpetrator was inattentive for a brief moment around 6 p.m., Axel L. kicked him in the head and saved the child. The Algerian later took his own life.