𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 1

The subject, born in 1959, grew up in an environment marked by violence and drugs. As a teenager, he became involved in the squatting scene and started engaging in criminal activities. At the age of 17, he was imprisoned for the first time. In 1983, at the age of 24, he received a ten-year prison sentence for robberies, violent crimes, and drug abuse.

After his release in 1995, it didn’t take long before he was sentenced to another ten years in prison. In 2004, a shooting incident in the Netherlands, where he killed a police officer and seriously injured another, led to his current prison sentence with subsequent preventive detention.

After decades in prison, he is now starting an apprenticeship in the SothA NRW and is trying to break away from his violent personality. The scars of his past run deep.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 2

The portrayed individual grew up in an anthroposophical environment and joined the German Armed Forces at the age of 17 together with his best friend. After his military service, he worked as a nurse and lived in a stable relationship with his wife and their son. His life changed drastically when he started an affair with a trainee, leading to tensions in his private life.

At the same time, he developed a close relationship with an older patient who also lent him a sum of money. The pressure increased when the patient insisted on meetings. He felt overwhelmed and secretly gave her sedatives, causing her to fall asleep. He then transferred 9000 Euros from her account to his own and sent a text message to cover up the act. Impulsively, he continued to act without hesitation. He placed a burning candle wrapped in a towel in the hallway of her house and removed the smoke detector.

Although no fire broke out, he was sentenced to eleven years in prison for attempted murder and fraud in 2017. During his imprisonment, he began to analyze his personality. He realized that he had different personalities within himself, including a dangerous one that forced him to always appear perfect. The inner pressure from the fear of being seen as a failure led to his actions. Now, he works in the SothA NRW to understand and control this dark side of himself.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 3

The portrayed individual from Essen grew up in a criminal extended family and was drawn into violent circles as a teenager.

At the age of 14, his criminal career began with fights and minor offenses, followed by aggravated assault, extortion, protection racket, and kidnapping.

Multiple prison sentences shaped his life, repeatedly due to his inability to control his violent impulses.

Today, he is in preventive detention at the SothA NRW, where he continues to work on his explosive aggressiveness.

Despite regular outings and hearings, he does not consider himself ready to regain freedom – the danger of striking again is ever-present for him.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 4

The portrayed individual is 27 years old and has been in prison since the age of 22, after being sentenced to eight years for two violent crimes. His childhood was marked by ups and downs. His biological father left the family after becoming abusive towards his mother. When he was five years old, his stepfather, a police officer, entered their lives. In school, he was often bullied and felt like he didn’t belong anywhere.

From a young age, he realized that he had a tendency towards aggressive behavior. He fell into bad company early on. At 15, he began boxing to boost his self-confidence. He dropped out of his apprenticeship and lost his driver’s license due to drug use. Cocaine eventually became a regular part of his life and influenced many of his decisions. Under the influence of cocaine and alcohol, he committed impulsive acts that eventually led to his imprisonment.

These crimes have had a lasting impact on his life, especially the break with his family has deeply affected him.

Despite therapy at SothA NRW, he still lacks empathy for his victims. He hopes to lead a normal life after his release: with a partner, his own apartment, and a job.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 5

The portrayed individual, born in 1993 in Gelsenkirchen, grew up in impoverished circumstances. His childhood was marked by emotional neglect, financial difficulties, and his parents‘ alcohol problems. He developed the habit of lying early on to embellish his reality.

Due to the unexpected success of his father’s company, he experienced a financial upswing as a teenager, which reinforced his tendency towards self-presentation. He struggled with learning difficulties and a complex web of lies that defined his life.

He was imprisoned for multiple sexual offenses against a person. In the Social Therapeutic Institution (SothA) NRW, he first confronted his past and his actions. Through conversations with an acquaintance who was a victim of sexual violence, he began to understand the severity and long-term consequences of his actions.

Currently, he is training to become a carpenter and is participating in family therapy. He has about three years of imprisonment left and wishes to lead a life without manipulation and lies after his release. However, he expresses concerns about possible temptations in freedom and struggles with the fear of relapses and the challenges of life outside of prison.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 6

The portrayed individual is 47 years old. He was born in 1977 in a women’s shelter in Soest and was adopted at the age of two. His adoptive parents provided him with a stable home and always spoke openly about his origins. He is the eldest of four siblings.

Over the course of his life, he married, became a stepfather to two children, and the biological father of a daughter. His marriage was fraught with difficulties, with an intense sexual relationship remaining the only functional aspect for a long time.

The pivotal moment in his life came when his wife had to stay in the hospital for three months. During this time, he sexually abused his then eleven-year-old stepdaughter. He now refers to this as the greatest mistake of his life. The man does not view his actions as an expression of pedophilia, but rather as a result of his problematic marriage and his inability to cope with the sudden lack of intimacy in his marriage.

What is particularly painful for him is that he has not been allowed to see his biological daughter since 2018. He is in the process of self-reflection at the SothA NRW and takes responsibility for his actions.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 7

The portrayed individual is 31 years old. He talks about his life and his prison sentence for seven counts of extortion. He was put up for adoption at 16 months old due to his biological mother’s alcohol problems and committed his first crime at 14, which led to time in a residential care home and a juvenile psychiatric facility.

After his release, he lived in a youth group home that didn’t prepare him for life outside. A difficult relationship and another failed partnership resulted in homelessness.

