Hinterkaifeck

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Old land map with the Einödhof Hinterkaifeck and associated lands

The Einödhof Hinterkaifeck was the scene of a so far unsolved multiple murder. On the now defunct property, which was 500 m southwest of the village of Gröbern in what is now the municipality of Waidhofen and about six kilometers from Schrobenhausen , all six residents were murdered on the night of March 31st to April 1st, 1922 by they were inflicted with massive head injuries with a hoe . Those killed were the contract farmer couple Andreas (64 years) and Cäzilia (72 years) Gruber, their widowed daughter Viktoria Gabriel (35 years), their children Cäzilia (7 years) and Josef (2 years) and the maid Maria Baumgartner (45 years).

The unsolved six-fold murder is one of the best-known criminal cases in Germany and is still attracting great public interest due to the extraordinary circumstances of the crime. It is the basis of numerous literary and journalistic publications as well as several feature and documentary films.

Location and history of the Hinterkaifeck farm

The courtyard built around 1863 (previously the area was an open corridor ) was completely demolished almost a year after the crime. Hinterkaifeck was officially never a separate district with this name, but only an unofficial house name , and also did not belong to the eponymous place Kaifeck (around 1000 meters south), but to the village of Gröbern as house number 27 ½ of the former municipality of Wangen (before the later introduction of Street names in Gröbern and Wangen). Since no new property was built on the site later, the name of the house disappeared and is now only a historical name. The eponymous Kaifeck is a lonely farm just under a kilometer south of the “Mordhof” on the municipal road to Schrobenhausen; the former courtyard area of ​​Hinterkaifeck is now an agricultural area.

Memorial stone at the Waidhofen cemetery

Crime

Incidents before the act

Strange incidents in and around Hinterkaifeck were already accumulating some time before the crime: In mid-March 1922, for example, a Munich newspaper was found near Hinterkaifeck that was not distributed in the region. The contractor Andreas Gruber initially believed that the postman had lost the newspaper, but this was not the case because no one in the vicinity had subscribed to the newspaper. A few days before the night of the crime, Gruber also discovered tracks in the snow that led to the Hinterkaifeck farm , but not away from it again. The residents of the wasteland also missed a front door key. In addition, someone had broken the padlock on the yard's motorhome and untied a cattle in the stable. In addition, the Hinterkaifecker noticed that the property was repeatedly observed from the forest by a man with a mustache. During the night they heard footsteps in the attic above their bedrooms, but Andreas Gruber found no one when he searched the building. Although he told several people about these alleged observations, he refused to accept help from outsiders (neighbors / police). According to a school friend of the seven-year-old Cäzilia Gabriel, she is said to have reported that her mother Viktoria fled the farm after a violent argument the night before the crime and was only found hours later in the forest. 33 years later, however, the school friend claimed that it was not Viktoria Gabriel but Cäzilia Gruber who had fled.

The night of the crime from March 31st to April 1st, 1922

On the afternoon of March 31, 1922, a Friday, the new maid Maria Baumgartner arrived at the farm. Her sister, who had accompanied her there and left the courtyard after a short stay, was very likely the last person before the crime who saw the residents alive. The six murders took place a few hours later. The exact event could not later be reconstructed beyond doubt. Due to the later location of the victims, it is certain that in the late evening Viktoria Gabriel, Cäzilia and Andreas Gruber as well as the seven-year-old Cäzilia Gabriel one after the other (probably in the order mentioned) in the immediate vicinity of the transition door from the stable to the barn with an on-site from the perpetrator or . Reuthaue found by the perpetrators, which was part of the yard inventory, were slain. To this day it is not clear why and at what time interval the first four victims moved to this part of the property. Experiments carried out later showed that screams from the barn could not be heard in the maids' room or in the living room or bedroom. An autopsy later showed that the seven-year-old Cäzilia must have lived for at least two hours after her skull had been knocked in. From the barn, the perpetrator or the perpetrators penetrated through the stable into the living area, where - with the same weapon - presumably first the maid Maria Baumgartner was killed in the maid's chamber and last the two-year-old Josef in his bassinet in his mother's bedroom.

Discovery indeed

Between the time of the offense and the discovery of the offense four days later, the perpetrator (s) must have been in the house because the cattle were being tended (watered, milked). The police also discovered that the entire supply of bread had been used up and freshly cut meat from the pantry.

