Carl Hau

Carl Hau

Carl Hau (originally Karl Hau , born February 3, 1881 in Großlittgen near Wittlich ; † February 5, 1926 in Tivoli ) was a German lawyer who was sentenced to death in Karlsruhe in July 1907 for the murder of his mother-in-law Josefine Molitor. The circumstantial trial attracted a great deal of public attention ( Hau riot ). Hau was pardoned to life imprisonment and released on probation after 17 years in prison. He then wrote two books in which he described the process and the prison term from his point of view. The reports published by Ullstein Verlag became bestsellers. The Baden Ministry of Justice revoked the suspension of the sentence in 1925, partly because of these publications. New debates arose in the press about the case and the freedom of expression of former inmates. Carl Hau committed suicide while on the run in Italy on February 5, 1926.

Youth and education

Carl Hau was the son of the bank director Johan Baptist Hau. His mother passed away when he was three years old. After graduating from Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Trier, he studied law in Freiburg im Breisgau and Berlin . In 1901 he fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis , so that he sought relaxation in various places, most recently in Ajaccio on Corsica . There he met Josefine Molitor with her daughters Lina and Olga.

Prehistory of the act

The family of Medical Councilor Franz Molitor had lived in a park villa at Stadelhoferstraße 11 in Baden-Baden, which still exists today, since 1897 . The marriage resulted in six daughters and one son. After the death of the medical councilor in February 1901, his widow, Josefine Molitor, lived alone in the villa with her daughters Lina and Olga. The four other daughters and the son had left Baden-Baden before the father's death.

Karl Hau met Josefine Molitor and her daughters Lina and Olga in the spring of 1901 while on vacation in Ajaccio on Corsica. Another meeting followed on the onward journey in Montreux . Hau succeeded in winning the three women over with his obliging and educated demeanor, and both daughters felt drawn to him. In May 1901, Hau, who was studying law in Freiburg im Breisgau , visited the family in Baden-Baden.

After that he kept in contact with Lina Molitor, who met him secretly in Lucerne and Freiburg. In June 1901 the couple fled to Switzerland. After the 2,000 marks withdrawn from Lina's account had been spent, there was an exchange of fire between the two in Realp on St. Gotthard, in which Lina Molitor was hit in the chest by a pistol fired at close range, but was only slightly injured. Who had shot was never clarified. It is unclear whether Lina Molitor and Karl Hau planned to commit suicide together, and if so, for what motives. Reiner Haehling von Lanzenauer sees the big age difference, Lina was five years older, as a possible reason.

Lina's mother and house father, alarmed by Hau, arrived in Realp shortly afterwards. The father paid the outstanding bills and the couple were urged to marry to avoid scandal. The wedding took place on August 18, 1901 in Mannheim .

A month after the marriage, the couple settled in Washington, DC , where Hau - now under the first name Carl - continued his law degree. In 1903 the daughter Olga was born. In 1904, Hau received a Bachelor of Law and held courses in Roman law . In 1906 he was admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia . In addition to his legal work, he was commissioned by the Turkish envoy in contractual matters, which led to a position as secretary of the Turkish consul general in Washington, Hermann Schoenfeld. In this capacity, Hau made several business trips to Turkey, including to advertise the Louisiana Purchase Exposition , the 1904 world exhibition in St. Louis .

The fact

On October 25, 1906, Carl Hau went to Paris with his wife Lina, their daughter and sister-in-law Olga Molitor . There they lived in the Hotel Regina. On October 29th, Josefine Molitor received a telegram with the content: “Expect you on the next train. Olga sick. I'll be there at once, Lina. ”Ms. Molitor then traveled to Paris, but found her daughters safe there. Lina didn't know anything about a telegram. Josefine Molitor suspected that the telegram was intended to lure her out of her house and returned to Baden-Baden with her daughters Olga and Fanny on October 31. She found her villa intact. She filed a criminal complaint about the telegram. Carl Hau traveled on to London at the same time as Lina and their daughter . In London the family received a telegram from the Standard Oil Company , a client of Carl Hau, with the request to go to Berlin immediately. While still in London, he had a wig and a fake beard made for him and bought a long black coat. He then traveled to Germany, not to Berlin, but to Frankfurt am Main , where he arrived on November 3rd. He had thrown away the beard during the trip. From Frankfurt he telegraphed his wife that the meeting had been moved to Frankfurt. He had a false beard made again and the color of the wig he had bought in London matched the beard. On Tuesday, November 6, 1906, at 10:30 a.m., he took the express train to Baden-Baden. There he was noticed by various people because of the false beard. He could be seen in Baden-Baden until shortly before the crime.

