Running amok from Karlsruhe
When Amokfahrt of Karlsruhe , which on 29. August 1985 in Karlsruhe happened altitude districts, five people were killed and four others seriously injured. The perpetrator began his rampage in the Grünwettersbach district , drove a stolen car via Wolfartsweier to the Bergwaldsiedlung and from there on to Hohenwettersbach . On this route, he apparently killed and injured passers-by and local residents at random. When he arrived back in Grünwettersbach, he was caught by the police after his 45-minute rampage and allowed himself to be arrested without resistance.
Perpetrator
The perpetrator, an unemployed lathe operator , was 32 years old at the time of the crime and lived in the house of his deceased parents in the Waldbronn district of Busenbach, where he had also grown up.
He lived isolated in neglected conditions without social contacts and had committed several offenses; so were in house raids in 1981 and 1982, firearms ensured and he was sentenced to a ten-month prison sentence for parole was suspended. Long-standing psychological problems in the form of paranoia , which were also expressed in violence against his half-sister, now came to light.
Several attempts by the probation officer and the remaining family members to induce the perpetrator to undergo an examination or to have the examination and possible admission to a psychiatric ward ordered by the competent authorities failed. At the end of August 1985, his parents' legacy , on which the perpetrator had lived, was used up and the perpetrator was in acute financial need.
Sequence of events
On the day of the crime, a sunny Thursday, the perpetrator was desperate. He still had 8 DM and nothing left to eat in the house.
In the garden of his house he then dug up a large-caliber revolver hidden there , which he had bought as a decorative weapon and made functional again for live ammunition. He had prepared the corresponding dumdum ammunition himself.
Failed bank robbery
The perpetrator decided to rob a bank in Palmbach , but did not find out about the opening times beforehand. At around 4:50 p.m. he got into his moped in Busenbach and drove to the bank branch in Palmbach, which had closed at this time. So he drove from Palmbach to Grünwettersbach and reached the Aral petrol station on the outskirts in Wiesenstrasse at around 5 p.m.
Theft of a car
The perpetrator wanted to steal a car at the gas station and asked a man for the car keys; he told him that the keys were at the till, whereupon the perpetrator entered the sales rooms. He told the cashier, who gave him the money from the cash register when he saw the gun, that he didn't want any money, just the car keys.
A 65-year-old pensioner , who was present as an uninvolved customer, went up to the perpetrator, put his hand on the gun and told the perpetrator not to "do any nonsense". When the perpetrator backed away further and the pensioner followed him, the perpetrator hit a goods stand with his back . The perpetrator then fired three shots at him, and the pensioner died of his injuries.
Back in the open, he shot two other customers who had not yet noticed what had happened: a man and a 32-year-old woman, whom he met and seriously injured. Then he got into a car that was parked at a gas pump and began his rampage. He drove over the Wiesenstrasse and the “Am Wetterbach” road over the L623 to Wolfartsweier, past the Zündhütle and from there on to the K9652 / Tiefentalstrasse in the direction of Hohenwettersbach.
Rampage
The perpetrator now began to shoot indiscriminate people on his journey. On the K9652 / Tiefentalstrasse, he shot a 43-year-old cyclist from behind who was riding uphill towards Hohenwettersbach. She fell injured to the ground. The perpetrator stopped, got out and shot the woman three more times in the head from close range. The woman died on the scene.
Then the perpetrator continued his journey to the mountain forest settlement. On Red Cross Street, he saw a 60-year-old woman working in the garden with her 29-year-old son. He fired five shots at the two of them from the closed car window, hit the mother three times and the son twice in the back. Both died a short time later.
On the same street, about 200 meters further on, he met three women who were coming out of a house and trying to get into a car. He shot the group three times from the car window. A projectile hit a parked car and got stuck there; the weapon failed on the second and third shot attempts . The women took cover behind the car and were unharmed; The perpetrator then drove to Hohenwettersbach and from there on dirt roads in the direction of the Batzenhof. He took a cigarette break on a dirt road, reloaded the weapon, considered his situation and noticed the circling police helicopter .
The perpetrator turned around and drove back to Hohenwettersbach in the street "Rosengarten", where he saw five elderly people on the sidewalk at a bus stop. The perpetrator got out and tried to take a woman hostage , which he failed due to the resistance of her husband and a companion. The perpetrator then fired several shots, killed the 61-year-old woman and seriously injured the two men.
arrest
The perpetrator continued his journey for the last time. In Hohenwettersbach he drove over the Lindenstrasse in the direction of the autobahn, crossed under the autobahn 8 through a field lane underpass and, now back in Grünwettersbach, drove over the Heidenheimer Strasse to the Wiesenstrasse, from where he took the path that he had been driving about 40 minutes earlier would have.
