The department store blackmailer returns to the scene - almost. As a meeting place, Arno Funke proposed the Café Graffiti on Berlin's Ku'damm, between Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe), where he lit his first bomb, and train tracks, when he shook off the police spectacularly. He does not want to tell the old stories again, said Funke. And then like to indulge in the past. His wristwatch: still in winter time.

one day: What do you think when you see the light rail?

Spark: I live nearby and do not think about it that much when I walk around here. But sure, there's a policeman with a drawn pistol running toward me at the back of the tracks. He then went down.

Funke sent bomb threats to department stores and demanded money. In 1988 he detonated a pipe bomb in the KaDeWe. When he ran out of 500,000 Mark loot after four years, he threatened again and put several explosives. The department stores should announce their willingness to pay in newspaper advertisements with the words: "Dagobert greets his nephews" - hence the nickname. On October 29, 1992, a money transfer failed in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, but had sparking a dropping system attached to a train. The money package landed behind a fence. When Spark wanted to climb over it, police stormed in, but he fled by bicycle. At the press conference after the rumor arose that an official had fallen because of a slippery dog ​​pile.

Spark: Actually, he slipped on wet grass, but there are also many dogs have made. The other policemen jumped into the car and strangled the engine. They could not keep up because there was the long-open Thursday. The streets were thick, all filled with cars. Only with the bike you could through.

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Department store blackmailer Spark: "Please do not fall into the water with the money!"

Spark escaped, sent more ransom notes, fired bombs in Bielefeld Karstadt and in the branch at Hermannplatz in Berlin-Neukölln. Over the years, he caused damage totaling ten million marks. For handing over money, he always thought of new tinkering: Spark cut a hole in the bottom of a sandbox and put it on a gully to grab the package from below. He also built a lore, which should drive away on a disused track. But most deliveries failed - probably because the police manipulated them.

one day: With the few successful handovers, you only got paper scraps.

Funke: The first package, the police have been really hard. It was shrink-wrapped. Above were two thousand and below two thousand, with banderoles on the side. When I opened the package, it was hollow inside and crammed with electronics.

one day: 4000 marks, after all.

Funke: That was hardly the expense, not worth all the stress.

one day: Were you angry?

Spark: I have not jumped for joy. But I did not feel great emotions. At that time, I walked around like a zombie, packed in cotton wool.

SPIEGEL TV (2011): The case of "Dagobert" - a police officer hits blackmailers

Video

MIRROR TV

After training as a light advertising maker, Funke had long been through with odd jobs, painted on cars and inhaled toxic fumes. A valuer attested to him later reduced guilt capacity: because the solvents damaged the brain and blunted.

One day: With your bombs you could have killed or injured people - for example, if an explosive device detonated at the wrong time, if there had been a guard or a cleaner in the building. In an explosion, a saleswoman was only a few meters away. Why did you take this risk?

Funke: This explosive device was a better "Polish bomber" and caused only minor damage, a few Aluleitern fell over, and scraps of paper flew through the air. I've always been careful not to harm people. That even confirmed a police officer in the process. Back then, I did not feel so much guilty towards Karstadt, that is a group and seemed to me very abstract. I'm not thrilled with my criminal career, but it's part of my biography that I have to live with. Today I am sorry that many people have suffered because of me. Sales assistants went to work with a bad feeling, police had to work overtime. My first interrogator greeted me with the words: "Glad you are ready, my wife will be happy, what do you think, how many family celebrations have I missed because of you?"

On April 22, 1994 ended the long cat-and-mouse game with the police. The Soko Dagobert seized the extortionist at a telephone booth in Berlin-Treptow. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

one day: How did your environment react?

Spark: They did not think it was that bad. Not one of my acquaintances has offended me.

One day: Apparently not even her wife knew about her actions. Did you really act alone?

Spark: I'll say it like this: who knows if someone did not know what.

one day: how did you manage in prison?

Spark: I was a farm worker there, sweeping leaves and watering flowers. There was a packet of drugs flying over the wall, then the other prisoners stood in my cell with me and asked if I could pick it up. I rejected that. They were not amused, but nobody really touched me.

one day: Did you have a special status as Dagobert?

Funke: Not among the prisoners. Only one appeared in my cell and said that he was from the PKK, if I would like to join in and make something for her. So I said, "That honors me, but I do not think I have the time." If I had said yes, I would already be dead. Or maybe General, who knows.

one day: When did your illness get better?

Spark: For two and a half years I took antidepressants in jail, they helped. An expert said that this brain organic disorder goes away, but it can take a long time. A little something is still there, but I can handle it. In detention, after the third session, my psychiatrist said, "Mr. Funke, you are completely normal." After that we talked comfortably once a week.

one day: Because of good leadership, the prison sentence was reduced to six years, they came in the open execution. What was it like when you were allowed back on the street?

Spark: A "Bild" reporter has been waiting in the car in front of the asylum until I go out. The next day, a big photo and the headline appeared: "Designer clothes, branded bike and expensive brand shoes - where did he get the money from?" I had the wheel for 50 marks from the scrap dealer and the shoes from the Quelle catalog, the jacket from C & A.

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Arno spark
My life as a Dagobert

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one day: And how did you become a cartoonist in the satire magazine "Eulenspiegel"?

Spark: Shortly after my arrest came a letter, whether I would like to draw jokes about police officers - they had probably noticed that I can do it quite well. It did not seem appropriate to me before the trial. When the verdict was made, I reported to the editors, highly official with work samples.

Funke, released in August 2000, wrote two books, designed the set for the solo tour of Puhdy's singer Dieter "Quaster" Hertrampf and lectured on student rehabilitation. In 2013 he went to the RTL jungle camp and transferred the 40,000 euro fee to Karstadt.

One day: Other criminals are shunned after their detention. Why was that different with you?

Spark: Maybe people have sensed that I'm not the highly criminal character. The robber and gendarme game fascinated many. Some have quietly told me, "I've thought of it before, but then I did not dare." A latent willingness is present in many people, so a certain thirst for adventure.

one day: What kind of people were they?

Spark: Especially men. It is also striking that I had almost all my readings in the East. From Darst to Dresden I have traveled to every city. In the West I was only once, near Stuttgart, but there came the organizer from the East. Even as a West Berliner I have a lot of understanding for life in the East before the turn, this scrambling, avoiding regulations and the mentality: "What is against the state, is good." That's why I probably had a stone in the board for the East Germans. The KaDeWe and all these department stores are symbols of a new world in which they had to find their way at once and which has brought uncertainty and disadvantages for many.

SPIEGEL-TV (1994): Business with Dagobert

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MIRROR TV

one day: Do you see yourself as a kind of Robin Hood?

Spark: At that time it was all about my person: I wanted to survive and needed money. That was the motivation to do it all.

one day: Was there a problem because you, as a former criminal, seem to be doing quite well?

Spark: When I came out of jail, a small newspaper reported on my job as a cartoonist. Immediately came a letter to the editor: "Why does the guy have work again when respectable citizens are unemployed on the street?" If there had been, I would refer to social assistance, it would have said: "Work-shy rabble and social parasite."

one day: Have you ever thought about switching sides?

Spark: The police never approached me. They also have good people, psychologists and everything. When these were DHL extortions, the television contacted me if I could not tell them something. One station even offered a lot of money, but I refused. What should I have said? I also did not know more than is in the newspaper. Besides, I do not want to talk to the police.

one day: Which technical devices would you like to have had at that time as a criminal?

Funke: I do not want to reveal anything concrete, but there are already interesting things in the relevant trade. Sure, a drone would not have been bad. They were not that far back then.