After 135 people lost their lives in the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley, the Koblenz public prosecutor’s office conducted a criminal investigation into the actions of the disaster control authorities. As a result, expert reports were drawn up by a committee of enquiry. These were previously not accessible to the general public, but are now being published in the form of a specialised book and are already available for pre-order.

In this book by Dominic Gißler, Sebastian Herbe and Ramian Fathi, the responsible management bodies of the Ahrweiler district administration and the Rhineland-Palatinate Supervisory and Service Directorate, i.e. technical operations management, the administrative staff and the bodies with overall responsibility, as well as key lines of action are reconstructed. The initial conditions for the operation are examined, the framework conditions and the constellations that occurred are highlighted and the management work is analysed. Important aspects for future missions of a similar magnitude are identified from the recognised deficiencies in the leadership performance.

You can find more information on the reference book ‘Die Einsatzführung im Ahrtal 2021’ here.