Sandra Tzschaschel from Hessischer Rundfunk interviews private detective Holger E. in the office of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt about his encounter with the Hanau attacker, Tobias Rathjen, in October 2019 in Dortmund. Below is the video and beneath it the transcript.

“Tobias R. Wanted to Hire Detective Agency”

Article on hessenschau.de

The suspected perpetrator Tobias R. apparently contacted the Wuppertal branch of Kurtz Investigations in June 2019. He wished to commission the agency to establish contacts with the BND, intelligence services and the Federal Chancellor. Agency owner Patrick Kurtz told the hr that an investigator had met Tobias R. in Dortmund in October 2019. However, no assignment was agreed because the man apparently suffered from paranoid delusions. In a sector that also deals with counter-surveillance and debugging, the man was not an isolated case. “Every day people call who suffer from paranoid delusions.” He had not expressed xenophobic views.

That morning, Attorney General Peter Frank had already confirmed that the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office had been in contact with the suspected Hanau attacker in the previous November. At that time, a criminal complaint filed by the man had been received by the authority. In it, he had reported an unknown intelligence organisation to the police.

“Hanau Perpetrator Contacted Detective Agency” – hessenschau

Sandra Tzschaschel: “Tobias R., the suspected perpetrator from Hanau, radicalised himself on the internet. Alone, without a right-wing extremist network. That is the view of the authorities. He is considered a withdrawn person. But long before his attack, Tobias R. sought contact, sought proof for his delusions, and turned to a detective agency last year. In October there was even a personal meeting in Düsseldorf. What he wanted is described to me today by Holger E. and his manager during a conversation in Frankfurt.”

Private detective “Holger E.”: “He needed from us our staff, BND or MAD, or best of all even the Office for the Protection of the Constitution or ideally Mrs Merkel. We were supposed to enable contact for him and were supposed to give him telephone numbers. He immediately began telling me his life story from early childhood. And he also read passages from this ‘manifesto’ to me.”

Tobias Rathjen Contacted the Authorities Independently

Sandra Tzschaschel: “Tobias R. also turned to the Federal Public Prosecutor in Karlsruhe because of his fear of a secret organisation, and not only there did he seek attention.”

Holger Schmidt, terrorism expert: “My impression is that he also contacted public prosecutors’ offices at the state level and, in my view, also engaged in extensive correspondence with authorities in Hesse. My impression is that he discussed the matters troubling him – namely that there was a persecution, a power, something strange pursuing him – with numerous authorities.”

Still No Nationwide Firearms Register

Sandra Tzschaschel: “What did not raise concern: Tobias R. possessed firearms. Legally. Two were registered on his firearms possession card, issued in 2013 by the responsible district authority – to a 43-year-old man with delusions. A nationwide firearms register does not exist.”

Holger Schmidt: “The question of who receives a firearm, who may carry it and what rights are attached to it, such as firearms licence or firearms possession card, is a matter for the federal states or the municipalities. As far as I can tell, there is currently no possibility to query this centrally; it is always a matter for the involved regional authorities. Whether it can remain that way is now, of course, the question.”

Authorities’ Information System No Longer Up to Date

Sandra Tzschaschel: “Tobias R. kept his intentions to kill and commit terrorism to himself. He made no hint whatsoever, not even to the detectives.”

Private detective “Holger E.”: “He did not give me the impression of being a threat. And I am a security consultant; I also have a certain sense for people who might become dangerous.”

Sandra Tzschaschel: “Tobias R. shot ten people, and the detectives ask themselves why no one took his weapons away in time.”

Private detective “Holger E.”: “It is all poorly organised here with the police, simply because it is not done centrally. The officer sitting at the front desk in a police station should, with a few clicks and the name and date of birth, immediately see: What sort of person is this?”

Sandra Tzschaschel: “The conversation back then lasted two and a half hours. The detectives offered their further support. However, Tobias R. broke off contact with them. Four months before his terrorist attack in Hanau.”

Correction

The meeting between our Unna-based detective Holger E. and Tobias Rathjen did not take place in Düsseldorf, but in the Landhaus Dieckmanns in Dortmund.

Our condolences go out to the victims and their families.

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

Report on Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt and Tobias R. in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

The attacker of Hanau met with a private detective in October 2019. He asked him for help because he believed he was being monitored by an intelligence service. The statements Tobias R. made at that time support the image of a mentally ill perpetrator.

Delusional Concept: Thoughts as a Blueprint for American Politics

According to information obtained by the F.A.Z., the Hanau mass murderer Tobias R. contacted Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt am Main in June of the previous year, hoping the agency could assist him in uncovering an intelligence service that he imagined as part of a delusional system. According to agency owner Patrick Kurtz, R. had explained on the telephone that in Germany only the Federal Chancellor and the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution knew about the existence of this intelligence service. R. had hoped that the agency, which advertises good connections to security authorities, could arrange a contact for him at the domestic intelligence service in order to clarify the matter. “We naturally declined; it also became clear to us quite quickly that something was not right with the man mentally,” says Kurtz.

After several further telephone calls, Holger E., a senior employee of the agency, nevertheless agreed to a meeting scheduled for 24 October 2019 in an inn in Dortmund. “Mr R. made a tidy impression at first glance,” says Holger E. “Grey suit, black shoes, light-coloured shirt, short hair, well-groomed appearance.” During the meeting, R. had read various passages from a document he had brought with him; from these it emerged that R. had been hearing voices since early childhood and that he believed his thoughts were being stolen from his mind and used as a blueprint for the American film industry and the politics of the American president.

“He did not appear violent to me”

Holger E. is certain: “Those were the same passages that now also appear in this 24-page document often referred to as the perpetrator’s manifesto.” R. did not read out to him the xenophobic sections of the manifesto at that time, nor those that contained indications of a planned attack.

“He did not appear violent to me and did not mention his firearms licence either,” says Holger E. Almost daily, individuals with mental disorders contact the agency, for example people who believe that their flat is being bugged or that they are being targeted with radiation. A report to the police would only be filed if there were indications of a readiness to commit violence.

Large Number of Mentally Disturbed Callers

Tobias R. differed from many other mentally ill clients in that he appeared above-average intelligent and articulate and seemed capable of managing daily life. “I understood him to mean that he had been employed for some time but was probably no longer working at the time of our conversation,” says Holger E. “However, he did not seem to have financial concerns.” Tobias R. had not mentioned any social contacts except for one friend who appears as a conversational partner at various points in his manifesto.

But why was a meeting arranged with Tobias R. at all if the telephone calls had already made it clear that the man did not need a detective but a doctor? “The people who contact us have often already had many unsuccessful attempts at therapy,” says Kurtz. Sometimes it can help them to feel that someone is addressing their problems. Holger E. says he asked Tobias R. at the end of the conversation to compile and send him the central passages of his manifesto; he would then see what he could do for him. He never heard from R. again.

Notes

The original article by Constantin van Lijnden appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (F.A.Z.). The emphasis (bold print) and links on this page may differ from the original.

Our condolences go to the victims and their families.

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

For the magazine programme “Im Blick” of the broadcaster Rhein-Main TV, Robert Murrmann interviews private investigator Patrick Kurtz in the office of Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt. Below is a transcript of the interview. Here is the link to the video (German only).

Three Questions for a Detective

Question 1: What qualities does a good detective need?

Patrick Kurtz: “To become a detective, in my opinion one should have brains – that is very important. Staying power, in other words a great deal of patience. The ability to concentrate: If you have to focus for many hours on one point where perhaps nothing at all is happening, then that is exhausting, then that is mentally demanding. So you need this patience and ability to concentrate.

What has often helped me is physical fitness. It makes things easier for me during observations, for example, especially during foot surveillance, to keep a good distance and thus remain unobtrusive without losing visual contact, because I can catch up quickly, because I am flexible and also not afraid to climb over a wall or a fence if it is legal and purposeful. And accordingly I also consider physical fitness important.”

Question 2: What prejudices do you encounter daily in your work?

Patrick Kurtz: “Many people, of course, think of things like the Trovatos and Carsten Stahl. We also have to deal with that in certain client enquiries. We have to get these silly ideas out of their heads, because they think we could engage in all sorts of antics that violate the personality rights of the subject. For example, using directional microphones at greater distances, eavesdropping on people – that sort of thing is a no-go in our profession, we have no rights for that whatsoever. Also, for instance, photographing into private rooms, catching someone at a rendezvous – infidelity – ideally even photographing under the bedcovers. These are the kind of things we are, of course, not allowed to do.

And accordingly, false expectations are sometimes created through television, and people come to us with false expectations.”

Question 3: How exciting is the profession really?