On April 1st, coffee sellers Hans and Eduard Schirovsky arrived in Hinterkaifeck to take an order. When no one responded to the knock on the door or window, they walked around the courtyard but found no one. They only noticed that the gate to the machine house was open. Then they went on. On April 1st, 3rd and 4th, Cäzilia Gabriel was absent from school without excuse. It was also noticed that the inhabitants of the desert did not take part in the Sunday service on April 2 (parish church of Mariäreinigung and St. Wendelin in Waidhofen, a walk of more than three kilometers that passed the bridge over the couple ). On Monday, April 3rd, when the postman Josef Mayer came to Hinterkaifeck, he noticed that the post from Saturday was still where he had left it and that apparently nobody was in the yard. The fitter Albert Hofner came to Hinterkaifeck on April 4th to repair the engine of the forage cutting machine. He said he hadn't met or heard anyone except the roar of the cows and the bark of the dog. After an hour of waiting, he started repairing the engine and was done in about 4.5 hours. Then he noticed that the barn door was open. He couldn't say whether the barn was open when he arrived or not until later. Hofner looked into the barn but did not go inside. In Gröbern he met the daughters of the local guide Lorenz Schlittenbauer and told them that the repairs in Hinterkaifeck were done. Hofner also told Georg Greger, the mayor of Wangen, about the ghostly emptiness on Hinterkaifeck. Schlittenbauer then sent his two sons Johann and Josef to Hinterkaifeck to see that things were going well. When they reported that they had not seen anyone, Schlittenbauer broke into the building complex with Michael Pöll and Jakob Sigl that same day, where they discovered the mostly covered bodies.

Investigations

Police action

The first police officers at the scene were officers from the Hohenwart Gendarmerie Station, who arrived on April 4 at around 6 p.m. Their main task was to prevent the numerous onlookers who soon after the murders became known in Hinterkaifeck from entering the murder site. The police department in Munich received the report at around 6:15 p.m. Under the direction of Chief Inspector Georg Reingruber, six officers from Munich , including two police dog handlers, immediately set off and arrived at Mayor Georg Greger in Wangen at 1:30 a.m.

At 5:30 a.m. they went to the crime scene and systematically inspected the Hinterkaifeck buildings together with the court commission from Schrobenhausen. In the attic, which ran continuously over the house, stable and barn, the police discovered that the floor was covered with hay, apparently to dampen footsteps. In addition, some of the roof tiles were shifted so that one could see the entire yard area, and two hollows were found in a haystack, which indicated that there must have been people here. The first interrogations took place in the farmhouse in the kitchen.

The motive was initially assumed to be robbery and murder, but later increasingly doubted because it was not possible to determine exactly how much money was stolen. A lot of money was also left behind, although the perpetrators had enough time to search the house carefully. During the autopsy by the Neuburg Regional Court doctor Dr. Johann Baptist Aumüller on a makeshift dissection table in the courtyard of the farm had their heads cut off. It was also found that Cäzilia Gabriel had torn tufts of hair in her two-hour agony.

The homicide officers investigated in various directions and even followed improbable leads. The first thing the police focused on were convicts, hoarders and peddlers who came from or roamed the Hinterkaifeck area. Already on April 8th, a reward of 100,000 marks was offered for information about the perpetrator. Many people were then suspected (see: Suspects) , and the homicide commission also received a lot of inconclusive information, but the murders could not be proven to anyone. Spiritist meetings with the media were also carried out with the skulls of the victims, but they also did not produce any results.

On February 28, 1930, Chief Inspector Reingruber retired, and in September of the same year Martin Riedmayer (1896–1989) took over the case.

Suspects

A total of around a hundred suspects were included in the extensive investigation, but not a single case was brought to justice. The following lists people who were viewed by the police and / or the general public as potential perpetrators, but who could neither be convicted as murderers nor unequivocally excluded from the perpetrator.

Karl Gabriel

The death of the young farmer's husband, Karl Gabriel, who died in December 1914 during World War I , has been questioned. He is said to have found out that Viktoria Gabriel had an illegitimate child (Josef) after their daughter (Cäzilia), possibly with her own father (see: Incest) . He is said to have killed the entire family in order to seek revenge. Although soldiers from his regiment testified to his death, this theory received new nourishment over the years after people repeatedly reported that they had met Gabriel or could confirm that Gabriel had exchanged his identity with that of a fallen comrade.

