First civil trials open over Gelsenkirchen safe-deposit heist, with 650 victims claiming €51 million

The courtroom

The first two civil lawsuits against Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen opened on Thursday afternoon before the Essen Regional Court. An 83-year-old woman, Rita M., is claiming €391,000 in cash and jewellery she says was stored in her safe-deposit box. Her lawyer stated the money came from the sale of a condominium and constituted her entire retirement provision. A second case, heard immediately afterwards, involves a 63-year-old man seeking nearly €49,000 for stolen gold coins and family heirlooms, including his grandparents' wedding rings.

In my safe-deposit box was my retirement provision in gold. And my mother's estate, the family inheritance. That is very painful for me, because there were some pieces in there that my heart is very attached to.

Presiding judge Stefan Ostheide was expected to ask both parties about their willingness to settle, as is customary in civil proceedings. Court officials indicated a settlement was unlikely.

The plaintiffs' case

Attorney Daniel Kuhlmann, based in Datteln, represents both claimants and roughly 650 victims in total. He puts the aggregate loss for his clients alone at €51.5 million. The two cases are intended as test cases; a favourable ruling could pressure the bank to acknowledge the claims of his remaining clients.

Kuhlmann accuses the savings bank of grave security failings. He commissioned an expert report arguing that industry-standard practice would have required video surveillance of walls, ceilings, the vault room, and even the parking garage. The report also contends that a fire door leading to the stairwell should have been checked for tampering before the Christmas weekend. Kuhlmann noted that the facility is the second-largest safe-deposit installation in Germany.

The bank's defence

Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen rejects all allegations. It maintains that numerous security measures were in place and that it committed no breach of duty. The bank also points to a contractual insurance cap: safe-deposit boxes were insured for a maximum of €10,300 unless a higher sum had been explicitly agreed. The bank says it had no knowledge of the contents of the boxes it rented out and disputes whether claimants can prove they owned what they reported stolen.

The heist

During the long Christmas weekend at the end of 2025, unknown perpetrators entered the Sparkasse branch in Gelsenkirchen-Buer. They accessed an underground car park, then moved through a fire door into a stairwell and into an archive room. From there, they used a large core drill to bore through a thick concrete wall into the vault. Over several hours they forced open nearly all of the roughly 3,100 safe-deposit boxes and escaped with cash, gold, and jewellery.

Staff discovered the break-in on 29 December 2025, the first working day after the holiday. A fire alarm at the branch had been triggered at 3:58 that morning, but responding firefighters found a ransacked bank rather than a blaze. Police initially estimated the loss in the mid-double-digit millions of euros, though the total could reach a triple-digit million figure. Almost six months later, there is no hot lead on the perpetrators, who are believed to have planned the operation meticulously. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, investigators are pursuing concrete leads.

What comes next

Eight further civil cases related to the same heist are already scheduled at the Essen court between July and September. The legal battle over compensation is expected to last years.