At this point in time, the police were already aware of the vehicle type, color and license plate number of the stolen car. The access and connecting roads to and between the high-altitude parts of the city were gradually blocked, the search for the car was coordinated and supported from the air by a police helicopter . When the perpetrator's vehicle was discovered, the pursuit was started with a civilian vehicle in order to be able to use the element of surprise when it was accessed .
At around 5:45 p.m., the perpetrator turned into Hohenwettersbacher Strasse, a narrow and steep street with several vehicles parked on his side. When he had to stop behind a parked car because of an oncoming vehicle, he suspected the police in the oncoming car, whereupon he raised his hands. At that moment, the pursuing civilian police vehicle rammed him, pushed him onto the parked car and wedged him in. The perpetrator was then arrested without resistance.
Legal review and background
The course of the crime was reconstructed a few days after the crime by the police and the public prosecutor together with the perpetrator. The later judgment was largely based on this reconstruction as well as on a later psychiatric report.
reconstruction
The perpetrator showed himself to be very cooperative during the reconstruction and explained the exact timing as well as his positions and those of his victims at the individual crime scenes. The reconstruction was recorded by the investigating officers with a camera.
During the reconstruction of the course of the crime, the detective director Franz Burkhart noted that the perpetrator was "not particularly excited after the crime, but rather indifferent in view of the crime"; In addition, the perpetrator had "tried very hard" to describe the course of the crime in detail. This cooperation was misinterpreted to the perpetrator from the point of view of his lawyer; It was said later in the process that he had "acted as a self-expression".
Some direct residents reacted very upset when the perpetrator stood on the street under police surveillance and explained the process. According to his lawyer, there was a “ lynching climate ” and shouts like “Kill him” were repeated several times.
process
The perpetrator was subject to a psychiatric assessment before the trial; he was "not a calculating killer, but a perpetrator with no recognizable motive". The trial before the jury chamber of the Karlsruhe Regional Court took place in October 1986.
His act was not attributed to the defendant as guilt, as he had been mentally ill since 1978, according to the expert. It was found that treatment would hardly lead to success in the foreseeable future because the personality deformation had progressed too far and there was no insight into the disease. Nothing can be changed about the extremely dangerous nature of the perpetrator, and drug treatment is not very promising.
The perpetrator was certified as having a severe mental and emotional illness from the hallucinatory - schizophrenic range of forms; he was admitted to a state psychiatric hospital without a time limit . Also in 2015 he is said to have been in a psychiatric hospital.
Background of the perpetrator
The causes of the offender's illness, which ultimately led to the rampage, lie in his feeling of inferiority and his love of weapons and go back to his childhood.
Family backgrounds
His mother had spoiled him very much. According to the probation officer, there was “a close and intimate relationship”. She died in 1977, the perpetrator could not cope with this loss. In 1980 his father, a basket maker with alcohol problems and with whom he did not have a good relationship, also died. From this point on, the perpetrator had practically no social contacts and family ties.
The perpetrator no longer worked because he believed that he could live on his inheritance of around 29,000 DM (roughly equivalent to purchasing power of around 32,000 € in 2015). Relations with his much older half-sister , his mother's daughter from his first marriage, were strained.
Illegal possession of weapons and suspended sentence
As early as 1972, the perpetrator had bought several firearms , some in nearby France . He later told his lawyer that he was “a weak and sickly child” and that his classmates often teased and beaten up. When he shot his greatest adversary in the face with a cork gun in his youth, he suddenly felt the power of a weapon and enjoyed that feeling. From then on he was left alone; the feeling of power had awakened in him the "love" for weapons.
In the spring of 1981, a surprise house search revealed two handguns and six rifles , including several muzzle-loaders that did not require a permit at the time . In April 1982 he was sentenced to 10 months probation for illegal possession of weapons and assigned a court-appointed probation officer , who was to be his almost only regular social contact for the next three years.
Paranoia and isolation
The first psychological problems began to appear in 1982. He assumed he was being poisoned by the neighbors and suspected physical harm that he was trying to counteract himself. So he began to drink large amounts of coffee and beer in order to “cure” a feared kidney damage by “flushing out the toxins”. He also feared that his sister would poison him with sleeping pills in order to be robbed of his inheritance.