Patrick Kurtz: “The level of excitement in our job varies enormously, completely individually from case to case. Many cases are really dreadfully boring. You sit in the car for hours, sometimes 10 hours, 12 hours, and that over several days, without anything truly relevant happening. It is simply an enormous amount of waiting. And that is, of course, the point at which the job is also strenuous and not necessarily a pleasant one.

But of course there are always extremely exciting cases as well. Sometimes because of the facts of the case, meaning when it is not necessarily the standard stories like infidelity – we have seen that a thousand times, and it is not necessarily the case that we experience something new over and over again. And then there are cases in which a lot simply happens. When a lot happens, then it is fun. When the subject moves around a lot and you have to follow with the vehicle, always having to stay focused so as not to lose them in traffic or in the pedestrian zone, depending on the circumstances of the case, then that is simply exciting and then it is fun. But that is not necessarily the everyday situation.”

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

An article by Eva-Maria Lill following an interview with Patrick Kurtz: Observations from a Frankfurt Detective Agency

“People may argue about taste in wallpaper. Intelligence is not up for debate. Private detective Patrick Kurtz hunts down fraudsters and criminals in Frankfurt. In doing so, he not only follows one of his role models in terms of office design: Sherlock Holmes.

Patrick Kurtz looks much younger than his furniture. He is 27, his display table an estimated hundred. On the polished wood stands a bottle of Ardbeg whisky, the black-red leather of the two-seater creaks. Patrick Kurtz’s light brogue Oxford shoes too. His office is a time machine for the lost. For those seeking help, the betrayed, the victims. Kurtz is a detective — one of about 75 in Frankfurt. He opened his first agency in Leipzig in early 2013. He now owns 28 agencies across Germany, including one in the Main metropolis since 2014.

We spoke with him about his profession, clichés, and enduring hours in a car. Occasion: Over the Pentecost weekend, ARD broadcast the fourth season of the British hit series Sherlock. Kurtz is a big fan — and with a pipe, MacBook, and DSLR, he embodies a modern version of the brilliant Holmes.”

On Real Detective Work in Frankfurt am Main

Offenbach-Post: “Mr Kurtz, do you meet many people with a false impression of your profession?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Certainly. This is mainly caused by television productions where investigators photograph innocents through living room windows and then get into fights.”

Offenbach-Post: “Everyday life in Frankfurt must be much less exciting.”

Patrick Kurtz: “It’s exciting in a different way. Physical altercations almost never happen. Perhaps once in a hundred cases. And we have to observe the law. Entering highly personal areas is prohibited — for example, photographing inside a house or car. If someone is having sexual intercourse in a car on a country lane, I cannot just zoom in and take pictures.”

Offenbach-Post: “What are you allowed to do, then?”

Patrick Kurtz: “In Germany, this is not clearly regulated by law; there is a need for updating. We have to examine current court rulings to understand what is permitted. Until a few years ago, it was common to use GPS trackers to create movement profiles. Then, in 2013, several rulings led to colleagues being sentenced to imprisonment. In principle, our client must have a legitimate interest in solving the case for us to act — after all, every investigation infringes on personal rights. Such interest exists, for example, with spouses who have a financial connection. But not if I want to spy on a girlfriend I’ve known for only two weeks out of jealousy.”

Offenbach-Post: “How is cooperation with the police?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Either we take on cases that do not reach the authorities at all, or we are engaged in parallel. Cooperation is often not easy. It varies from city to city. In Frankfurt, we have no problems. In Leipzig, it happened that officers felt their honour had been insulted and therefore did not follow up on our information.”

Case Types and Detective Fees

Offenbach-Post: “What kinds of cases do you mainly deal with?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Fraud. Privately, this is usually infidelity; commercially, it involves time-wasting or accounting fraud. Theft also occurs frequently.”

Offenbach-Post: “And in Frankfurt?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Frankfurt is a financial centre, so we are often engaged by companies. Moreover, people here can generally afford our services more than, for example, in the Ruhr region.”

Offenbach-Post: “So you are expensive?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Our hourly rate is €59. Gross for private clients, net for companies.”

Offenbach-Post: “So the typical client is well-off?”

Patrick Kurtz: “You could say that. But occasionally, there is also a pensioner who has saved for a long time to locate their family.”

Are Detective Observations Boring?

Offenbach-Post: “Since we are on clichés: cheaters are mostly men, right?”

Patrick Kurtz: “No. Men and women hire us about equally often. But we do not yet keep precise statistics on case numbers.”

Offenbach-Post: “How do you proceed when looking for a fraudster?”

Patrick Kurtz: “We generally observe and do not intervene. About eighty per cent of our time is spent on surveillance. Two-thirds of that in a car, one-third on foot. The rest is research in databases.”

Offenbach-Post: “Doesn’t that get boring over time?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Much of it is routine, yes. But we treat every assignment with the same seriousness — after all, it often involves matters of life and death for our clients.”

Offenbach-Post: “And the surveillance? Sitting in a car for hours…”

Patrick Kurtz: “I listen to audiobooks or radio dramas — I can concentrate and learn at the same time. If I get tired, I turn on faster rock music and turn it up.”

Offenbach-Post: “Don’t the residents notice?”

Patrick Kurtz: “I have only been spotted once. A target exited an apartment building during a mission, knocked on the window, and said we could stop our surveillance. Presumably, someone tipped off the suspect. We therefore had to come up with an alternative investigative method — and solved the case despite being compromised.”

“What makes a good Detective?”

Offenbach-Post: “How often are you successful?”

Patrick Kurtz: “It depends on the budget. If we can observe for two days, suspicions are confirmed in about 70 per cent of cases. If only a few hours are funded, the success rate is lower.”

Offenbach-Post: “What makes a good detective?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Intelligence and the ability to understand causal relationships. You must stay focused even when nothing happens for hours. Nerves of steel are crucial, and fitness is needed to withstand extreme heat or cold in a car. Opening a window is taboo — reflective glass makes it harder to be seen. And you must be able to lie convincingly to obtain information.”

Offenbach-Post: “And you can do that well?”

Patrick Kurtz: “I am skilled at finding creative solutions. The job suits me. I have smoked a pipe since I was 14 and devoured detective novels. I actually studied literature and had time between my bachelor’s and master’s degree. I saw a trainee offer at a detective agency. Nothing came of it. Inspired by the advertisement, I researched how to become a detective. In Germany, you only need a certificate of good conduct. Later, I attended the Security Academy in Berlin and completed a six-month IHK training — and then went freelance.”

Offenbach-Post: “Apparently successfully.”

From Sherlock Holmes to Shooting Practice in the Apartment

Patrick Kurtz: “In Germany, the detective profession is a one-person business. I employ six staff members and work with subcontractors.”

Offenbach-Post: “So you don’t just have a loyal Watson at your side?”

Patrick Kurtz: “I have many.”

Offenbach-Post: “Sherlock Holmes is your role model. What fascinates you?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Holmes is a realistically drawn fictional character. Even the Victorians believed he was real. When Doyle killed him in The Final Problem in 1893, London mourned. The genius lies in the idea that he can solve every crime — a mental Superman. Absurdly, he does not know whether the Earth revolves around the Sun or vice versa.”

Offenbach-Post: “Holmes’ main weapon is logic. Yours too?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Rarely, as most cases do not involve puzzles.”

Offenbach-Post: “And emotions? Holmes is not known for empathy…”

Patrick Kurtz: “I cannot just yell at people. Even when delivering bad news, I must not tear my hair out with joy over solving a case. Unlike the novels, that would not earn recognition — only a middle finger and a bad Google review.”

Offenbach-Post: “So you are not eccentric at all?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Well, in my old apartment I did once shoot at my wall with a pistol — like Sherlock. Of course, not with live ammunition (laughs).”

Offenbach-Post: “Excuse me?”

Patrick Kurtz: “It just happened. I wanted to practice shooting. Outside is prohibited, so I did it indoors. But to reassure you, I do not take drugs.”

Offenbach-Post: “If you are skilled with firearms, it can get dangerous?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Sometimes people threaten us afterward. Once, colleagues were genuinely terrified. They were hired by a Kurdish family to locate their adult daughter. After finding her, they had to ask if they could share her address. She began to cry and admitted she was afraid of her family because she was in a relationship with a non-Muslim German. The colleagues followed their moral compass and did not reveal it. Suddenly, a group of people formed a circle around them and threatened them. Fortunately, it ended without serious harm.”

Patrick Kurtz’ Favourite Holmes

Offenbach-Post: “If you could choose a Holmes from an adaptation as your boss, which one would it be?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Oh dear. I do not like to submit and would not give in easily like Watson. Trouble would be inevitable.”

Offenbach-Post: “But your favourite Holmes — you can reveal that?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Certainly. First, Jeremy Brett from the 1980s Granada series. Second, Benedict Cumberbatch from the BBC series airing on ARD over Pentecost. Brett portrayed Holmes as closely as possible to Doyle’s original stories — a thinker and speaker. Doyle’s Holmes is an eccentric in the original. Cumberbatch turned him into a sociopath. He reinvented the character.”

