MELINA MÖRSDORF

Jan Philipp Reemtsma is a literary and social scientist, publicist, patron and founder of the Institute for Social Research in Hamburg. He sold the shares he inherited from his father, the cigarette manufacturer Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma, in the Reemtsma Group, which has since been sold off completely. He has dealt with the subject of violence from sociological, philosophical and historical perspectives. In 1996, he was kidnapped on his private property in Hamburg. There were several perpetrators, but one main perpetrator, Thomas Drach, who was later caught. Drach extorted 15 million German marks and 12.5 million Swiss francs. It is the highest sum ever extorted by kidnapping in the Federal Republic. After the handover, Reemtsma was released. Most of the money has not turned up to this day. I met him on the subject of forgiveness.