When the perpetrator blocked contact with the probation officer, who was his only contact with the outside world until the act, he went to see him in his house; The probation officer found that the later perpetrator had barricaded himself in his house, so to speak. During the search of the house after the rampage, the investigators also found self-made "protective devices", as he feared that the neighbors would be poisoned by gases; The perpetrator slept in the kitchen in a hammock that was covered with a tarpaulin. When he slept, he put on a breathing mask, which was supplied with fresh air from outside by a ventilation device.
The probation officer recognized the offender's psychologically unstable condition and tried several times for a specialist examination and admission to psychiatry, which, however, was not carried out by the authorities despite weeks of efforts on the part of the probation officer.
Mental illness
From 1983 the perpetrator “fled” more and more often from his house in order to evade the supposed poisoning by the neighbors; for example, the perpetrator was picked up by a patrol officer at night in Pforzheim because of his suspicious behavior . During the interrogation that followed, he made a frightened and confused impression, which is why he spent the night in the detention cell of the Pforzheim-Nord police station for his own protection and was presented to the health authorities the next morning:
“Mr. (name of the perpetrator) was examined by a medical officer at the instigation of the police from 8:30 am to 9:00 am. During the investigation, Mr. (name of the perpetrator) was fully informed. At first it was reserved. He said it was nobody's business what kind of illnesses they had. For health reasons, he could no longer keep up with his friends. He is very susceptible to colds, but what worries him most is insomnia. He takes care of his household at night and then sleeps until around 3 p.m. during the day. He has not seen a doctor since 1980. It was suggested to Mr. (name of the perpetrator) to consult a neurologist about the insomnia. Addresses were given to him. (Signature of the medical director) "
Excerpts from letters from the perpetrator, which were taken into account in the investigation after the crime to assess his psychological state, also point to the increasing paranoia and the beginning loss of reality:
“This morning, as I was reading the newspaper while having coffee, the good idea occurred to me to change my private will for the better immediately and immediately. Reason: I noticed that I wrote my will prematurely and rashly. My half-sister and family are speculating on my untimely death. She doesn't even get me the drug that I need so badly for liver treatment. She is betting that the day will soon come when it will knock me over. Where it will be easy for them. She wishes that I would lie down in bed, the time is when I can no longer defend myself. If I lie down in bed, it's easy for her, can terrorize me as she wants, e.g. B. disturbing sleep, deliberately delaying essential food intake, otherwise generally slowly getting ready physically and mentally. For this reason I am writing a statement. (First name and surname of the perpetrator), May 31, 1985 "
According to a clerk at the Ettlingen District Court , the offender's half-sister sought to become incapacitated due to his mentally unstable condition , as he had threatened and beaten her several times. However, she feared further abuse by the perpetrator, as a duplicate of the application for incapacitation would be served. For this reason, she withdrew her application for incapacitation.
He describes the perpetrator's attitude towards his half-sister in the letter of May 1985 as follows:
“Now to my half-sister. When I call her and ask something of her, e.g. B. to drive me here or there in the car, she says no, on the phone says coldly no. That annoys me terribly, almost makes me white hot, almost freaks me out, upsets me badly. I then scold terribly, I am charged with anger, my half-sister then calls my half-sister everything possible. I never thought I'd have such a bad half-sister. (...) To my sanity. On Friday I was in Karlsruhe at the health department. Made a big impression on a doctor. He is a witness to my sanity. Then I went to see probation officer (name). Had an argument with him. He was very impressed. (First name and surname of the offender). "
In June 1985 the perpetrator again grapples with his state of health:
“What stupid thoughts you get when you're worried about your inheritance. (...) Then I came up with the not very good idea of writing down the years in which I drove my car without accidents as proof of my mental health. I was of the opinion that a person who drives a car every day and participates in road traffic is very difficult to incapacitate. If you think about it, that's true. (...) Once again I have to say that I wrote down this revocation in full possession of my spiritual powers. I point out that my spiritual powers are in full possession, because I have to assume that my half-sister will challenge the second private will in court. She's probably trying to be insane. "
At this point in time, the probation officer, who had recognized the worsening situation, was already trying hard to get a specialist examination and the admission of the offender to a psychiatric ward, which the competent authorities did not order.
The situation came to a head shortly before the act
At the beginning of August 1985, the perpetrator reported to the Ettlingen police . He appeared there in person and asked for help; you "blow gas into your window". Officials then went to his home with him, looking for anything unusual, but were unable to find anything suggestive of such an attack. However, several weapons were found and confiscated.