Note

Some quotes may not be original statements from Patrick Kurtz. In particular, he did not claim that Kurtz Detective Agency previously used GPS trackers; he said that their use was common in the industry.

The original article from the Offenbach-Post was published at:

https://www.op-online.de/region/frankfurt/suche-nach-wahrheit-frankfurter-detektiv-patrick-kurtz-8369021.html.

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

Recurring Vandalism in and around the Apartment Building

Piles of rubbish in the front garden, disposal of environmentally harmful liquids in the main garden, tampering with the central heating system, scratched windows in the stairwell, graffiti on apartment doors – over the past few months, the client’s property in Frankfurt am Main resembled a drug den. Yet ordinary, law-abiding citizens lived there: singles, single parents, families with children. Each rented apartment housed at least one employed resident. The current conditions were unbearable, and even long-term tenants threatened to terminate their leases. Our client could only seriously suspect one tenant party regarding the identity of the culprits: a middle-aged couple who had only recently moved in, and whose arrival coincided with the onset of repeated property damage. Not only did the timing point to these two as the main suspects, but their social behaviour in the neighbourhood had also been repeatedly criticised by neighbours, described as antisocial and, on one occasion, even “ape-like.”

To gather legally admissible evidence against the two suspects, the property owner commissioned Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt am Main (+49 69 1201 8431) to conduct a personal investigation into the individuals’ previous addresses and activities.

Interview: An Elderly Couple Lets Slip Some Secrets

In the preliminary investigation, the pair’s residential addresses from recent years and any prior criminal records were to be determined. Both the number of moves and the reports filed against them showed an unusual accumulation for a middle-aged couple: three addresses in a few years (two in Frankfurt, one in Kassel) and various reports of property damage, none of which had resulted in criminal proceedings. After this preliminary research, the obtained addresses were to be visited to interview landlords and neighbours.

At the first and oldest address, our private detective in Frankfurt am Main encountered an elderly couple unloading a car. Both waved off the inquiry laughingly: the investigator was not the first to ask about “the young people.” They were relieved not to have the couple as neighbours anymore. The landlord had constantly had to take legal action against the suspects; residents, without any dispute, had often had raw eggs thrown at their windows and balconies. Although it was never possible to catch the couple in the act, these and other offensive actions, such as open insults, had started precisely when they moved in and stopped when they left. No one else was plausible as a culprit, as the other residents were long-term tenants and decent people. The detective thanked the couple and obtained the landlord’s contact details. He confirmed by phone that he had experienced the same problems with the “rental nomads” as the current client of our private detective agency in Frankfurt/Main. He willingly provided all court documents from his cases against the suspects.

Deliberate Property Damage – Tendency Toward Outbursts

At the second address to be checked – in Kassel – the single-family terraced house could not be visited as the current tenants were unavailable. However, one neighbour provided information: the house had previously belonged to a couple and was later inherited by their children. Since then, it had changed owners at least three times, but the neighbour could not recall the current occupants nor the target individuals. The detective was advised to contact another former neighbour, who immediately hung up when called, assuming the investigator wanted to sell her something. She did not answer further calls, clearly of an older generation.

At the third address, another single-family house, our corporate detective in Frankfurt am Main again met no one, though he could at least speak with a young man from the neighbouring house. The terraced house had even belonged to the “chaos couple.” When they sold it, they apparently did not achieve their desired price, prompting them to pull out various electrical cables and render the house uninhabitable until repairs could be made.

Further Covert Measures Against the Rental Nomads

Through the investigations, our Frankfurt corporate detective agency was able to gather various indications and witnesses regarding the regularity of the devastation and other misconduct by the chaos couple. Additionally, two further measures were taken, which cannot be described here due to ongoing proceedings. There is little doubt that the perpetrators will be legally convicted, but whether our client will ever receive financial compensation from such antisocial individuals remains highly uncertain.

To maintain discretion and protect the personal rights of clients and targets, all names and locations in this case report have been altered beyond recognition.

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

Unabridged Interview Version

Recently, agency head Patrick Kurtz gave an interview to Yannic Hertel from the local magazine Merkurist, which started in Mainz in 2015 and is now also represented in Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden. The published version is a double interview with colleague Christian Thome from the Thome Detective Agency; the statements of both detectives were shortened for readability. Below is the full interview with Patrick Kurtz:

How is your client base composed? More the worried husband or the managing director who does not trust his employees?

Both. Internally, we differentiate between the fields of corporate investigations and private investigations. I estimate that we have roughly sixty per cent private clients and forty per cent business clients. Due to the greater financial strength of companies, the field of corporate investigations nevertheless generates higher revenues.

How much does a private investigator cost in Frankfurt?

Our hourly rate per investigator deployed is fifty-nine euros, in addition we charge a one-off basic assignment fee of eighty euros and a mileage rate of zero point seven nine euros. For private individuals, all these sums are to be understood as inclusive of VAT, whereas for companies they are net rates.

Important: At Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt no special surcharges are levied and no further costs are hidden in the small print. Many competitors, however, work with night, weekend and public holiday surcharges, flat-rate expense charges, additional fees for vehicle wear or even special fees for postal invoice dispatch. I have seen the latter at amounts of up to one hundred and twenty euros – an absurd fraud against the client.

What makes Frankfurt particularly interesting for detectives?

Frankfurt, as the most important Central European and possibly soon even pan-European financial centre, is an extraordinarily strategic location for companies from various sectors. This enormous economic strength, combined with the relatively high population in the metropolitan region and Frankfurt’s rapid population growth, results in a high potential for detective assignments. Information is a crisis-proof asset for which there is always demand.

Which types of cases occur particularly frequently in Frankfurt?

We have not yet compiled statistics on this, but have planned to do so for twenty seventeen. My feeling is that fraud ranks very high on the list: financial fraud, employee fraud and of course fraud in the sense of infidelity in relationships. A conspicuously large number of cases take place in Frankfurt’s drug and prostitution milieu. The demands on the personal safety of the detectives deployed are therefore very specific.

What does a typical day in the life of a detective in Frankfurt look like?

The nice thing about our profession is that every day is different. We do not come into the office, sit down at a desk and work through a list. Every case is individual.

Sometimes the job is boring, especially when you have to sit in a car for hours on end during an observation without anything happening. The pitfall: it is precisely these observations that are particularly demanding, because the less happens, the more difficult it becomes to keep concentration consistently high. A similar discussion exists regarding football goalkeepers like Manuel Neuer, who often have nothing coming at their goal for eighty-five minutes, but then suddenly have to be wide awake. Only that for us the eighty-five minutes can quickly become fifteen hours or more.

On other days there is real “action”: target persons who are on the move a lot, possibly changing modes of transport several times or weaving while driving, are not always easy to follow, but generally provide the deployed investigators with real enjoyment, as the observer is mentally and sometimes physically very challenged in such scenarios.

It is similar with research work: it can be frustrating when you search and search and still find nothing. On the other hand, even the smallest new piece of information can trigger a chain reaction, and suddenly the researcher makes one exciting discovery after another.

There are quite a few detective agencies in Frankfurt. Does the market cannibalise itself here, or is demand simply that high?

Competition is strong and the market is tough – no doubt. As in most other sectors, the big fish eat the small ones and monopolise the market. Whoever holds the monopoly can firstly dictate prices to the client and secondly dictate wages to the detectives deployed. As most investigators in Germany mainly work as subcontractors for larger detective agencies, the question of what actually reaches the observer on the street is a serious problem.

On the other hand, the sector is still small enough that almost everyone knows everyone else, at least via two or three degrees. As a result, smaller detective agencies that are internally known for doing good work regularly receive subcontracting assignments and can stay afloat in this way without having many direct clients.

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

Insights of the Sherlockians and Their Significance for the Interpretation of the Proto-Detective

In the first part of our contribution about the Sherlockians and the Game, we already reported on their historical beginnings and the current spread of the international Holmes societies, which is why the present article will deal with the precise way of playing and with the insights gained from the eternal search for the person of Sherlock Holmes; moreover, we from Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt am Main will subsequently address the present situation of the Sherlock societies. In order to illustrate how the Sherlockians proceed in their research into the forefather of our detectives from Frankfurt, examples shall be given here and in a further article that will show that the Game is not a profane summary of obvious facts from the Canon, but a painstaking analysis of every statement of Watson or Holmes, however unimportant and incidental it may appear.

