Christiane Ruthardt

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Christiane Ruthardt

Christiane Nanette Ruthardt (born August 11, 1804 in Stuttgart ; † June 27, 1845 there ) was a German murderer .

Life

Christiane Ruthardt was the illegitimate daughter of the captain's widow Henriette von Lehsten, nee. von Schmidt and the court medicus Karl Christian von Klein . According to the wedding entry of the Protestant Hospital Church in Stuttgart , she was born on August 11, 1804 in Stuttgart under the name Henrietta Christiana Mayer as the daughter of Henriette Christiane Mayer, a “dancer's daughter from Frankfurt” and baptized on August 18.

She grew up under the false name Mayer with foster families in Ludwigsburg , then worked as a maid and only learned the truth about her origins at the age of 20. She inherited 400 guilders from an employer . On July 28, 1839, with this dowry, she was able to marry the Stuttgart gold worker Karl Eduard Gottlieb Ruthardt (born December 11, 1811 in Ludwigsburg), with whom she had at least one child. The family lived on Torstrasse in Stuttgart. Eduard Ruthardt became unemployed after a short time and got lost in the idea of ​​building a perpetual motion machine . He spent all of his wife's fortune buying books and equipment, and then began running into significant debt. The plan to open an inn in Wildbad and thus earn money failed because of the lack of working capital.

Since a divorce was as good as impossible under current law, Christiane Ruthardt finally got the idea of ​​freeing herself from her husband by means of a poisoning. She went to several doctors to get arsenic to mix in her husband's dishes and medicines; as an excuse she stated that she wanted to fight a plague of rats with the poison. In fact, three doctors, including Johann Wilhelm Camerer, responded to her request.

In the spring of 1844, her husband showed the first symptoms of poisoning. His family doctor Voettiner diagnosed an inflammation of the stomach and resorted to treatment with effervescent powder, leeches and mustard dough compresses. On May 9th, the doctor attested that the poisoned had a good chance of recovery, but on May 10th, when Christiane Ruthardt called him to the bedside, found him in a hopeless condition and Ruthardt died a day later.

Solving the criminal case

Christiane Ruthardt in court on December 20, 1844
Removal after the trial in Esslingen

Four hours after Ruthardt's death, Christiane Ruthardt was arrested by police officer Gölz and taken to the Stuttgart Criminal Police Office. Deacon Hofacker had visited the dying man and later discussed the case with his brother-in-law and his wife. The brother-in-law's wife remembered an encounter with Christiane Ruthardt in the house of Doctor Camerer. On this occasion she had learned that Christiane Ruthardt had asked him for arsenic and a laxative. This fact now drew suspicion on the widow.

The main hearing of the case took place on December 20, 1844 before the Criminal Senate of the Royal Court of Justice in Esslingen . On December 23, 1844 Christiane Ruthardt was sentenced to death by beheading and to pay the legal costs. The appeal to the upper tribunal in Stuttgart led to the confirmation of the judgment on June 7, 1845, requests for clemency were rejected. On June 27, 1845 at 6 a.m. Christiane Ruthardt was executed with the sword on the Feuerbacher Heide .

The files on the Ruthardt criminal case are in the Ludwigsburg State Archives ; they have the signature E 319 Bü 159–160.

