Cyberbunker The Criminal Underworld is a German crime documentary film released on Netflix on November 8, 2023. It is written and directed by Max Rainer and Kilian Lieb, and produced by Stephan Arapovic and Teresa Messerschmidt. The film has a runtime of about 1 hour and 41 minutes.
The film features individuals directly involved with the organisation and investigating officials including Kevin, Michiel Rugers, Sven Olaf Kamphuis, Patrice Langer, Barbel Bisenius, Winfried Simon, Hajo Weinmann, Jorg Angerer, Tim Henkel, Guido Blauw, Ed Caesar, Martijn Burger, Martin Frost, Nicola Tallant, Leroy Shelton, and Herman Xennt.
Cyberbunker The Criminal Underworld Review
The documentary explores the events leading up to the 2019 event when the police were able to arrest and raid the Cyberbunker located in Traben-Trarbach, an idyllic town in Germany. They were deemed responsible for providing hosting services to all kinds of illegal websites, contributing to the dark web. It all started in 2013 when the leader of the organisation, Herman Xennt, bought a NATO underground bunker in the town.
He promised the small village a prosperous future and hundreds of jobs. He was essentially wanting to make it into a mini Silicon Valley. But some residents were worried and soon rumours spread through the village after some background digging. Was Xennt, the charismatic man with long blond hair and a black leather coat, just a geeky nerd seeing potential in all internet of things or a ruthless criminal on the run who wants to turn the bunker into a stronghold for drug trafficking & pornography?
From what we get to know about Xennt, he loved bunkers. Before moving to Germany, he bought his first bunker in 1995, in the Netherlands. He transformed the space into a set from a sci-fi movie and started operating all kinds of businesses over the internet, some illegal ones like creating ecstasy labs inside. However, the bunker caught on fire and also when the drugs were found by the police. He swivelled his way out of it by claiming that he knew nothing about the drugs and found his new haven in Germany.
At the new Cyberbunker 2.0, instead of dealing with the drugs himself, he provided hosting services to all kinds of websites from drugs, firearms and pornography. Except for child pornography & terrorism-based ones. Although one of the people working with him, Sven Olaf Kamphuis, who was suspected of one of the biggest cyberattacks in 2013, states that he wouldn’t mind hosting any website and equates an alleged rape clip as something like clicking a picture of a bank robbery. Pointing that the crime is already done, and he isn’t responsible or doing anything wrong.
Watching other people who worked at the cyberbunker, you realise that they have their own idea of the world. The bunker gave them the space to create their own kingdom, with their own laws and experience a kind of freedom that the outside world cannot guarantee. The same is reflected in their business. As long as the money was coming in, they didn’t care for what their servers were being used for. They strived to create an idealist and free society, at least on the internet. And that gave criminals all around the world, a free range to execute their illegal/ all sorts of businesses.
What’s terrifying is that it’s something that’s far from over. The main head, Herman Xennt may have been acquitted and sent to prison for 5 years and 9 months in 2022, all his associates don’t share the same fate. They are free and might be involved in the same things, more discretely. Especially, Sven Olaf seems like a person who might just blow up the internet one day, just because he was bored or angry about something. Similarly, in his statement from the prison, Xennt also said that it’s a matter of time before he comes out and goes back to what he was building.
Something more baffling is that they claim to not getting paid for all the work they put in. They were given the space to live & eat and they were happy with it. I wish the creators had poked a bit to know why they were so enthusiastic to work, despite not getting any money. If anything, we would get some bits of truth & lies in their excuse to hide the real wealth they were all cashing in and through what exact ways. The film is more about how the investigators got them instead of why they were caught.
Despite being around for decades, the internet is still a mysterious place with hidden nooks and corners. Cyberbunker is just one of the examples in the sea. What the documentary lacks is putting focus on the crime that got them under the radar. At a glance, it might not look like that big of a crime (like a murder), some might say it’s just something on the internet but the impact it has is quite big. Having easy access to life-threatening drugs or weapons or even illegally filmed porn can have quite damaging effects. Cyberbunker employees talk so much about privacy to all but their creation poses the risk of taking away the privacy of many.
Rating – 3/5
Cyberbunker The Criminal Underworld is available for streaming on Netflix.
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