Christopher Morley, for example, the founder of the first American Sherlock club, sets the birthday of the London master detective on 6 January 1854, which is of course not an arbitrarily chosen date but was researched in loving detail according to the composition and interpretation of the literary clues: In the stories themselves, Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle does not state a date, but in the short story His Last Bow, which takes place in 1914, the master detective is described as sixty years old – the years 1853/54 were thus identified as possible birth years. Morley identified the exact day with eagle-eyed precision: In the canonical Holmes works from Doyle’s hand, Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night is mentioned twice; the titular “twelfth night” refers to the twelfth day after Christmas, that is, 6 January. According to Morley, another indication in favour of this day is the fact that at the beginning of the final novel The Valley of Fear, on 7 January, Holmes is grumpy and ill-tempered, which Morley interprets as the result of a hangover after the preceding birthday celebrations (cf. Fleischhack 248). Admittedly, a rather vague interpretation, but it prevailed, and so this date has since been largely recognised among Sherlockians as the birthday of Sherlock Holmes, a role model not only for our private investigators from Frankfurt/Main.

Viral Marketing and the Sherlockians in the Internet Age

Owing to global networking in the 21st century, the insights and reinterpretations concerning the master detective Sherlock Holmes can be shared far more easily than in the 1930s, 40s and 50s – the early days of the Game. Instead of long waiting times of up to six months between the publication dates of the Sherlock magazines, for example, the Sherlock Holmes Society of London now sends out a monthly newsletter as a PDF to all subscribers (cf. Fleischhack 251). Many individual articles from the journals are freely accessible online, and the groups can exchange views in forums and group chats without relying on difficult-to-organise national or continental meetings. However, many modern clubs now also refer – frowned upon by traditional Holmes societies – to various adaptations. Adaptations that can fundamentally alter or even distort the original literary image of the pioneer of our corporate investigators from Frankfurt a. M. in the public perception and perhaps even already have.

After several episodes of the BBC series Sherlock, particularly popular among young viewers, starring the congenial duo of Benedict Cumberbatch as the London sleuth and Martin Freeman as Dr Watson, had been broadcast, dozens of new groups emerged that discussed the progress of the series and its heroes, compared quotes from series and books and analysed content and structure. In addition, through planned viral marketing on the one hand and through strong self-dynamics within the fan efforts on the other hand, a completely new variant of the then already century-old Great Game, as the Game is also called, developed. Networking, the hype surrounding the series and its broadcast in sixteen countries in their respective national languages brought the franchise enormous popularity without major marketing expenditure: When, for example, the British Prime Minister David Cameron paid an official visit to the People’s Republic of China, members of the public were allowed to ask him questions, and the most frequently asked question was the following: Could he, the British Prime Minister, ensure that the Sherlock series would be broadcast in China (Fleischhack 253)? The desire to engage in detective activity in the manner of Sherlock himself and of course also of our private detectives in Frankfurt is therefore no longer a purely Western phenomenon – Sherlock Holmes is travelling the world as if he had only just been invented.

Fiction Penetrates and Influences Real Life: The “I Believe in Sherlock” Campaign

Just as after the literary death of Sherlock at the Swiss Reichenbach Falls (published 1893), viewers of the BBC series in 2012 reacted shocked and distraught after Holmes’ supposedly fatal fall from St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. However, in the series Sherlock Holmes was not only apparently killed, but his arch-enemy Moriarty also did everything in his power to destroy the good reputation of the private detective; both the police and the public turned against the previously celebrated and infallible Sherlock Holmes. To demonstrate their solidarity with this icon of detective fiction and to take his side publicly, a worldwide fan movement emerged shortly after the broadcast of the final episode of season 2, aiming to restore the good name of their favourite. Under the slogan “I believe in Sherlock Holmes”, fans from all over the world sided with the Londoner and positioned themselves publicly against Moriarty’s accusations.

All over the world, in capitals of countries on all continents, on residential buildings, public squares and public buildings, banners and posters were hung, flyers distributed and demonstrations and flash mobs organised in honour of the eccentric detective. One well-known example is the Tumblr photo blog by “Earl Foolish” – a pseudonym – which has collected 138 posts with information and photos on the movement to this day. At the same time, not only was a literary and therefore fictional hero celebrated, but money was also raised for a good cause and attention generated: The Undershaw Preservation Trust is dedicated to the restoration and preservation of Undershaw, a house designed and inhabited by Holmes’ creator Arthur Conan Doyle and until recently threatened by decay. It becomes clear, not least here, how narrow the boundary between reality and fiction is in the Sherlockian Game, which our corporate detectives in Frankfurt have also taken a liking to.

The Sherlockian Game – A Self-Perpetuating Phenomenon Through the Decades

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the campaign described above is that no clever advertising agency, film studio or series writing team was behind it, but that the impulses for viral Sherlock actions always originated from within the fan community, thereby constituting the best and most honest promotion for the subsequent seasons of the series. Podcasts, YouTube videos and channels, blogs, Tumblrs and lovingly designed websites about the detective of detectives also help keep the London forefather of our detectives in Frankfurt am Main and his legacy alive. Furthermore, the celebrity hype surrounding Martin Freeman, who not only captivated audiences as Dr Watson but also as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, and particularly around series Holmes Benedict Cumberbatch, whose female fans call themselves “Cumberbitches” in a self-mocking manner, ensures that an ever-growing number of younger generations take part in new, no longer strictly scholarly forms of the Game in order to move closer to the ultimate goal of the Sherlockians: to grasp and understand Sherlock Holmes and perhaps one day to be able to be like him.

Bibliography

• Fleischhack, Maria. Die Welt des Sherlock Holmes. Darmstadt: Lambert Schneider, 2015. Print.
• Morley, Christopher. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: A Textbook of Friendship. 1944. Print.
• Roylott, Miss. Validity of Interpretation in Sherlockiana: A Philosophy of Art Paper. Archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20050923120827/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8950/holmes/validity.htm

Author: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

Luxury? Yes, But Cheap Please!

Expensive, showy possessions, lifestyles, accessories and status symbols have been valued since the dawn of civilisation: think of the extravagant Roman feasts in ornamented palaces or the treasure-filled pyramids and pharaonic tombs of ancient Egypt. Today the secular side of this status is represented by everyday luxury such as designer clothing, high-end watches and so on, but also by luxurious homes, expensive cars and costly short breaks in the south. All of these form part of the modern consumer who wishes to demonstrate that ownership has always been and remains an enviable life goal. The problem with this striving for (luxury) possessions are the high acquisition costs: examples include a price of €5,000 for a designer handbag from a famous Paris-based fashion house or sports cars costing as much as a family home, which put such luxury beyond the reach of many.

Clever fraudsters and counterfeiters have therefore for decades exploited this problem in the luxury and branded-goods sectors by offering cheaply manufactured but sometimes deceptively convincing knock-offs of popular brand products at rock-bottom prices, mostly produced in East and Southeast Asia. Whether it is a Chanel bag, a gold Rolex or an Omega wristwatch, luxury car accessories, beauty products of well-known cosmetic manufacturers, football shirts from the Premier League, the Bundesliga, the Primera División or other top leagues, fashionable Nike trainers and much more — counterfeiters cater to less well-off consumers who would like to own the products shown in the media but cannot afford them at official prices and therefore accept imitations. The reasons why police, customs and corporate investigators such as those at Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt pursue the manufacturers of such fakes are manifold and will be touched on in the following text.

Frankfurt am Main Is THE Hub for Counterfeit Goods – Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt Investigates

Our brand detectives from Frankfurt/Main encounter the boldest of fakes, which gullible buyers are sometimes sold for huge sums despite having an actual market value of only a few euros; purchasers nevertheless perceive them as bargains for, say, “genuine” Louboutin high heels. The often bitter and disappointing realisation about an item’s true value and authenticity after a brand verification carried out by the specialists of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt a. M. is therefore common. In the Hessian financial metropolis, however, authenticity checks by our corporate investigators at Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt/Main are particularly frequent and important:

“Mainhattan” is annually listed in the Mercer study as the second most expensive city in Germany (behind Munich) and among the 100 most expensive cities in the world; anyone living here who does not wish to be outshone by the “high society” must earn well and project an expensive lifestyle outwardly in order to belong. Status symbols are thus taken for granted in the German stock-market city. With Germany’s largest airport (and, after London Heathrow and Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, the third largest in Europe), smugglers and counterfeiters have a huge opportunity to transport fakes into Germany and to import counterfeit goods unobtrusively among the 61 million air passengers recorded in 2015 alone. Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt/Main works closely with customs investigators and the police where necessary (example), in order to uncover fraudsters on arrival, expose counterfeit branded goods and thus save the state — and consumers — significant costs, but above all to support the contracting, damaged brand company in its fight against ever bolder counterfeits and the losses associated with them. In 2013 alone, authorities secured 3.9 million counterfeit items with an estimated value of €134 million.