Ruthardt affair

A number of scandalous incidents involving Christiane Ruthardt's corpse became known as the "Ruthardt Affair", which led to a discussion about how to deal with anatomical corpses . Before her execution, Christiane Ruthardt had asked to scrape up her body on the spot instead of handing it over to the anatomy department in Tübingen . This request was not granted, instead the coffin was entrusted to a carter for transport to Tübingen. Although the transport was supposed to be accompanied by two country hunters, the coffin was apparently opened unhindered in Dettenhausen and the body was displayed in front of the curious. When we arrived in Tübingen, the coffin remained freely accessible in the anatomy courtyard for several hours. Christiane Ruthardt's head was lifted from the coffin, tossed around and stripped of its hair. In July 1845 an outraged article appeared in the Observer . As a result, on July 18, 1845, the anatomist Rösch was dismissed, who should have kept the corpse; In addition, the regulation was issued to only transport anatomical corpses at night. In 1855 this regulation was replaced by the order to transport the dead in locked and straw-lined boxes. In 1863 it was decided not to finance the transports from the assets of the executed or the bereaved, and this duty was transferred to the anatomy fund. In 1865, the Württemberg Chamber of Deputies found itself confronted with an application for a church or equivalent burial of the anatomical corpses. In a counter-motion, MP Oskar von Wächter, with clear reference to the Ruthardt case , pleaded for the anatomy of the corpses to be treated “properly”, which will certainly increase the number of bodies made available voluntarily. Both applications were approved; As a result, however, there were considerable difficulties in carrying out the church funerals.

literature

  • Susanne Bühler: Poison for the husband. A murder case in Stuttgart in the 19th century. Silberburg, Tübingen 1995, ISBN 978-3-87407-196-3 .
  • Dorothea Keuler: Lost Daughters. Historical scandals from Baden and Württemberg. Silberburg , Tübingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-87407-840-5 .
  • Susanne Kord: Murderesses in German Writing, 1720-1860: Heroines of Horror. Cambridge University Press 2009.
  • The unfortunate Nanette. In: Jörg Kurz: Northern history (s). About the dwelling and life of the people in the north of Stuttgart. 2nd edition, District Initiative Pro Nord, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-00-015505-5 , p. 15.
  • Joachim Linder, Jörg Schönert: An example: The murder trial against Christiane Ruthardt (1844/45). Trial files, journalistic and literary descriptions on poisoning. In: Jörg Schönert (Hrsg.): Literature and crime. The social experience of crime and law enforcement as a narrative object. Germany, England and France 1850–1880. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1983, ISBN 3-484-35008-3 , pp. 239-359.
  • Markus T. Mall: Murder in Swabia. Real cases and their backgrounds from the Middle Ages to the present. Silberburg, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 3-87407-701-2 .
  • Maja Riepl-Schmidt : Christiane (Nannette) Ruthard, née Maier. A "snake in human form"? In: Maja Riepl-Schmidt (Hrsg.): Against the overcooked and ironed out life. Women's emancipation in Stuttgart since 1800 . Silberburg, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-925344-64-0 , p. 80-88 .
  • Paul Sauer : In the name of the king: Criminal legislation and penal execution in the Kingdom of Württemberg from 1806–1871. Theiss, Stuttgart, 1984, ISBN 978-3-8062-0377-6 , p. 169.
  • Gunver Anna Maria Werringloer: From handling the corpse in the 19th century. The case of the poisoner Christiane Ruthardt and the Tübingen anatomy. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main and New York 2013, ISBN 978-3-631-63998-6 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ "Henriette von Schmidt was the daughter of the Duke of Württemberg captain Friedrich von Schmidt. On September 28, 1795, she married Prime-Lieutenant Friedrich von Lehsten in Heslach, a son of the imperial chamberlain Christian von Lehsten ”.
  2. ↑ Klaus D. Mörike named three sons in 1985, only one of whom survived the parents. Quoted: Rouven Kleinke: Introduction "The Ruthardt Affair". (PDF, 62 kB) In: A look at the body donation in 1845 - a look at the body donation today. 2007, p. 5 , accessed December 23, 2019 . In other sources there is talk of a daughter.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Rouven Kleinke: Introduction "The Ruthardt Affair". (PDF, 62 kB) In: A look at the body donation in 1845 - a look at the body donation today. 2007, p. 6 , accessed December 23, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Klaus D. Mörike: History of the Tübingen anatomy. Mohr, Tübingen, 1988, ISBN 978-3-515-08013-2 , p. 64 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Ruthardt, Christiane
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ruthardt, Nanette; Mayer, dancer's daughter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German murderess
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1845
Place of death Stuttgart