Adolf Hofrichter (first lieutenant)

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Adolf Hofrichter (born January 20, 1880 in Reichenau (Bohemia) , † December 29, 1945 as Adolf Richter in Vienna ) was an Austro-Hungarian first lieutenant of Infantry Regiment No. 14 who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in a military criminal court case for murder and was then imprisoned in the Möllersdorf military penal institution . He was pardoned in September 1919. His grave is in the Vienna Central Cemetery in group 23F.

The court judge affair

Hofrichter was a particularly ambitious officer who promised a career in the general staff. But there were too few vacancies on the General Staff. So he sent advertising letters under the pseudonym Charles Francis to superior officers, in which he touted the pills with potassium cyanide as a means of increasing manhood. Captain Richard Mader swallowed two pills before a "rendezvous" and died shortly afterwards. When the case became known, ten other officers who had received similar mail came forward.

From November 26, 1909, Hofrichter was in custody, suspected of having sent cyanide capsules disguised as an aphrodisiac to twelve General Staff officers . Five of the officers would have had to die in order for the court judge, who was among them in the promotion rankings, to be promoted to the general staff. General Staff Captain Richard Mader was the only officer who died on November 17, 1909 from the poison delivered by post. Since the accusations against court judges were based exclusively on circumstantial evidence until his late confession at the end of April 1910, the case was discussed very controversially in the contemporary newspapers. On June 26, 1910, he was finally sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The Hofrichter Affair formed the basis for a novel by Maria Fagyas , which was made into a film in 1983. The Hofrichter case was also filmed for television under the title "Convicted 1910".

literature

  • Fahey, John E.: The Secret Poison Plot. Adolf Hofrichter and the Austro-Hungarian General Staff. In: Journal on European History of Law, London: STS Science Center, Vol. 2/2011, No. 1, pp. 66 - 71, ISSN  2042-6402 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ K. u. k Oberleutnant Adolf Hofrichter, 20.1.1880 - 29.12.1945, A botched life - murderer or victim of a miscarriage of justice? Publication of the Traiskirchen City Archives 2004
  2. ^ Austrian State Archives ( Memento from May 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed January 10, 2020)
  3. ↑ Vienna Library on the Ring (accessed on October 8, 2010)
  4. ↑ a b The Adolf Hofrichter affair . Dissertation by Bernhard Theodor Wenning, Faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna, September 2002.
  5. ^ Affaire Hofrichter 1909 (Blofelds-Krimiwelt) (accessed on November 8, 2014)
  6. ↑ The mysterious poison letters: the Confession Hofrichter , Die Neue Zeitung, Vienna, 30 April 1910
  7. ^ The case of Hofrichter, from a journalist's notebook . Max Winter, Munich 1909
  8. ↑ The lieutenant and his judge . Translation Isabella Nadolny . Reinbek: Rowohlt 1971 The Devil's Lieutenant (New York, 1970)
  9. ^ The Devil's Lieutenant (1983). Director: John Goldschmidt, screenplay: Jack Rosenthal IMDb
  10. ↑ Convicted 1910 (1974, TV). Director: Jörg A. Eggers, screenplay: György Sebestyén IMDb
personal data
SURNAME Court judge, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Judge, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian first lieutenant
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Reichenau (Bohemia)
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1945
Place of death Vienna