The Price of My Life

For many decades, it was Germany’s largest event venue and North Rhine-Westphalia’s “XXL living room”: the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund. Opened in 1952—long before the boom in multipurpose venues of the ’90s and 2000s—the Westfalenhalle remains Germany’s third-largest venue in terms of audience size. A century-old building designated as a historic landmark that is deeply rooted in the history of North Rhine-Westphalia—and a show business legend right in the heart of the Ruhr region.

In the fall of 1976, show jumper Hendrik Snoek was kidnapped in Münster. The son of a wealthy family was hidden in a shaft under a bridge near Herborn. Chained by the neck, he was held captive for 50 days. The perpetrators demanded a ransom of five million marks. Snoek was released. It was not the only kidnapping case during that time. Many criminals struck fear into people’s hearts with ransom demands.