Private Detectives from Frankfurt am Main Help Verify Your Goods — Uncertainties Removed

What many do not know is that not only the counterfeiters and sellers of fake goods can be prosecuted; the buyer may also be criminally liable, because by purchasing the item — for example while on holiday in Turkey or Tunisia — and subsequently importing it into Germany they support the idea-theft of the brand pirates. Individual items may be tolerated by customs to a limited extent, but once there is suspicion of commercial trade in counterfeit goods, no leniency is shown. If you are unsure whether you have bought a genuine branded product or merely a cheaply produced — albeit perhaps expensively paid for — imitation, the product-piracy specialists at Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt/Main will at any time help you examine the authenticity of your product(s) and, where relevant, hold the seller to account: +49 69 1201 8431. Not infrequently, with the help of our detectives the goods can be returned, the purchase price recovered and the responsible vendor prosecuted.

Often it is only small-time dealers who are caught, while the actual manufacturers and counterfeiters remain unknown and at large, thereby continuing to damage worldwide-famous brands and deprive them of income. To uncover the masterminds and structures behind organised product piracy, concerted and long-term investigations are necessary, for which a suitable budget to cover detective fees must be made available.

Intellectual Property — A Worthy Asset to Protect

Not least because of the upcoming World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April, one should recall the damage caused even by the purchase of a few counterfeit holiday souvenirs: although the dark figure of such purchases is almost certainly far higher, experts estimate that the annual damage in the machinery and plant engineering sector alone amounts to €8 billion; moreover, the Handelsblatt speaks of 77 million jobs in Europe potentially at risk in industries affected by counterfeiting. For these reasons the police and customs as well as the detectives and brand specialists of Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt a. M. urge citizens to involve them in cases of dubious alleged brand purchases so that the authenticity of goods can be checked and perpetrators brought to justice. Also to be considered is the danger to human life posed by fake vehicle parts or potentially poisonous medicines and cosmetics, which should give anyone thinking of buying a counterfeit pause for thought.

According to the Handelsblatt, 36 per cent of adults and even around 60 per cent of young people are prepared to buy counterfeit goods in order to save money compared with the retail price of the original producers. Of course, not all purchases of counterfeit products are made knowingly, which is why education must be provided on all sides and each individual bears responsibility both to the economy and to themselves. By involving customs or our brand detectives in Frankfurt am Main, definitive certainty can be obtained and a fair market ensured. If you harbour doubts about the authenticity of your products, contact our corporate investigators for free advice on deployment and options: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de. Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt/Main advocates fully for your interests.

Author: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

StGB § 170 Violation of Maintenance Obligation

(1) Whoever evades a statutory maintenance obligation, thereby endangering the livelihood of the entitled person or would endanger it without the help of others, shall be punished with imprisonment of up to three years or a fine.

Balanced Victim Statistics: Mothers and Fathers Equally Struggle with Child Support and Custody

The above and other legal provisions theoretically protect many parents and their children from poverty and from ex-partners who, after a pregnancy or a failed relationship, wish to quietly disappear from the life of the child they have fathered or mothered, thus potentially depriving both mother and child of the right to a dignified life. In practice, however, this law often provides little help to affected mothers when they lack the necessary evidence to substantiate their claims, or when a father violates the law by relocating anonymously to evade his obligations.

The other side of the coin is equally unpleasant: Even though measures to protect fathers’ rights have been enforced in recent years, mothers still enjoy numerous privileges denied to their male counterparts. What can a father do, for example, who suspects that his former partner and the child’s mother continues to claim child support payments, even though she is in a new marital-like relationship generating sufficient income to support the child and provide all legally mandated comforts? Ultimately, the situation is suboptimal for both parties, especially when it comes to obtaining court-admissible proof of circumstances already clear to oneself.

The IHK-certified private and corporate detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt regularly encounter witnesses to both irresponsible fathers who attempt to completely evade maintenance obligations and audacious fraud attempts by abandoned women who – whether out of revenge, greed, or lack of legal awareness – try to ensure that their ex-partners maintain a comfortable lifestyle for them by continuing to pay separation or post-marital maintenance despite having their own income or remarriage. While the BGB clearly stipulates under §§ 1570–1573 that maintenance payments should at least be reduced when the supported partner is employed, women and men alike sometimes believe they can defraud their former partners. Our private detectives in Frankfurt assist victims – regardless of side or gender – in obtaining court-admissible proof of such child support fraud: +49 69 1201 8431.

Case Example: Refusal to Deliver a Child | Violation of Court-Ordered Custody Agreement

Ralf Messel and Silke Eppstein separated only a few months after the birth of their daughter Jana and were awarded joint custody by the court, with the agreement that the child should live with her mother Silke during the week. Ralf and Silke were both only eighteen when their daughter was born, so Silke left school and Ralf began training as a roofer in order to provide financially for the child. Although disputes between the parents recurred, the shared custody arrangement worked relatively smoothly until Jana started school; Ralf paid his maintenance to Silke, who was unemployed and cared for the daughter and a subsequently born baby of another father, while he visited his daughter regularly and was allowed to take her home on two weekends a month for outings and to participate in her upbringing. A seemingly intact world, which, as the detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt repeatedly observe, can quickly turn for the worse.

All of this changed abruptly when father Ralf found a new girlfriend who often accompanied him on weekend walks and zoo visits with little Jana. Jana began to report at home with increasing enthusiasm about her father, his new girlfriend Marie Neuberg and their outings — until mother Silke eventually refused to hand little Jana over to Ralf on the agreed weekends. Ralf insisted on his right to see Jana at weekends, but Silke remained unmoved even when the involvement of the police was threatened, always claiming Jana was ill, not feeling well or already visiting a friend. As mother Silke had by then acquired a steady partner and shortly afterwards a husband, whom Ralf later alleged to our detectives in Frankfurt was intended to present a picture of a perfect family, she apparently could not bear the thought that her daughter might spend happier days with her father and his girlfriend than with her own small family.

Separated from the Child? Last Resort: Private Detectives

Apart from his desperation over the refusal to hand over his daughter, Ralf soon suspected he was being taken advantage of by Silke. His parents and friends reported that “little Eppstein” allegedly earned extra money in the local neighbourhood by cutting and colouring hair, supplementing her child maintenance and Hartz IV benefits. As noted, mother Silke had meanwhile married her new partner; he was a trained car mechanic and was likewise notorious for “tuning” the cars of rowdy youths by adventurous means and putting money aside in that way.

When the small family later managed to afford an all-inclusive holiday in Italy after Silke had allowed court dates and hearings to lapse for months citing alleged illness for herself or the children, Ralf turned in his desperation to the private detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt. The investigators were tasked with researching whether Silke and her new husband were earning sufficient undeclared income to support themselves. Ralf naturally wished to continue providing for Jana and even sought sole custody in view of the suspected criminal behaviour of Silke and her husband.

Surveillance on Suspicion of Undeclared Work (Illegal Employment)

After our Frankfurt private detectives observed the suspect family for several days, they brought Ralf astounding news: according to a close friend, not only was Silke earning an estimated “more than €600” a month in undeclared cash from her hairdressing activity and thereby wrongfully pocketing a large portion of her Hartz IV benefits, but her husband had also, in order to continue receiving unemployment benefits, secretly taken a mechanic’s job at a nearby garage. The detectives were able to observe both fraudsters en route to their workplaces and on site and to document the activities photographically, thereby providing Ralf with the basis to file criminal charges against his ex-partner for multiple fraud offences.

Father Ralf acted deliberately and did not pursue criminal prosecution of the mother; instead he reached a deal with her: the existing custody arrangement was reversed on the condition that Ralf would not use the evidence gathered by our detectives against Silke. Consequently little Jana lived with her father from then on and saw her mother every other weekend — a circumstance that benefited her somewhat faltering development, because — as was later revealed — mother Silke had spent little time with the child, frequently left her in front of the television and often failed to take her to kindergarten and later to school.

Investigations in Custody and Maintenance Matters by the Private Detectives of Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt

Cases as successful as Ralf Messel’s are rare; however, the chances of a fair trial are dramatically increased when court-admissible evidence is available. The competent team at Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt is ready to assist you in such situations: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de.

Although an initial report to the police can be helpful depending on the circumstances, especially when a parent unlawfully prevents the other parent’s contact with the child, the police and the courts are powerless without hard evidence against the allegedly unlawful parent. It is therefore advisable to obtain free advice from our Frankfurt private detectives about how to proceed in your specific case and which measures should be taken. No parent should be unlawfully disadvantaged in matters of contact with their children or financially; whether it is a mother who fights every day for the maintenance to which she is entitled or a father who, sacrificing his entire labour, supports an ex-wife while she enjoys a comfortable life at his expense.

To preserve discretion and protect the personal rights of clients and targets, all names and places in this case report have been altered beyond recognition.