On November 6th, Josefine Molitor received a call at 5:20 p.m. The maid who answered said she recognized Carl Haus's voice. She informed Mrs. Molitor about this, but she ignored it. The caller pretended to be the head of the main post office in Baden-Baden and explained that Ms. Molitor had to come to the post office immediately because a copy of a telegram that she had complained about had been found. Her objections that she did not want to go to the post office because of the bad weather were rejected. Josefine Molitor then went with her daughter Olga to the main post office via Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. At the height of Lindenstaffeln, a shot was fired at them from behind from about ten meters away. The bullet came from a revolver with a caliber of about 6 mm. It injured Josefine Molitor's left lung and broke through both heart chambers . Olga Molitor could only see a slender figure in a long, dark coat with a large hat, who broke out of a niche and quickly moved away. There were no other eyewitnesses to the crime.

The process

Preliminary proceedings

Based on testimony that Hau had been seen in Baden-Baden and the maid's statement that she had clearly recognized Carl Hau on the phone, an arrest warrant was quickly issued , which was carried out by the British police in London on the evening of November 7th has been. At the beginning of 1907, Hau was delivered to Baden . While he was still in custody in Karlsruhe , his wife informed him that she believed he was the perpetrator. Shortly afterwards she drowned herself near Zurich in the Pfäffikersee . She had previously decreed that their child should be given a new name and grow up with a different family.

Main hearing

The building of the Karlsruhe Regional Court (jury court wing), in which the trial took place

The capital of the Grand Duchy of Baden, Karlsruhe, was hardly able to cope with the onslaught of the murder trial. Long queues of citizens formed in front of the Karlsruhe Regional Court building who wanted to watch the trial. The entire regular police force of the city and the district of Karlsruhe (70 officers) were called in to cope with the rush. It soon became apparent, however, that this was not enough; first the mounted gendarmerie and finally the military stationed nearby were used. On the day the verdict was pronounced, around 20,000 onlookers besieged the courthouse; Several attempts were made to break the chain of posts ( Hau riot ). There had never been such a crowd of curious people at any trial in the German Reich .

The defendant's father had the lawyer Eduard Dietz , former district judge , as defense counsel . D., commissioned, but did not trust Hau. In his book The Death Sentence he writes:

We sat across from each other in the room with the glass door, he asked for information about this and that. I couldn't trust him. The interview was unsatisfactory for both parties. At last he said to me: "If this is the case, I have no choice but to conduct your defense as if I thought you were guilty." To which I replied: "You can hold it as you wish. 'He took that as a confession.

The hearing was chaired by Judge Dr. Eller headed. Prosecutor Bleicher represented the indictment. The main witness was Olga Molitor.

The main hearing began on July 17, 1907 before the jury court of the Karlsruhe district court. It should last five days. A total of 72 witnesses and nine experts were heard during the hearing . The international press - such as the New York Times  - reported on the criminal case.

Conduct of the accused

At the beginning of the hearing, the defendant said no when asked about his guilt, but refused to testify when asked further. In the course of the negotiations, however, he admitted that he had written the Paris telegram and had been in Baden-Baden on the day of the crime. He wrote the telegram because his wife was jealous of her sister Olga. The despatch seemed to him the surest way to end the relationship with the two sisters, if Josefine Molitor took Olga with her. When asked whether there was any reason to be jealous, Hau initially refused to testify. He later admitted that he was more attracted to Olga. That is why he wrote the alleged telegram from the Standard Oil Company and went to Baden-Baden because he wanted to see Olga Molitor again. But he still denied having fired the shot.

Testimony

Olga Molitor was questioned several times during the trial. During the first interrogation, she described how she and her mother left the house, walked along Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse and heard steps from someone who followed them. Then she described the situation during the act. When asked whether she had given her sister reason to be jealous , she said no. She would have rejected such advances House if he had revealed himself. In later interrogations, she admitted that her sister was jealous. Lina had asked her not to wear clothes that were too expensive. There were also arguments between her and her sister.

As a result of the statements made by her and Hau, public opinion tended more and more in favor of Haus. After all, Olga Molitor was bullied when she showed up in public. After her last interrogation, the police had to intervene so that she and her relatives could go back to the hotel in a cab . A crowd of several hundred people followed the cab with a whistle.

