A Mysterious Fall from a Window

Leipzig 1986 – Hotel Astoria

Forty years after the mysterious death of Bonn government official Alfons Reiser in the GDR, a historian has now written a book. Extensive research into the complex web of inter-German jurisdictions and investigations at the time formed the basis for this novel.

Since its publication in June 2026, this book has set quite a few things in motion. Alfons Reiser’s former employer, the Ministry of Agriculture, has now conducted its own investigation—and, surprisingly, the criminal investigation department in Leipzig has reopened the case. The relevant archives remain closed to this day, even to family members. A mysterious case.

The novel: On June 23, 1986, a West German government official dies under mysterious circumstances at the Hotel Astoria in Leipzig while on a business trip. Twenty-seven years later, his daughter received a strange phone call: it had been murder. She begins to investigate, hoping to finally put her doubts about his death to rest. But the opposite turned out to be true. She delves deep into files and into German-German history, meeting the last eyewitness who had seen her father in the hotel bar shortly before his death. The book dissects the events surrounding Alfons Reiser’s death in an almost documentary style.

But the central question remains to this day: Was it an accident, suicide, or murder—with intelligence agencies involved?



PARTICIPANTS

Katrin Reiser, Author

Dr. August Hanning Former President of the BND

Dieter Dombrowski Chairman of the Associations of Victims of Communist Tyranny

Tadeos Adam Eyewitness, Interpreter

MODERATOR

Prof. Dr. Helmut Müller-Enbergs, Political ScientistTranslated with DeepL

Next date:

• Date Tuesday, 08/September/2026 19:00
• Venue Deutsches Spionagemuseum
• Address Leipziger Platz 9, 10117 Berlin-Mitte