Daniela Klette

Daniela Marie Luise Klette (born 5 November 1958) is a German left-wing militant. She is a suspected former German terrorist associated with the third generation Red Army Faction (RAF). She went underground in the 1990s and was arrested in February 2024.

Early life
Daniela Marie Luise Klette was born on 5 November 1958 in Karlsruhe, West Germany.

Activism
Klette was active in left-wing groups from 1975 onward. These groups included the Anti-NATO movement and initiatives against the construction of Runway 18 West at Frankfurt Airport.

Klette is an alleged member of the third generation Red Army Faction active during the 1980s and 1990s. Klette is suspect in the 1991 United States embassy sniper attack in Bonn and the 1993 explosives attack against Weiterstadt prison under construction in the state of Hesse.

In the 1990s, Klette went underground. In 1999, Klette, Garweg, and Staub were suspected of robbing DM 1 million from an armoured vehicle in Duisburg.

Referred to by the press as "RAF pensioners", Staub, Garweg, and Klette are also associated with several robberies in the 2000s and 2010s: in Bochum-Wattenscheid (27/12/2006), Wolfsburg (28/12/2015), Cremlingen (25/06/2016) and Stuhr (06/06/2015). The German public prosecutor's office had been investigating the three since 2015 for attempted murder and various attempted and completed aggravated robberies between 1999 and 2016. In 2016, three Germans matching their description were mistakenly arrested by Dutch police after renting a farmhouse near Medemblik in the north of the Netherlands. The Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Police Office) put out a public appeal for information leading to her arrest, or that of accomplices Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, offering a reward of 150,000 euros. Police found her after a tip-off from the public in November 2023.

As of February 2024 it was unclear how she managed to stay underground for 30 years.

Arrest
On 26 February 2024, Klette was arrested in Berlin by LKA Niedersachsen and the Berlin Police without resistance. She was charged with involvement in six armed robberies in which millions of euros were stolen, and at least one attempted murder. The crimes were alleged to have been committed between 1999 and 2016. Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub were also alleged to have been involved.

Daniela Klette lived at Sebastianstrasse 73, on the fifth floor, under the assumed name Claudia Ivone and an italian passport. She also had a Facebook account.

It was pointed out that her photo as "Claudia Ivone" in a capoiera club in Kreuzberg could have been found by Khesrau Behroz and Bellingcat researcher Michael Colborne, using the face biometrics software PimEyes  for the Legion: Most Wanted podcast. It was claimed that it was illegal for police to use this kind of software in their investigations.

Investigation
Daniela Klette has made no statements about the allegations made against her or about the RAF comrades.

Media coverage
The arrest of Daniela Klette was headline news in all German media outlets for days.

The Lower Saxon authorities gave a live press conference announcing the arrest of the former terrorist, who had been wanted for 30 years. Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) spoke of a "milestone" in German crime history. The head of the LKA Lower Saxony called the arrest a “masterpiece”.

According to historian Petra Terhoeven, the reporting had boulevard-esque features. The Tagesspiegel described in detail the ordinary furnishings of Klette's one-room apartment.