Other witnesses described how they observed the accused with his fake beard on the day of the crime in Baden-Baden. A woman who said she met her mother and daughter shortly before they reached the scene of the crime caused a particular stir. Before that, she noticed a man with a full black beard hurrying uphill. In this she wanted to have recognized Carl Hau. The women were followed by another, older man, also with a beard. They were certainly different people. A former cellmate Haus, who was heard as a witness for statements by Haus in custody, also caused a stir. This refused to testify in spite of a threatened fine and threatened detention. However, he affirmed that he considered Hau innocent based on what he said.

Expert opinion

The experts Alfred Hoche and Gustav Aschaffenburg , who were called in to assess the mental state of the accused, described Hau as a highly intelligent but unevenly gifted person who was very sensitive and soft and who suffered from a lack of self-discipline. He is perfectly capable of pursuing a goal once it has been set, but is prone to selfishness, volatility and impulsive actions. He has a considerable imagination, right up to boasting and megalomania. Overall, however, he was always master of his will.

Plea and judgment

The prosecution pleaded for a condemnation house. He had the opportunity to act and a motive: He was after his wife's inheritance. The defense requested an acquittal for lack of evidence. Hau behaved more like a senseless lover, not like a robbery. The evidence building built by the public prosecutor's office could not be held. Nevertheless, the jury found Carl Hau guilty. He was sentenced to death .

The appeals brought by Carl Hau against the judgment appeal were unsuccessful: On 12 October 1907, the dismissed Supreme Court the inserted revision back, an application for performing a retrial was unsuccessful. However , the Grand Duke of Baden pardoned Hau on December 1, 1907 and converted the death sentence into a life sentence .

Review by a contemporary

The constitutional lawyer and forensic psychologist Erich Wulffen introduced a lecture that was widely noticed and published as a book before the non-profit association in Dresden on February 5, 1908 with a résumé of the process:

“What happened in the Karlsruhe murder trial against the lawyer Hau was never there, neither isolated nor at the same time, that the defense attorney in the courtroom announced a challenge to the public prosecutor, that a representative of the press who was heard as a witness, the public prosecutor's question as unheard of infamy indicated that during the plaidoy of the public prosecutor the rioting crowd in front of the courthouse was read by the police officers the riot paragraphs. As much as we are clear today that in these processes each strange mass influence, as we know it well enough in the religious and political field and have scientifically researched it after its psychological development, just as little must the Karlsruhe processes as signs of another The fact is misunderstood: a single great and strong feeling goes through the German people, a deep longing that is unique to them [...] for the rebirth of criminal law and criminal proceedings. "

Follow-up processes

After the guilty verdict, the case and the process continued to be controversial in the newspapers and the public for weeks. The result of the process was often felt to be unsatisfactory. Critics of the verdict pointed out the lack of motive. The jury - such as the Berliner National-Zeitung and the Berliner Tageblatt  - did not take sufficient account of the evidence.

Olga Molitor in particular was attacked many times as a result. She has been portrayed as depraved in part and accused of being the real perpetrator. She resisted by filing criminal charges for insult , which led to follow-up lawsuits. In particular, a lawsuit against editors of the newspapers Badischer Landsmann and Badische Presse caused another stir. The Baden compatriot had published a report on August 7, 1908, according to which new evidence had emerged that Hau was innocent and that Olga Molitor was the perpetrator. The Baden press had printed this report. While the proceedings against the editor of the Badischer Landsmann were closed after an apology and the subsequent withdrawal of the criminal complaint, the other editor, Albert Herzog , was sentenced to one year in prison. In the proceedings, the case was reopened, but the jury verdict of 1907 was confirmed again.

Imprisonment

Carl Hau served twelve years of imprisonment in solitary confinement. During his imprisonment he translated Rudolf von Jhering's work The Spirit of Roman Law at the various stages of its development into English . An application made by him during the detention period to retrial was rejected.

After 17 years in prison, the remaining sentence was suspended in 1924 and Hau was released from prison. He was ordered to refrain from public attacks against Olga Molitor and not to make his case the subject of sensational presentations.

The author

After his release from prison, Hau wrote two books in which he described the process and the prison term from his point of view. The reports published by Ullstein Verlag became bestsellers.

• The death sentence: The history of my trial , Ullstein AG, Berlin 1925, ISBN 3-938551-13-5
• Lifelong: Experienced u. Suffered , Ullstein AG, Berlin 1925.