After the end of World War II , war returnees from the region around Schrobenhausen, who had been released early from Soviet captivity, independently claimed that they had been sent home by a Bavarian-speaking Soviet officer who had stated that he was the murderer of Hinterkaifeck. Some of these statements were later revised by the returnees themselves. Today it can no longer be proven beyond doubt whether these were made up stories or truthful statements. Even if the allegations are correct, the Russian need not necessarily have been Karl Gabriel, although some of the witnesses he allegedly met shortly before and after the murder had testified that he wanted to go to Russia drop.

Lorenz Schlittenbauer

Lorenz Schlittenbauer was the mayor of Gröbern and was then, as now, one of the main suspects. Shortly after the death of his first wife, he had a relationship with Viktoria Gabriel and was also considered a possible father of her son Josef. After several revocations, he finally recognized paternity, but paid no maintenance. He was suspected as a perpetrator - also by the population - because he is said to have betrayed himself through some actions and hints regarding the murders. For example, when the bodies were found, a gate was broken into because all the doors in the courtyard were locked. After finding the dead, his two companions left the stable in shock, while Schlittenbauer went on alone into the house, in which he seemed to be very familiar. He then unlocked the front door from the inside with the key - clearly audible to the other witnesses. Schlittenbauer later stated that he was stuck in the door. However, this single key was missing from the victims shortly before the crime. Furthermore, he lived only 350 meters away and could not only have spied on the courtyard without any problems, but could also have moved undetected between his property and the crime scene.

Even years later, Schlittenbauer was repeatedly associated with the crime on the basis of strange statements (for example, he is said to have occasionally spoken of the perpetrator in the first person when speculating about the course of events at the local regulars' table). The files also included an encounter between the village teacher at the time, Hans Yblagger, and the sledge builder on the remains of the wall of the abandoned Hinterkaifeck farm in 1925. The young teacher surprised him, leaning over the cellar entrance that was still there, and was amazed at his terrible and confused reaction when he did addressed him. Schlittenbauer then told of an alleged attempt by the perpetrator to bury the corpses where they were found, which was not possible due to the nature of the soil. Neither Schlittenbauer nor any other witness had previously put this information on record.

Before his death in 1941, Schlittenbauer led and won several civil suits for defamation against people who referred to him as the “Murderer of Hinterkaifeck”.

Josef Bärtl

The allegedly mentally ill baker Josef Bärtl, born in 1897 from nearby Geisenfeld , was suspected of being a murderer soon after the crime, because he had fled the Günzburg district sanatorium in 1921 . Because of his state of mind and his suspected involvement in a murder in 1919, he was trusted to commit the act, and a medium had identified him as the perpetrator on the basis of a photograph at one of the spiritualistic sessions. Witnesses repeatedly stated that they had met Bärtl, but he could never be picked up by the police.

Gump brothers

As early as April 9, 1922, Chief Criminal Investigator Georg Reingruber had the manhunt for Adolf Gump, Wilhelm Dreßel, Wilhelm Musweiler alias Weiland and the former detective Friedrich N. alias Fischer announced. All four are said to have marched into Upper Silesia with the Oberland Freikorps and participated in the murder of nine farmers there. Reingruber could not rule out that Adolf Gump was also involved in the murders in Hinterkaifeck, which is why he instructed the relevant gendarmerie stations to ask for his alibi from March 30th and 31st and April 1st, 1922 in the event of a possible arrest .

In 1951, prosecutor Andreas Popp investigated Adolf's brother Anton Gump on suspicion that the two brothers had committed the murders on Hinterkaifeck. The suspicion was based on the allegation made by the sister of the two. Kreszentia Mayer claimed on his deathbed to the priest Anton Hauber that her two brothers Adolf and Anton had committed the murders. As a result, Anton Gump was taken into custody, Adolf had died in 1944. After a short time, however, Anton was released again, and in 1954 the proceedings against him were finally abandoned because no evidence of any involvement in the crime could be proven.

The brothers Karl and Andreas S. from Sattelberg

In 1971 a woman named Therese T. wrote a letter in which she referred to an event in her youth: at the age of twelve she witnessed the visit of the mother of the brothers Karl and Andreas S. to her mother. She claimed that her sons were the two murderers from Hinterkaifeck. It was interesting that the mother said the sentence "Andreas regretted losing his pocket knife" during the conversation. In fact, when the farm was demolished in 1923, a pocket knife was found that could not be clearly assigned to anyone and whose existence was generally unknown. However, the knife could have belonged to one of the murder victims. This trail was also followed without result. Kreszenz Rieger, the former maid from Hinterkaifeck, was sure to have seen the pocket knife on the farm during her service.

