What drives people to commit serious crimes? And why do some cases remain unsolved for years or are closed too quickly? On April 29, 2026, the renowned profiler and criminal investigator Axel Petermann will be a guest on The Blue Sofa in Gütersloh, presenting his new book »Die Psychologie des Bösen« (The Psyche of Evil).
As head of a homicide squad and founder of Bremen’s Department of Operative Case Analysis, Petermann has been involved in more than 1,000 death investigations. In his book, he examines three spectacular real-life criminal cases and presents new, sometimes surprising insights.
On The Blue Sofa, Axel Petermann talks about his decades-long work in homicide investigations, the possibilities and limitations of profiling, and the human abysses that are often closer than we think.
As head of Bremen’s homicide squad and assistant chief of the violent crime unit, Axel Petermann has worked on more than 1,000 murder cases. In 2000, he formed the Operative Case Analysis team, which he led until his retirement in 2014. He has taught criminology at tertiary institutions for many years, and has been a consultant on a variety of TV programs, from long-running fictional crime series to documentary and news programming for ZDF, RTL and SAT1. In 2018 he took over the helm as presenter and investigator on a ZDF true crime series, and has co-hosted the hugely popular podcast »Das entscheidende Indiz« (The Decisive Clue) with Teresa Sickert since 2023. He has published several bestselling books, including 2015’s »Der Profiler« (The Profiler).
© Stefan Kuntner
Heyne
A bookkeeper is fatally stabbed in a dairy – was she the victim of a stalker? A 13-year-old girl disappears on her way to school, and there’s no shortage of suspects – but what really happened? And what makes a boy become violent at a young age, and grow up to become a murderer?
Here, Axel Petermann re-examines three sensational crimes, uncovering astonishing new evidence which shows that too many investigations are abandoned prematurely. This time, he focuses on the killer’s psyche: what makes someone a killer, and how do they select their victims? In »The Psyche of Evil«, the renowned criminologist looks into the eyes of evil and uses his profiling expertise to track down the perpetrators – and sometimes the truth is more gripping and shocking than fiction.
November 28, 2025 | 7 p.m.
Institut Pierre Werner
28 rue Münster
2160 Luxemburg
Language: English