These publications were viewed by the Baden Ministry of Justice as a violation of the probation requirements. On November 27, 1925, another arrest warrant was issued, which Hau evaded by fleeing to Italy. There he committed suicide on February 5, 1926 in the ruins of Villa Hadriana in Tivoli .

The Austrian journalist Stefan Großmann wrote in the political magazine Das Tage-Buch on March 20, 1926 about the responsible Minister of Justice Gustav Trunk in Baden :

"Mr. Trunk, no doubt, is the editor in charge of this suicide. [...] He (Hau) has not become a criminal again, a hunted, homeless, passport free, he preferred to say goodbye to this world of drunkenness. "

aftermath

One of the consequences of the legal proceedings was a broad discussion about how the law was to be found and the judge's commitment to the law. According to the then court constitution, the jury deliberated among themselves and it was recognized that they could be overwhelmed with the application of the legal rules of evidence. The reforms under Reich Justice Minister Erich Emminger in 1924 therefore created jury courts in which 3 judges and 6 lay assessors (today 3: 2) decided together. The public debate on the manner in which the penal system was administered contributed to improvements in the penal system and the expansion of prison and released welfare services, and led to preliminary stages in probation work.

media

As early as 1925/1926, the film Karl Hau - Carrier of a Human Fate was made under the direction of Lupu Pick . The film was initially approved by the Berlin Film Inspectorate, only showing it in front of young people was prohibited. On March 23, 1926, however, the film inspectorate prohibited the showing entirely.

In 1928, Jakob Wassermann processed the circumstances of the crime in his novel The Maurizius Case , which the French director Julien Duvivier used as a template for his 1953 feature film L'Affaire Maurizius . In the 1960s a film about the murder was produced for German television ( Der Fall Hau , 1966). Echoes of what happened can also be found in the novel Lichtenbergs Fall by Georg M. Oswald .

The crime film Murder Trial Dr. Jordan from 1949 traces the case, but moves the story to Wiesbaden with the tropical doctor Dr. Alexander Jordan ( Rudolf Fernau ) as protagonists.

In 2006 the writer Bernd Schroeder published the novel Hau , in which he approached the case on a fictional basis. Hau is portrayed in the novel as a torn, contradicting and therefore modern person. The novel is largely laid out as a portrayal of Germany's late Wilhelmine times . The book was nominated for the German Book Prize 2006.

On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the trial against Carl Hau, the exhibition “Carl Hau: A Sensational Trial in Karlsruhe” took place in the Museum for Literature on the Upper Rhine in the Prinz-Max-Palais in Karlsruhe.

In 2007, SWR2 broadcast a feature on August 11, 2007, Das Haus Geschichte, which staged his marriage and the days of the trial according to original documents. Title: “I don't want to comment on the matter itself!” By Eva Lauterbach

Overall, the Hau case will continue to be a topic in the media a hundred years after the trial.

theatre

Karl Hau was first sentenced to death in 1907, then pardoned and later wrote down his memories of the trial and the imprisonment in Bruchsal . The Baden-Baden Theater brought the material to the stage for the first time over 100 years later in November and December 2019, in a version by the director Rudi Gaul , based on the novel by Bernd Schroeder : "The Hau Fall". Based on the novel by Bernd Schroeder. Theater version by Rudi Gaul . Premiere at Theater Baden-Baden on November 8, 2019. From the theater ticket:

“Was Karl Hau an unscrupulous murderer or a victim of the judiciary? The young, cosmopolitan impostor was found guilty in 1907 of having shot his mother-in-law in Baden-Baden. There was no conclusive evidence of this. At that time, the extraordinary case was reported all over the world. "

The radio program SWR2 presented the play on November 7, 2019 in its "Journal am Mittag": Marie-Dominique Wetzel: Suicide or Murder? “The Fall Hau” at the Baden-Baden Theater , SWR2 Journal at noon: November 7, 2019, 12:33 pm ( audio online ).

