Recent deaths of the two men who kidnapped Theo Albrecht leave mystery of €3.5m in unaccounted-for ransom money unsolved

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The two men behind one of Germany’s most high-profile kidnappings have both died, taking to the grave the question of what happened to the missing millions in ransom money.

Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that, with the men’s recent deaths, a chapter had closed on the 1971 abduction of Theo Albrecht, a billionaire co-founder of discount supermarket chain Aldi.

Paul Kron passed away in a care home in January, aged 87, and Heinz Joachim Ollenburg died in February at the age of 93.

Their abduction of Albrecht was one of the most spectacular crimes of its kind in post-war Germany. They kept the millionaire hidden away for 17 days in a wardrobe in the western city of Duesseldorf, then set him free in return for 7m deutschmarks.

Kron, then already a convicted burglar nicknamed Diamond Paul, was quickly caught after paying in a shop with a 500-deutschmark bill from the ransom money. Ollenburg, his former lawyer, fled to Mexico but was arrested there and extradited.

Both were sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, and they kept low profiles after their release.

Albrecht, who was emotionally scarred by the kidnapping, largely withdrew from public life. He died in 2010 aged 88.

Regarding the ransom, Kron claimed Ollenburg, the brains behind the abduction, had only given him several thousand deutschmarks.

Ollenberg insisted they had split the money evenly and returned his half, leaving about 3.5m deutschmarks missing.

Bild reported that it had interviewed Kron several years ago. Kron, then living on a meagre state pension, told the newspaper: “Honestly, I don’t know [about the missing money]. I only got 10,000 deutschmarks from Ollenburg. He was cleverer than me.”

Bild said it had also searched out Ollenburg, who was living near the Polish border, but he had refused to talk to the newspaper.

Local townspeople, said Bild, liked to gossip that he had stashed the money in Switzerland.