Hans Ulrich Lenzlinger

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Hans Ulrich Lenzlinger (born July 22, 1929 in Uster ; † February 5, 1979 in Zurich ) was a Swiss escape helper , bon vivant and adventurer. Until his murder he ran a brothel disguised as a massage parlor . Police files published at the end of 2012 showed that the suspicion that he was a victim of the GDR Stasi was unfounded.

Life

Lenzlinger was born the son of an interior designer and a farmer's daughter. Insiders described him as a “lovable guy”, helpful and charming, but also quick-tempered, eccentric and unpredictable. He adored his mother, who had lived with him in the house in Zurich- Höngg , Ackersteinstrasse 116, until her death . From 1971 to 1973 and then again from 1975 to 1977 he was married to Bernadette, who was twenty years his junior.

The police files also speak of "idleness"; in addition to "remarkable wear and tear" he had a weakness for riding horses and fast cars. Later his love for Great Danes came , of which he kept six on his property. He also owned servals , collar bears , Indian cheetahs , lions , a puma and a leopard there . In the 1960s, Lenzlinger received numerous criminal charges for a wide variety of offenses: fraud , pimping , deprivation of liberty , stolen goods , coercion , bodily harm , attempted extortion , forgery of ID and illegal possession of weapons, as well as some criminal investigations into property crimes .

Lenzlinger lived from easy money and traded in various prohibited goods. He knew sources of supply for chinchilla skins and art objects from Africa, he smuggled gold, foreign exchange, antiques and people. According to police files, he was also involved in arms deals. These crimes earned him several years' imprisonment, which did not prevent him from doing further business of this kind. An attempt to escape from custody in the Meilen District Prison , which had been prepared by his staff, failed because of a tip to the police.

At the latest since the adoption of the German-German transit agreement in 1971, Lenzlinger has also come into the focus of international security agencies . He had specialized in helping people to escape in specially prepared vehicles and had thus attracted the displeasure of the border and security authorities in the GDR since the mid-1960s. The Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland were also no longer interested in this hustle and bustle, as it threatened to decline economic relations. Lenzlinger and his people, who acted under his trust company Aramco , had concentrated on highly specialized workers such as doctors and medical staff and collected 50,000 D-Marks for each success. He himself boasted about up to a hundred escapes, based on the files it should have been 29. On April 13, 1973, the Swiss consul Max Kissling met with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the GDR in East Berlin . Further advances at the political level followed. Despite several attempts at intimidation by both the Swiss State Security and the Stasi - nothing could be proven to him - he ran this company until his arrest in the summer of 1976.

assassination

On February 5, 1979, five shots were fired at Lenzlinger in his apartment on Ackersteinstrasse, two of which were fatal. Today one assumes a single perpetrator who is more likely to be found in Lenzlinger's criminal environment. Assumptions that the Stasi was behind the attack are considered to be refuted. At the time of the crime, his trafficking activities had been dormant for several years. In addition, the location of the crime of the Stasi would have been far too risky for an escape because of the risk of discovery and the difficult conditions.

Hans Ulrich Lenzlinger's personal career had been falling for several years at the time of his murder. He was financially in dire straits and no longer cared about his appearance. He also became more negligent about his own safety. Shortly after eight in the morning, his girlfriend and the six mastiffs had left the house for a morning walk. The killer must have gotten through the laundry room door, which was obviously unlocked - both facts that the intruder must have known. There was a brief scuffle in the study, which led to the suspicion that the murder was not carried out by a professional contract killer.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ricardo Tarli: “The Godfather of Höngg”, Lenzlinger murder case, Aargauer Zeitung, January 15, 2013, p. 2
  2. ↑ Aargauer Zeitung: Wende in the murder case Lenzlinger , January 15, 2013, pp. 1–3.
  3. ^ Lenzlinger fought with his murderer , in the Tages-Anzeiger on January 15, 2013; accessed on February 19, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Lenzlinger, Hans Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss escape helpers, bon vivants and adventurers
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Uster
DATE OF DEATH 5th February 1979
Place of death Zurich