Patrick Kurtz: "The Sherlock Holmes of Bonn" – Interview with the Bonner General-Anzeiger

Last year, the Bonner General-Anzeiger published an article by Nadine Klees about Kurtz Investigations Bonn. We are now providing a delayed transcript of this article:

 

BONN. Patrick Kurtz runs a corporate investigation agency with a total of 27 offices across Germany. And the case numbers in the field of economic crime in North Rhine-Westphalia show: the business idea has a future.

In a detective office in Bad Godesberg

Between the German and Danish borders, Patrick Kurtz is tracking a fraudster. A businessman in North Rhine-Westphalia is alleged to have purchased goods worth €400,000 but never paid for them. His task: find the Hamburg businessman and determine what happened to the goods. Patrick Kurtz runs a corporate investigation agency with 27 offices across Germany.

 

His Bonn office is located in the attic of a residential building in Bad Godesberg. The approach evokes a backroom atmosphere: behind a fire door opens a dark, narrow corridor. There are no windows. The smell of pipe smoke lingers in the air. But behind the last door, professionalism resumes: in a light-filled room, Kurtz sits at his tidy desk. He apologises for the smell: “I started smoking a pipe when I was 14.” At that time, he also read detective novels. But he never thought he would actually pursue this profession.

 

Most of his clients are companies, including a DAX-listed corporation. They want him to investigate whether employees are engaged in unauthorised secondary employment, genuinely ill, or even stealing from the company. Kurtz also acts in cases of misappropriation of goods and breaches of competition law.

Economic crime on the rise

“Currently I have five permanent employees,” he explains. In addition, he cooperates with 40 to 50 freelance investigators, including former Stasi and BND staff, as well as former police officers and surveillance technicians. “There are about ten experts in counter-surveillance in Germany; I work with six of them. Two of them were with the Stasi.” He has run his own agency since 2013. His service fee is €59 per hour. According to his own statements, the number of cases he handles increases year on year.

 

Likewise, case numbers in economic crime in North Rhine-Westphalia are rising. According to the State Office of Criminal Investigation, there has been more than a six percent increase compared with the previous year. The total damage from offences in 2015 amounted to more than €648 million. Competition-related offences in particular have increased sharply.

 

Among other cases, the Bonn Regional Court last year convicted members of an internationally operating offender group. The main suspects, originating from China, had for years been importing counterfeit watches into the European market. Competition violations are therefore a recurring theme for Kurtz. However, he also deals with “smaller fish”: for example, employees who illegally work simultaneously for two companies in the same sector.

Training at the Security Academy in Berlin

Observing targets or being employed under falsified CVs to obtain information is part of a detective’s daily work. However, there are rules and clear limits for his investigations, Kurtz explains: “Private premises are off-limits, and photographs of targets may only be released by court order.” This means the photos serve as evidence for Kurtz. They are generally not passed on to clients.

 

Kurtz learned his trade at the Security Academy in Berlin, where a recognised IHK certificate course is offered for detective specialists. In six months, after studying literature, he trained to become an investigator: “The course was originally supposed to be just a stopgap until my next degree,” Kurtz recounts. But it went well, and he continued.

 

There are no statutory licensing requirements for the profession. The Federal Association of German Detectives (BDD) recommends the Central Office for Detective Training (ZAD) for basic training. According to the association, anyone who has worked for two years as a detective after this basic training may call themselves a “Certified Detective.” According to the association, there are more than 1,500 private detective agencies in Germany.

 

Authorities are now dealing with the case at the Danish border. Kurtz observed employees of the Hamburg businessman for days until he struck a deal with one of them: money in exchange for the required information. This at least created the conditions for the police to act. Even so, the businessman has yet to recover his money.

Kurtz Detective Agency Bonn

Zeppelinstraße 8

53177 Bonn

Tel.: +49 228 2861 4084

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

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

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