Author: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

With the now almost annual increases in health insurance contributions, it is not only the insured who are rightfully annoyed, but, as few know, possibly soon also the employers. Within the ranks of the SPD there have long been increasing calls that health insurance contributions should no longer be borne solely by employees but should be paid on a parity basis by employers as well. For the insured this is fundamentally an improvement of the current situation, because next year they must alone bear an increase of up to 0.6 percentage points of their contribution, measured against their income. For employers, however, a parity contribution would mean a double burden that has so far been avoided.

The problem is not the splitting of employees’ health insurance contributions as such, but the fact that employers already have to bear high pecuniary burdens: during the first six weeks of continued payment of wages for sick employees they bear the contributions entirely themselves without any participation by the health insurers or by the sick employees (with the exception of companies covered by U1). From experience, not only many employers but also the detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt can attest that not all medical certificates of incapacity for work are lawfully obtained.

Continued Payment of Wages in Case of Illness: Costs of €51 Billion a Year for Employers

The statutory — to say nothing of the public — health insurers stubbornly refuse to come to employers’ aid by contributing to the costs arising from continued payment of wages earlier than after six weeks, even though, as Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt can confirm on the basis of many observations, a not insignificant share of these ongoing costs is likely paid to employees who are malingering. According to the dpa, these costs amount to €51 billion per year that employers must shoulder alone.

These €51 billion are paid to employees who, due to their sick note, do not provide any counter-performance (and therefore cannot). This results not only in losses for the affected employers but for the entire German economy and its capital to the tune of billions. Consequently Eric Schweitzer, President of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), told the Rheinische Post: “If politicians want to reintroduce parity financing and increase the employer contribution, we must also discuss parity financing of continued wage payments.” He further stated that this sum corresponds to a multiple of what employees have to pay in additional contributions to their health insurance.

Despite Being Signed Off Sick: Employees Take on Secondary Jobs

A not insignificant part of the €51 billion paid out for sick leave is unjustifiably claimed: while truly ill employees have a natural claim to continued pay, more and more cases arise that are, in fact, wage-continuation fraud by employees on sick leave. Employees go on what is thus a paid holiday during their sick leave or take up an undeclared secondary job in order to be paid twice.

To get to grips with this growing problem, it makes sense to engage the private and corporate detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt, who can detect wage-continuation fraud by means of various methods and substantiate it in a court-admissible manner. These methods employed by our Frankfurt private detectives include, on the one hand, location-independent social-media research — checking and cross-referencing sick-note data with posts, photos and comments that indicate fraudulent sick leave. On the other hand, the detectives of Kurtz Investigations Frankfurtoperate primarily on site, conducting surveillance of the suspect employee at their residence or at the suspected second job and documenting their activities photographically.

Brazen Confidence? Not If You Know How to Help Yourself.

No matter how much you trust your staff, there are always bad apples. Thus it can happen that a long-serving, diligent secretary is unmasked as a malingerer by a holiday photo posted on Facebook during her certified sick leave; likewise, after repeated sick notes and an initial suspicion, an employee who is persistently conspicuous in a negative sense may be observed by the private and corporate detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt and photographed attending the gym at supposedly restorative weekends, pumping iron and, to top it all off, participating in bodybuilding competitions during two or three periods of sick leave each year. The damage resulting from such fraudulent actions runs, as mentioned, into double-digit billions, which clearly shows how much more money could be invested in development, research or the expansion of the German economy if such offences could be curbed.

When May Detectives Investigate? The Initial Suspicion.

If an employee is signed off sick several times a month and appears surprisingly well-rested after the weekend, how should one react? Before commissioning a corporate investigation agency such as Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt, a justified initial suspicion must exist, because our detectives must be able to present a court-resistant ground for suspicion in order to document wage-continuation fraud for use in court. Of course employees have a protected private sphere, which is only insufficiently protected against surveillance if there is a concrete suspicion. If the employee always gives the same reason for their sick note or, at the other extreme, constantly different and very specific reasons (and these are perhaps always certified by the same GP who is a friend of the employee), our Frankfurt detectives may be engaged.

In the best case for the company and the employee the suspicion proves unfounded and the once-suspected staff member is cleared; in the economically perhaps most favourable — because detective costs are recoverable — but humanly disappointing case, actual wage-continuation fraud is uncovered, documented and passed on to the employer, which may lead to a warning or, in the more likely event of an obvious breach of trust and economic harm to the company, to dismissal of the employee. If you have questions or uncertainties about which grounds for suspicion are justified or about other issues related to commissioning the corporate investigators of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt, our investigators are always available to assist you: +49 69 1201 8431.

Author: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

For the format “M19 – the long interview” on the radio station Mephisto 97.6, Patrick Kurtz, owner of Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt, spoke for an hour with editor-in-chief Paula Drope about the detective profession. In the fourth part, the focus is on fictional role models for our Frankfurt private detectives. You can find the third part about observations by detectives here.

Cliché: Do Detectives Have Arch-Enemies?

Paula Drope: “I cannot get around it, I still have to ask a cliché question about detectives.”

Patrick Kurtz: “Yes, gladly.”

Paula Drope: “Do you have an arch-enemy, straight out of a book?”

Patrick Kurtz (laughs): “No. Not that I know of, at least.”

Paula Drope: “You would normally know if you had an arch-enemy.”

Patrick Kurtz: “Not necessarily. Perhaps one is someone’s arch-enemy without knowing it and without that other person being one’s own arch-enemy. That seems more likely to me.”

Paula Drope (laughs): “That brings us to your second music request. It is the song Madman by Peter Cornell. Why did you choose this track?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Peter Cornell is the brother of Chris Cornell. Chris Cornell is one of my favourite musicians of all time. I find all the projects he ever started excellent, apart from one album that he unfortunately produced with Timbaland. Through Chris Cornell I discovered Peter Cornell, who has now released his first solo album. I believe that was last year, initially only as an MP3 download. He is still completely unknown. It is great that he was able to realise it at all. Because he is so unknown and because I still think his music is great, I would like to have it played here.”

Paula Drope: “Madman by Peter Cornell.”

Detective Stereotypes | Keyword: Sherlock Holmes

Paula Drope: “Welcome back to M19, the long interview on Mephisto 97.6. My guest, the detective Patrick Kurtz, and I have been talking the whole time about life as a private detective in Frankfurt. Now we have to come to role models, and who could be a greater role model than Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, his many successors in novels? Do you have such a role model for the detective profession? Is Sherlock Holmes the role model?”

Patrick Kurtz: “He is definitely my favourite fictional detective. I have a whole lot of memorabilia in the office, complete editions in English and German, a pipe stand with a Sherlock Holmes emblem, pictures, of course DVDs and Blu-rays, CDs, audio CDs, all sorts of things.”

Paula Drope: “If you look at these fictional characters, on the one hand there is this pipe-smoking detective wearing a trench coat in foggy London, and on the other the single, rough, whisky-drinking detective from the Bronx. You yourself smoke a pipe, you told us earlier, since you were 14. Do you perhaps have something in common with these stereotypes after all?”

Patrick Kurtz: “With the American stereotypes of private detectives, rather less so. With the British ones, especially Sherlock Holmes, rather more, because I also spend a lot of time sitting in my armchair, smoking a pipe and enjoying a book. However, I play the guitar, not the violin [laughs]. There are some points of overlap, but they are not reflected all that strongly in the actual work, because Sherlock Holmes operates on genius-level deductions that are not necessary for us, as our cases are structured quite differently. We do not have to solve mysteries, but mostly deal with things that can be observed by our detectives in Frankfurt.”

Paula Drope: “Do you sometimes appear a bit eccentric to your staff in your detective office?”

Patrick Kurtz: “I cannot tell you that, you would have to ask them, or rather: you would have to ask them yourselves.”

Tips from Fiction for Everyday Professional Life as a Private Detective?

Paula Drope: “Which of these detective images is rather unrealistic?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Above all, the image of the detective as a lone fighter. That is simply hardly feasible today, because, as mentioned earlier, you need relationships with authorities and many other contacts, and of course with colleagues. Without them, it does not work.”

Paula Drope: “You have already said that you have Sherlock Holmes in all sorts of versions standing around in your office. I would assume you are a big fan?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Yes.”

Paula Drope: “Have you perhaps learned something from these books and maybe been able to apply things to your everyday work as a detective in Frankfurt?”

Patrick Kurtz: “I think that as a teenager I was able to take a great deal from them, especially in terms of logical thinking and problem-solving. Probably more subconsciously. It is not the case that when I actually became a detective, I looked at Sherlock Holmes books and checked what I could adopt. I did try that to some extent with the Sherlock portrayal by Benedict Cumberbatch, but I reached my limits there [laughs]. I think you do pick up something subconsciously, but consciously I did not select anything specific.”