A former school friend took him in, but this connection led him into criminal circles, and he committed armed robberies on supermarkets and other stores. He was eventually caught through mobile phone tracking at a kebab shop and sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

After two years in the regular prison system, he is now in the therapeutic facility „SothA NRW,“ where he is working on his rehabilitation. He is training to become a metalworking technician and plans to live in assisted housing after his release. The inmate is determined to successfully complete his therapy and improve his life in the future.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 8

The portrayed individual, a 49-year-old man, was born in Recklinghausen and has an older brother by two years. His childhood was characterized by strict upbringing, where he had to function at home and dissent was punished. His mother used physical violence when he did not comply. Initially, he was hit with her hand, then with a wooden spoon, and eventually, he was beaten with an ox tail whip. He spent most of his time at home and had little contact with other children.

Since November 2023, he has been in the Social Therapeutic Institution (SothA) NRW. Prior to that, he spent four years in regular prison. He is incarcerated for a sexual offense and will remain imprisoned until 2028. If he does not successfully complete therapy, preventive detention awaits him. The contact with the boy, who later became the victim of abuse, was established through a WhatsApp group. What started as a weekend stay eventually turned into two years during which the boy stayed with him, without anyone knowing his whereabouts. The crime came to light when the police conducted further investigations on a third person with whom the man exchanged photos via WhatsApp. The man acknowledges that his act was wrong.

He emphasizes that he never wants to become an offender again.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 9

The portrayed individual was born in 1984. At the age of eight, he lost his father after his parents‘ divorce, which deeply affected him. At 13, he began using and selling drugs. At that age, he committed his first violent act, injuring a boy with a knife. In the following years, he and his friends rose to become successful drug dealers in the Bonn and Cologne area. They sold marijuana, ecstasy, and speed, some of which they produced themselves. After his gang disbanded, he joined a Dutch organization that involved him in even more serious criminal activities. The organization developed torture containers and carried out crimes on commission, in which he was eager to participate. Only the crimes against women weighed heavily on him.

It was not until five years after his crimes against women that he was arrested. Despite his remorse and admission that his actions were driven by an addiction to power and dominance, he remains plagued by guilt. In prison, he struggles to control his propensity for violence.

He has nightmares and is haunted by the faces of his victims. After his release, he hopes for a new, peaceful life. However, he still doubts whether he will ever be able to leave his past behind.

He wishes he could make amends for his actions, even though he knows it is impossible.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 10

The portrayed individual, a 33-year-old man, grew up in Gelsenkirchen in a large family. At the age of eleven, he became a victim of sexual abuse – a trauma he repressed for many years. This experience led to difficulties in trusting others.

Despite his past, he began training as a metalworker at 16. At 19, he met his first great love. When this relationship ended after nine years, his loneliness intensified. He met a new woman who had two children. The relationship was loveless, and he continued to feel isolated. He sought comfort in her children, particularly her ten-year-old son, which then led to sexual assaults.

Today, he is serving his sentence in the SothA NRW. He shows remorse and reflects on his actions, recognizing the connection to his own abuse. In prison, he is questioning his tendencies for the first time and working on himself.

He believes that a life without relapse is possible but remains uncertain about the challenges after his release. With two and a half years left to serve, his greatest concern is whether he can apply what he has learned and lead a crime-free life.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 11

The portrayed individual was born in 1972 in Cologne and was raised by his mother. Even as a child, he felt emotionally overwhelmed in various situations. At the age of 12, he realized that he was attracted to men, but in his conservative environment, this was a taboo subject. The fear of being ostracized led him to suppress his feelings and conform. He tried to lead a „normal“ life, joined the German Armed Forces, and had a brief relationship with a woman, which he experienced more as a facade. Behind this facade, he lived a double life. In 2004, he was imprisoned for the first time for abusing a boy. After his release in 2011, he began to live his homosexuality more openly.

However, in 2013, he repeatedly abused a boy. This act led to another conviction, this time to eight years in prison with subsequent preventive detention (SV). Since 2016, he has been in the Social Therapeutic Institution (SothA) NRW. Here, he has begun to become aware of his dangerousness. He expresses remorse for his actions and acknowledges that his manipulation and behavior have caused significant harm to his victims. The scars he has left are deep, and he knows that he will have to live with this guilt for the rest of his life. His future remains uncertain, but he is determined never to create another victim and to deal with his inner demons.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW

𝗪EIL WIR MENSCHEN SIND – Portrait 10

The portrayed individual recounts that his criminal career began at the age of 14 when he was first imprisoned for offenses including bodily harm, resisting state authority, and driving without a license. He grew up isolated in the woods as the youngest of eleven siblings. At the age of 15, he received his first prison sentence and had to prove himself in juvenile detention, which toughened him. Shortly after his release, his father passed away, leaving him feeling directionless.

At 21, he committed the murder of a woman and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. During this time, he was often involved in fights, regardless of whether it was with inmates or prison officers.

After being released, he met his girlfriend, with whom he has a daughter. She is now 20 years old and his most important person. In his late 30s, he was convicted again for alleged rape and received ten years of preventive detention, which has since increased to 19 years. Despite progress in his therapy, he is still considered dangerous. He used to regularly take drugs in prison but stopped two and a half years ago when he got the opportunity for therapeutic support at the SothA NRW and wanted to change for the sake of his daughter. Violence had long been a problem in his life, but he is learning to control himself better. Nevertheless, he fears falling back into old patterns upon release.

He wants to stay close to his home and work at the food bank of a long-time friend. He does not expect forgiveness for the murder he committed, but he hopes to give something back to society. His potential release lies in the hands of the psychologists and his further development at SothA NRW.

Photo / Editing: Chris Bolze
Text: Chris Bolze and SothA NRW