German Millionaire Says He Was Treated Well By His Captors Details Revealed After Police Lift News Blackout On Kidnapping

For four weeks millionaire Jan Philipp Reemtsma was chained to a cellar wall, sleeping on a cot and reading books. Meanwhile, his family and friends placed newspaper ads and drove hundreds of miles in a desperate effort to arrange his release.

After two botched attempts to pay ransom, family friends left $20 million in Swiss francs and German marks along a highway - the largest ransom ever paid in Germany. Reemtsma was freed unharmed late Friday.

Police lifted a news blackout on Saturday and revealed details of the monthlong saga for the first time.

Reemtsma, 43, who sold his share of the family tobacco business in 1980 for $200 million to devote himself to literary and social causes, was kidnapped March 25 in front of his villa in an upscale section of Hamburg.

He was released on a street in Maschen, just south of Hamburg, apparently in good condition, Michael Daleki, head of the police task force, said at a news conference in Hamburg.

The kidnappers gave Reemtsma a prepaid telephone card, but he found a house with a light on and called his wife, Ann-Katrin, from there.

In a letter read at the news conference, Reemtsma said he was “exhausted and happy” and offered “very special thanks to the Hamburg police and the journalists” who observed the news blackout.

Family friends had dropped off the ransom on Thursday on an autobahn near Krefeld, a city near the Dutch border about 150 miles from Hamburg.

It was the third attempt to make the payment. The first try, by Reemtsma’s wife and a lawyer, failed because of what police called imprecise instructions from the kidnappers. The second time they were told to go first to Luxembourg, then to a spot near Trier in western Germany, to drop off the money, but it was never picked up.

“The kidnappers learned from the two failed attempts,” Daleki said.

Reemtsma told police he was walking outside his house at night when he was jumped by a man who beat him around the face. A second man helped carry him to a waiting car, driven by a third man.

The kidnappers left behind a letter, weighted down with a hand grenade, demanding 20 million marks, about $13 million. They later raised the ransom to 30 million marks, or $20 million.

The kidnappers threatened to kill their captive if the family notified the police or media.

Aside from the initial beating, Reemtsma told police he was treated fairly and humanely. He was kept in a cellar room with the windows covered, a 2-yard-long chain attached to his ankle and the wall. The kidnappers provided meals and reading material and even changed the sheets regularly on his cot.

The kidnappers sent Polaroid photos and handwritten letters from Reemtsma as proof he was alive. But in the final days, they threatened to send one of his fingers, police said.

The family and the kidnappers communicated through classified ads in the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper, a local tabloid. In one, Reemtsma told his wife, “I need a sign.” The family responded: “We are doing everything that you want.”

Reemtsma told police the kidnappers spoke English among themselves and to him, but they spoke German during phone calls to the family. Police said they believe the kidnappers were German.

The Hamburg-based Reemtsma cigarette company was founded in 1917 and is Germany’s second-largest, manufacturing brands including Peter Stuyvesant.