The police then got in touch with close relatives of the perpetrator, who had an "intensive conversation in his favor" so that he could see a doctor. After the interview, the later perpetrator initially agreed and consented to a specialist examination at the Langensteinbach Clinic .
Two days before the crime, the perpetrator was driven to the Langensteinbach Clinic for examination in the neurological department . The probation officer was in telephone contact with the clinic and asked for the investigation to take place as soon as possible, as he feared that the perpetrator might change his mind during the waiting period.
On the day of the planned investigation, the probation officer first received a call from the Ettlingen police. The police broke into the perpetrator's home while he was away. A white container was found there, in which other firearms were stored. The police then instructed the probation officer to contact the competent court to revoke the suspension of the sentence for illegal possession of weapons on probation. The probation officer then verbally notified the judge responsible for the probation matter and announced a written report.
Around noon, the probation officer was informed that the investigation had failed: the perpetrator jumped out of the car on the clinic premises and disappeared. The probation officer then notified the police and reported that the perpetrator was in an excited and helpless state and that his whereabouts were unknown. The police said they wanted to send a patrol to his home and pick him up there. This did not happen.
From this point on, the perpetrator had no more contact with the police, his relatives and his probation officer. Two days later there was a rampage.
TV documentary
The course of events was reconstructed in a TV documentary from 1991. In two parallel narrative threads, the crime (from the beginning in Busenbach to the arrest in Grünwettersbach) and the psychological background of the perpetrator (from childhood to admission to the state psychiatric hospital) are presented in detail.
In addition to interviews with his probation officer, the investigating officers, school friends, family members and victims of the perpetrator, the 42-minute production contains both original recordings of the crime scenes made immediately after the crime in 1985 and recordings of the driveways and crime scenes at the time of production 1991.
From a review:
“When he was arrested, the people's soul was boiling. But the supposedly 'bloodthirsty beast' itself had only been fearful for years and was severely mentally ill. In his reconstruction of the prehistory of this bloody act, Christoph Felder refrained from commenting. The off-screen text was as sober as it was taken from court records and expert reports, content was content with biographical data and their psychological interpretation. At the same time: the 15-kilometer blood-stained route between the home of the gunman and the place where he was overwhelmed, recorded with a subjective camera. "
swell
Newspaper and magazine articles
- Peter Vollmer: Death shooter directed the reconstruction of the bloody act. Article in the Badische Neuesten Nachrichten on September 5, 1985
- another: The recommendation for an examination arrived after the bloody act. Article in the Badische Neuesten Nachrichten on September 7, 1985
- ders .: His "struggle for survival" ended in a rampage. Article in the Badische Neuesten Nachrichten on October 7, 1986
- ders .: Gunman comes to psychiatry. Article in the Badische Neuesten Nachrichten on October 18, 1986
- Peter Bier: "In principle it was an accident". Article in Stern from October 9, 1986
TV documentary
- Christoph Felder: Amokläufer , D 1991, 42:00 min (with costs)
Web links
- Note in the news magazine Focus dated March 14, 1994, accessed March 12, 2010.
- Note in the news magazine Der Spiegel from April 26, 2001, accessed on March 12, 2010.
- City chronicle at www.karlsruhe.de, accessed on February 27, 2014.
- Sven Felix Kellerhoff: "Misogyny was the reason for the terrible bloody act" . Article on www.welt.de, accessed on August 29, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article “Höhenstadtteile” in Stadtwiki Karlsruhe , accessed on August 10, 2015.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Christoph Felder: Amokläufer , D 1991, 42:00 min, accessed on February 27, 2014
- ↑ a b c d e f Amok runner should be incapacitated by sister , article in the online newspaper archive of the Hamburger Abendblatt from September 5, 1985, accessed on August 11, 2015
- ^ Course of events according to the Badische Latest Nachrichten of September 5, 1985 and Stern of October 9, 1986.
- ↑ See Badische Latest Nachrichten of October 18, 1986.
- ↑ Karsten Schäfer: "Amokfahrt von Karlsruhe": How a man extinguished five lives 30 years ago . Article on www.ka-news.de from August 29, 2015, accessed on May 22, 2016.
- ↑ See Stern, October 9, 1986.
- ↑ See Badische Latest News from September 7, 1985.
- ↑ See article by Sybille Neth in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of September 2, 1991; full excerpt on www.onlinefilm.org