The millionaire thieves from the Rhine

Until then, the two had led an unremarkable life: Manfred Vowinkel was a waiter in Düsseldorf, his friend Günter Schotte-Natscheff was a trained banker looking for a job.
In 1980, he started working for Düsseldorf's Metro as a financial planner.
This was to fundamentally change both of their lives.
Günter often felt unfairly treated by his arrogant boss in his new job.
He wanted to get one over on him and came up with a plan.
In order to expose the loopholes in the company's supposedly highly secure financial system, he transferred money to his friend Manfred Vowinkel's private account by simply forging signatures.

But the initial prank turned into a personal jackpot for the two crooks.
Every day, Vowinkel collected the millions at the Düsseldorfer Stadtsparkasse and enjoyed spending them.
Whether it was Paris, Rome, Madrid or the local luxury mile, the Düsseldorf Kö: the two treated themselves to whatever their hearts desired.
However, when they had amassed DM 36 million, the pavement at home became too hot for them.
At the beginning of January 1981, they made a run for it.
They set off for Rio de Janeiro via Paris.
With 16 suitcases full of money.

For weeks, Düsseldorf's Metro did not notice the hole in the millions.
Until it wanted to buy into Kaufhof in January 1981.
A deal worth millions, for the financing of which all of Metro's accounts were audited.
Only now did the coup come to light.

Without further ado, Metro manager Hannjörg Hereth took up the cause himself.
He was a lover of detective stories and had studied countless Agatha Christie cases during his numerous trips abroad in the service of the Metro.
Now he had a real case to solve.
He traveled after the perpetrators and gradually tracked down the Metro prey.
But he was not the only one.
The underworld was also after the money.
Everything was at stake for the two opportunist crooks - not only their loot but also their lives.

The documentary reconstructs the case of this unique crime, which dominated the headlines for almost four months at the turn of the year 1980/81.
Düsseldorf journalist Wolfgang Berney researched the story day and night.
He still remembers today how this scam caused smiles and admiration in the state capital and beyond - even in the circles of the criminal investigation department.

For Manfred Vowinkel, it is still the most exciting chapter of his life.
In the film, he tells in detail how he and his friend Schotte-Natscheff wrapped the big Metro around their fingers, the adventures they had together and the dramatic end to the story.
A WDR film from 1987, in which the two crooks play themselves, takes us right back to the time of the events.

For the first time, former Metro manager Hannjörg Hereth also speaks about the case on camera.
Until now, Metro had always kept quiet about the details.
The filmmakers visited "Inspector" Hereth at his home in Switzerland.
He talks about how he tracked down the crooks at the time and what became of their loot.