literature

• Fritz Friedmann: Hau is not a stubborn murderer! Berlin, undated (early 20th century).
• Reiner Haehling von Lanzenauer : The crime of Karl Hau . In: Blick in die Geschichte Nr. 69, Institut für Stadtgeschichte Karlsruhe, December 9, 2005 ( online version ; accessed on May 9, 2015).
• Reiner Haehling von Lanzenauer: The criminal case against the lawyer Karl Hau . In: ZGO 153 (2005), pp. 545-568 ( full text ).
• Reiner Haehling von Lanzenauer: Accused of murder: Attorney Karl Hau . In: Jahrbuch der legal Zeitgeschichte 7 (2005/2006), pp. 389–414 ( full text ).
• Carl Hau: The death sentence. The story of my trial . Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 1925.
• Maximilian Jacta (alias Erich Schwinge ): A murder without a recognizable motive - The Carl Hau case in: ders. Famous criminal trials - Germany II , Goldmann Verlag, 1967
• Paul Lindau : Karl Hau and the murder of the wife Josefine Molitor . Hofmann, Berlin 1907.
• Heinz Liepman: Crimes in the Twilight - Famous Crime Cases from the Last Decades . Weiss, Berlin-Schöneberg 1959 (also: Bertelsmann Lesering 1959).
• Erich Sello : The Hau processes and their lessons. Also a contribution to the reform of the criminal procedure . Marquard, Berlin 1908.
• Werner Münchbach: Festschrift 200 Years of the Badisches Oberhofgericht - Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe . CF Müller, 2003.
• Erich Wulffen : Criminal psychology in the Hau murder case . In: Jürgen Seul , Albrecht Götz von Olenhusen (eds.): Erich Wulffen - Between Art and Crime: Criminal Psychological Articles and Essays. Elektrischer Verlag, Berlin 2015. ISBN 3943889661

Archival material

• Personnel file on Karl Hau, Main State Archive Stuttgart M 430/3 Bü 4218.
• Portraits of Karl Haus, Main State Archives Stuttgart M 708 No. 1189.

Novels about the case

• Rolf Avena: Molitor murder affair. A factual novel. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 1956. Reprint: New ed. by Hansgeorg Schmidt-Bergmann . Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2006, ISBN 978-3-89812-409-6 .
• Georg M. Oswald : Lichtenberg's case. Rowohlt, Reinbek / Hamburg 2005, ISBN 978-3-499-24049-2 .
• Bernd Schroeder : Hau. Novel. Hanser, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-446-20756-1 ( Martin Krumbholz: spoiled by life - and punished. «Hau» - Bernd Schroeder's remarkable novel about a murder case . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 28, 2006).
• Jakob Wassermann : The Maurizius case . S. Fischer, Berlin 1928 (several new editions and editions; most recently at dtv, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-423-13598-6 ).

Web links

Wikisource: Carl Hau  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Carl Hau in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ferdinand von Notz : A street fight in peace. Memories of the "Hau-riot" in Karlsruhe on July 22, 1907 , 1926 ( online version ).
• Documentation of the case by Haus Grandson, Robert Rickover (engl.)
• http://www.morgenpost.de/content/2007/07/15/biz/910696.html (link not available)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reiner Haehling von Lanzenauer, p. 546 f.
2. ↑ Two companies of the 1st Baden Leib Grenadier Regiment No. 109 were deployed under the command of Captain Ferdinand von Notz , who wrote a report about it 19 years later.
3. ↑ New York Times , November 9, 1906 (PDF; 45 kB)
4. ^ New York Times , July 17, 1907
5. ^ New York Times , February 7, 1909 (PDF)
6. ↑ Erich Wulffen: The criminal trial - a work of art of the future , DVA Stuttgart and Leipzig 1908, p. 3
7. ↑ So z. B. Maximilian Jacta : A murder without a recognizable motive - The Carl Hau case . In: ders. Famous Criminal Trials - Germany II .
8. ↑ E-text and scans at Wikisource
9. ↑ Stefan Grossmann: On the corpse of Carl Hau. In: Das Tage-Buch 7 (1926), No. 12, pp. 442-444; Digitized at ANNO
10. ↑ Reiner Haehling von Lanzauer, p. 413 f .; Klaus Kastner: Jakob Wassermann: Der Fall Maurizius , Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 2014, p. 741 f.
11. ^ Deutsches Filminstitut ( Memento of October 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
12. ^ Review by Deutschlandfunk from September 10, 2006
13. ↑ List of nominations for the German Book Prize 2006 (PDF)
14. ↑ Gerrit Bartels: With good chances for the German Book Prize 2006: Thomas Hürlimann and Bernd Schroeder . In: taz , August 26, 2006
15. ↑ For example
    • Max Haines: Mother-in-law troubles In: Daily Packet & Times , Dec 3, 2005, p. 9, Orillia (Ontario) ( library reference )
    • Ulrich Zander: A real thriller . (fee required) In: Berliner Morgenpost , July 15, 2007

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on March 13, 2008 .