Paula Drope: “On the other hand, do you also like reading a Swedish crime novel now and then?”

Patrick Kurtz: “So far, rather less. It is on my list, but I have not often managed to get around to it.”

Paula Drope: “But in general, you would still do so?”

Patrick Kurtz: “Yes, of course, when I have time. I do not have much time.”

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

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The Detective Through the Ages – Part 2

In Part 1 of our series “The Detective Through the Ages”, we focused on the “forefather” of all private detectives: Eugène François Vidocq. As brilliant and creative as he was in the field of criminalistics, his exceptional position in the history of private investigations was ultimately also due to the right timing in which he operated. A time that favoured the development of the profession of “detective” and from which, in the long term, today’s investigative services such as Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt emerged.

Professionalisation of Criminalistics | Bow Street Runners

Criminalistics began to professionalise more and more shortly before Vidocq’s time: an organised police force as we know it today practically did not exist around 1800, and the fight against crime was therefore usually only partially funded by public money and to a large extent privately organised. As early as the middle of the 18th century, semi-professional groups for gathering information and combating crime were formed – in other words, the very early relatives of today’s private detectives in Frankfurt. The “Bow Street Runners”, for example, were a kind of security unit founded as early as 1742 by the London magistrate Henry Fielding. Fielding was not only a senior official, but also a novelist and playwright – an early indication that detective work already seemed to be intertwined with the literary arts at a very early stage, long before Poe and Doyle.

Fielding’s Bow Street Runners achieved groundbreaking results in criminal investigative work: they brought structure to crime fighting and aimed at the systematic gathering of information, usually by operating within the “milieu”, in ordinary street clothes, and obtaining information in pubs or on the street with the help of their contacts. In this respect, they were in some ways the forerunners of today’s Frankfurt detectives, although, due to their official function, they were still far removed from the detective in the classical sense. The Bow Street Runners can therefore be understood more as precursors of the organised police, in this case Scotland Yard. They brought at least a certain degree of order to an increasingly confusing world, especially in what was then the largest metropolis in the world: London.

Population Boom and Urbanisation Fuel Crime – Historical Increase in Detective Fields of Activity

The demand for professional investigations by private detective agencies quickly became enormous – not only in England – due to social circumstances. The early 19th century was a time of major urbanisation and rural exodus. More and more people had to be fed, yet in the countryside the masses soon found themselves unable to do so as industrialisation progressed, and therefore moved to nearby small towns, hoping for better opportunities for work and thus money for food. Cities grew, and eventually the first large cities emerged, albeit hardly comparable to the situation today. Even Berlin had only just over 400,000 inhabitants around 1850 – fifty years earlier it had not even reached 200,000.

However, wherever people congregate and urban living situations arise, there is also – unfortunately, such is human nature – mistrust, deceit and fraud. Outside the village community, people often lose their sense of collective identity and feel unprotected. It is ultimately only within the “protection of the masses” that detective agencies such as Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt are able to conduct covert investigations at all. In a village with five houses, it is difficult to carry out detective work unnoticed, especially at a time when the world was not yet so interconnected and village communities were more or less self-contained. People also quickly realise that the threshold for deceit and fraud drops drastically in the anonymity of the city – mistrust arises. Dispelling or confirming this mistrust has been one of the core tasks of Kurtz Private Detective Agency Frankfurt to this day.

Emergence of the First Detective Agencies

That investigative offices such as Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt are an important point of contact for those seeking help was already recognised in Vidocq’s time by other enterprising contemporaries who took up the idea: if there was evidently a growing demand for investigative services, why not jump on the bandwagon directly? A certain degree of specialisation helped from the very beginning. Some detective agencies offered, quite plainly, a kind of private security service (with armed personnel), while others specialised more in commercial intelligence for businesspeople who did not want to operate blindly when potential new business partners were involved. Yet others remained in the private sphere: the unfaithful husband or the wife with obscure appointments are certainly not inventions of modern times – and even today these private investigations still account for a significant proportion of the work of our private detectives in Frankfurt.

Thus, visionary men increasingly distanced themselves from official investigative work in the service of the government and devoted themselves to what, after Vidocq, would become famous in the 1840s as classical detective work and reads much like the case portfolio of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt in the 2010s: deceit and fraud, infidelity, embezzlement and the solving of mysteries. Who these men were, and how they would become famous – more on that in Part 3.

Author: Gerrit Koehler

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

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Requirements for the Detective Profession

Detective agencies such as Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt are in Germany a trade pursuant to § 14 of the Trade Regulation Act (GewO); unfortunately, a special professional qualification is not required in this country. Only the registration of the trade and the personal suitability are necessary, which is evidenced, among other things, by a certificate of good conduct free of entries, but should also include professional qualifications such as the IHK certificate Fachkraft Detektiv or many years of experience in the service of investigative authorities.

Also, continuing professional education is not tied to statutory requirements; it is undertaken voluntarily by each individual detective, which is why the range of expertise in the industry varies widely.

The supervision of detective agencies by state institutions follows from § 35 GewO: the trade may be prohibited if facts demonstrate the unreliability of the detective.

Legal Powers of Detectives

Various television programmes give the impression on a daily basis that detectives have special powers or even roam around armed — this is a fallacy. Detectives such as the private investigators of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt and Hesse do not possess special rights, which are largely reserved for state authorities such as customs, the police or the public prosecutor’s office. No, the powers of detectives essentially derive from the so-called “everyman’s rights”. The following gives a plain-language explanation of these everyman’s rights. Fundamentally, there are powers relevant under criminal law and under civil law:

Relevant Powers of Detectives in the Sense of Criminal Law

§ 32 StGB (Criminal Code) Self-Defence
Self-defence is the defence that is necessary to avert a present unlawful attack on oneself or another.

§ 34 StGB Justifying Necessity
If one commits an act (for example the removal of a movable object belonging to another) in order thereby to avert a present danger that cannot otherwise be averted to life, limb, freedom, honour or property of oneself or others, one does not act unlawfully insofar as the act is an appropriate means to avert the danger.

Relevant Powers of Detectives in the Sense of Civil Law

Civil law likewise recognises self-defence and the so-called state of necessity. These are listed in § 227 et seq. of the Civil Code (BGB). Further provisions relevant for the private detectives and corporate investigators of Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt include:

§ 229 BGB Self-Help
Whoever takes, destroys or damages a thing for the purpose of self-help, or who for the purpose of self-help detains a person who is suspected of flight or removes the resistance of an obliged person against an act which the latter is obliged to tolerate, does not act unlawfully if official assistance cannot be obtained in time and without immediate intervention there is a danger that the enforcement of the claim would be frustrated or substantially impeded.

In addition, detectives — like any other citizen — are permitted to carry out a provisional detention pursuant to § 127 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO), provided the offender is caught in the act, an identification cannot be carried out or cannot be carried out otherwise and police assistance is not immediately available.

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt

Germany is well supplied with dentists, with only a few countries offering better coverage. Hesse in particular is more than adequately served, with around 83 dentists per 100,000 inhabitants. This naturally means that competition is fierce in the home region of the private investigators of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt. This is something Dr Henning Wolf experiences time and again. He recently approached Kurtz Private Detective Agency Frankfurt to ask for assistance. Three years ago, the Frankfurt dentist opened a group practice in the Ostend district together with a former fellow student and has since been suffering from intense competitive pressure, particularly caused by aggressive discounting in the field of dental prosthetics, as Wolf explains.

“I have ongoing costs and loans to repay for my studies and the practice, so I simply cannot keep up.” He stresses that this is not about paying off a proverbial Porsche or buying a villa with a swimming pool: “The clichés of the wealthy dentist are, of course, widely known and often not entirely unfounded, but in reality there is fierce competition among dentists, just like in any other sector.” His aim is not to become rich quickly, but to remain competitive within the framework of fair and transparent competition. However, he increasingly has the feeling that honesty and fairness are sometimes lacking, and he wants to be certain. This is why Wolf decides to enlist the help of our private investigators in Frankfurt.

One particular colleague has come under closer scrutiny. This dentist opened a practice in Frankfurt shortly after Dr Wolf, operating alone rather than in a group practice, yet already boasts a more than respectable patient base and apparently above-average economic success. Wolf himself has noticed the occasional patient drifting away. “Of course I’m jealous,” Wolf admits candidly to the detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt, “and if he’s simply a brilliant dentist, then good luck to him – but I don’t want any dodgy dealings at the expense of colleagues and, above all, patients.” Ultimately, it was not mere envy that prompted him to contact our private investigators in Frankfurt, but tangible indications whose validity he wanted Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt to examine.

According to Wolf, online reviews and first-hand reports suggest that the colleague in question has few outstanding qualities to justify such immense success. His manual skills do not appear to be exceptional, nor does his manner with patients. Yet everyone seems to agree on one point: in some respects, he is unbeatable on price. “Word spreads quickly,” Dr Wolf explains. “Money doesn’t go as far as it used to. Particularly when it comes to dental prosthetics, bridges and crowns, costs can quickly run into several thousand euros – and people are often happy to choose the cheapest option without asking too many questions.” In Frankfurt dental circles, rumours suggest that something is not quite right with this colleague. Although Wolf himself does not like to rely on gossip, he wants to know for sure. For years, it has been common practice to have dental prosthetics manufactured abroad, since a simple crown that costs at least 200 euros in Germany can be 70 to 80 per cent cheaper in Eastern Europe or even the Far East. However, this must be explicitly requested by the patient, the production process must be transparent, and the savings must directly benefit the patient. The dilemma is obvious: German-made dental prosthetics are indisputably world-leading in terms of quality and durability, which is why many patients harbour reservations about foreign products. At the same time, this quality is naturally reflected in the price. As our private investigators from Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt soon discover, the suspicious colleague appears to exploit precisely this gap. Blessed with a natural dentist allergy, one of our private investigators from Frankfurt nevertheless sees a good opportunity to gather the background information required by our client and makes a long-overdue dental appointment.

This initially proves to be anything but easy, as Dr Teichmann’s waiting list is, as expected, long. However, our Frankfurt investigator succeeds in conveying a sense of urgency (naturally blamed on toothache), and a timely appointment is indeed arranged – not entirely to the detective’s delight. “I would have preferred to take on a gang of fifteen thugs, but you do what you must for the client,” he later remarks with a grin. A crown is indeed urgently required, but what the dentist does not realise is that this is not the real purpose of the visit. The initial impression confirms what had already been suspected. The dentist, while not unskilled, is certainly not outstanding, and his manner with patients is hardly his greatest strength; he appears unsympathetic and rushed. When it comes to the crucial point, the suspicion fully crystallises. Our Frankfurt detective suggests that he will probably have to bite the bullet, but given the estimated cost, he can only afford very little and asks whether something could be done as cheaply as possible. Under certain circumstances, a discount of 30, perhaps even 40 per cent might be possible, the target person replies, though he would have to check. Our investigator seizes the opportunity and explicitly asks whether it would be possible to use dental prosthetics from abroad. This is immediately dismissed. No, they do not do that at all; they only want the best quality for their patients and work exclusively with a dental laboratory based in Germany. When asked which laboratory that is and where it is located, the dentist becomes somewhat evasive, but then produces a small brochure, which he hands to the private investigator from Frankfurt. Everything can be found there: only the finest, impeccably crafted products from Germany. The investigator from Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt thanks him politely and takes his leave, saying he will think the matter over carefully.

That is precisely what our private investigators in Frankfurt then do – though not in the way the dentist might expect. Using the brochure, one thing quickly becomes clear. The dental laboratory described does indeed exist in Germany, and its impeccable website confirms this. However, the investigators from Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt soon grow suspicious. The laboratory is supposedly located in Ludwigsdorf, a small village belonging to Görlitz, just over an hour’s drive from Dresden. The client is immediately informed of this finding and sees his suspicion confirmed. A discount of 30 to 40 per cent would be impossible with German production; anything over 20 per cent would be dubious. Görlitz is, as is well known, located directly on the German-Polish border, and Dr Wolf readily agrees with the suggestion that our investigators should take a closer look at the dental laboratory.

The very next morning, colleagues from Kurtz Detective Agency Dresden set off for Ludwigsdorf and reach their destination in under an hour. As it turns out, it is a very charming little village with fewer than 800 inhabitants – and with almost absolute certainty not the site of a dental laboratory. The address listed on the website turns out to be an inconspicuous rental property. Nevertheless, the name of the laboratory appears on the letterbox and doorbell. No one seems to be present, so the detectives from Kurtz Detective Agency Dresden decide to keep an eye on the property for a few hours, in the hope that the mystery might resolve itself. And indeed, shortly afterwards, in the early afternoon, a rather unremarkable VW estate car pulls up and stops in front of the house. However, its Polish number plate immediately attracts the attention of the Dresden detectives. The driver gets out and enters the building, only to return to the car a few minutes later with a stack of envelopes under his arm before driving off again. The idea of questioning the driver about the listed dental laboratory is immediately abandoned. Instead, our private investigators pick up the trail and follow the vehicle. The suspicion is confirmed. The journey leads back to Dresden and then on via Leipzig to Frankfurt am Main, where the car visits various dental practices, remaining at each for around half an hour. When the fourth practice in Frankfurt turns out to be that of the target person, our detectives have seen enough. It is obvious that the seemingly low-cost dental prosthetics are indeed not being handled above board. The client of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt is informed of this on site.

It is now certain that the target person and at least three other dentists in Dresden, Leipzig and Frankfurt have in fact had their inlays, crowns and bridges produced cheaply in Poland, while billing health insurers and patients at the higher rates applicable to German-made dental prosthetics. The client of our Frankfurt detectives will not only soon be able to look forward to more patients, but can already take satisfaction in the knowledge that it was not envy or resentment, but the right instinct that led him to commission Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt with these investigations.

Image Credits

A case that was also very moving for us was recently brought to a happy conclusion by the detectives of Kurtz Private Detective Agency Frankfurt, reuniting a daughter with her mother. Hannelore K. had not heard from her daughter Maike (18) for more than five days. Maike had apparently left the shared flat in Frankfurt’s Ostend district deliberately and had not contacted her mother since; she also did not answer her mobile phone. All she left behind was a short note: “I’m gone, don’t worry.” She had taken a few belongings with her, and since she was of legal age and had apparently left of her own accord, the police were unable to intervene. Hannelore K. therefore decided to approach the private detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt in order to find out where Maike was staying, using the few tenuous clues available. Mrs K. was, of course, explicitly informed by our Frankfurt investigators that we would only be permitted to disclose Maike’s whereabouts if Maike were staying there involuntarily and/or if there were imminent danger and/or if Maike consented to the forwarding of this information.

Hannelore K. feared the worst: Maike had long been associating with the drug scene around Frankfurt’s main railway station, and her mother now suspected that she might be drugged and held in some brothel. Our Frankfurt investigators promised to do everything in their power to locate Maike, fully aware that the clues were extremely sparse: only the first name of Maike’s boyfriend and the name of a bar in the station district where the two had often spent time in the past were known. The IHK-certified detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt began their investigation as usual online, searching for the bar where Maike and her boyfriend were said to be known. However, the bar had no online presence and was unknown even to the private detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt, despite their excellent local knowledge. This is where contacts within the Frankfurt scene proved invaluable: yes, the bar was known, a source who wished to remain anonymous revealed; he had managed to buy drugs there several times without interference from the public order office or even the police – naturally only cannabis, as he assured our Frankfurt private investigators. In return, our investigators reassured him that we were not interested in his drug use, but rather in the whereabouts of Maike K., and he promised to lead our Frankfurt private investigators to the bar in question in exchange for a small fee.

The detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt were taken to the flat, or rather the accommodation, where Maike was staying. Fortunately, the girl appeared to be in good health, although she was clearly under the influence of drugs, but at least still seemingly reasonably lucid. The room smelled strongly of marijuana; fortunately, there were no signs of the use of harder drugs.

Maike was surprised to learn that her mother had apparently moved heaven and earth to find her, as she had assumed that she was more or less indifferent to her. In a long conversation, our Frankfurt detectives were able to convince Maike that this was by no means the case and that she was sorely missed at home. As had already emerged in discussions with the client, repeated arguments and disputes had arisen between mother and daughter, making living together increasingly difficult. Fortunately, Maike was nevertheless persuaded to at least seek a conversation with her mother on neutral ground, with the investigators of Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt promising to mediate. However, she was adamant that she would not come along directly, so despite her comparatively stable condition, our detectives were unable, with heavy hearts, to bring Maike back to her mother straight away. The mother was, however, informed immediately and briefed on the situation, including the fact that, according to Maike, the only way to win her back would be a meeting involving a thorough and honest discussion.

Even we, as hardened detectives from Frankfurt, are deeply moved and delighted that the discussion not only took place through our mediation, but was also very successful: Maike has since moved back in with her mother, although the two certainly had a great deal to resolve and discuss that even we cannot help with, particularly Maike’s drug use. We at Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt are therefore all very pleased that the case had such a positive outcome and wish Hannelore K. and her daughter Maike all the very best from the bottom of our hearts.

To safeguard discretion and the personal rights of clients and target persons, all names and locations in this case report have been altered beyond recognition.

Author: Gerrit Koehler

Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt

c/o AT Büro Center

Mainzer Landstraße 341

60326 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Tel.: +49 69 1201 8431

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-frankfurt.de/en

Google: https://g.page/kurtz-detektei-frankfurt