Peter Weber

Peter Weber is named as a suspect by Josef Betz. Both worked as unskilled workers in the winter of 1919/1920 and shared a room. According to Betz, Weber spoke of a remote farm at the time, namely Hinterkaifeck. Weber was also aware of the conditions in Hinterkaifeck. He said that only an old couple lived there with their daughter and their two children. He also knew about the incest between Gruber and his daughter. Betz testified in an interrogation that Weber had suggested killing the old man to get the gold. When Betz did not accept the offer, Weber stopped talking about it.

The Bichler brothers and Georg Siegl

The former maid Kreszenz Rieger worked on Hinterkaifeck from November 1920 to around September 1921. She suspected the brothers Anton and Karl Bichler to have committed the murder. Anton Bichler is said to have helped with the potato harvest on Hinterkaifeck and therefore knew the premises. Anton Bichler is said to have often spoken badly next to her about the Gruber and Gabriel families. An old lady told her that Anton should have said that the Kaifecker should all be slain. The maid also expressly emphasized in her interrogation that the farm dog who barked at everyone never barked at Anton. She also reported an encounter with a stranger who stood in front of her window at night and left after an exchange of words. The maid believed it was Karl Bichler, Anton's brother. She also testified that Anton and Karl Bichler could have committed the murder together with Georg Siegl. Georg Siegl worked for a while at Hinterkaifeck and is said to have known about the fortune of the Kaifecker. Siegl is said to have committed a break-in on Hinterkaifeck at the beginning of November 1920 while the Gruber couple and Viktoria Gabriel were working in the field. He is said to have climbed into the house through an open window and stole smoked meat, eggs, bread and clothes. The Kaifeckers would only have seen Siegl flee into the forest. Despite these events, he was hired again as a servant for a few days in September 1921. Georg Siegl denied the theft in an interrogation and accused Josef Hartl from Waidhofen of the act. In a later interrogation he also testified that he had carved the handle of the Reuthaue (instrument of murder) himself when he was working as a servant on Hinterkaifeck. At that time the Reuthaue would always have been kept in the barn passage.

Thaler brothers

According to a statement by the former maid Kreszenz Rieger, the Thaler brothers were also considered suspicious. The Thaler brothers had already committed several small break-ins in the area before the crime. Several unusual incidents are said to have occurred during the potato harvest time in 1921. Josef Thaler is said to have often stood at her window at night. When she opened the window once, Josef Thaler is said to have asked her about the Gruber and Gabriel family, but she gave no answer to his questions. In the conversation Josef Thaler claimed to know which Kaifecker slept in which room. He also stated that the Kaifecker had a lot of money. They would hide the money in a different place during the day than at night. After about 30 minutes Josef Thaler left. The maid noticed that a second, unknown person was nearby. According to her statement, Josef Thaler and the stranger looked at the machine house and turned their gaze upwards. The maid believed that the stranger was Andreas, Josef's brother. At the same time, the door of the maid's chamber is said to have opened again and again by itself around midnight. Out of fear, Kreszenz Rieger then resigned after four weeks.

Financial situation

The Gabriel-Gruber family was said to be wealthy. Her fortune, which Lorenz Schlittenbauer estimated at 100,000 marks, was invested in mortgage bonds and war bonds as well as in jewelry and gold and silver coins. She also had considerable cash assets. In addition, she owned 50 days' work (approx. 17 hectares ) of land and some head of cattle (cattle, pigs and chickens). When the murder happened, the rebuilding of the stable was planned.

Social situation

The inhabitants of the desert lived withdrawn and were considered stingy in the village community of Gröbern. To save money, they employed - partly illegally and often only for a few weeks - among other things, wandering unskilled workers.

incest

An incestuous relationship had existed between the father Andreas Gruber and his daughter Viktoria at least since the daughter was 16 years old. Therefore, both were sentenced in 1915 - the father to one year in prison and the daughter to one month in prison . Once the two were caught in the hay by a maid.

There are also rumors that Josef, born out of wedlock in 1919, was not conceived by Lorenz Schlittenbauer, but by Andreas Gruber. Andreas Gruber is also said to have tried to prevent a marriage between the two widows, Viktoria Gabriel and Lorenz Schlittenbauer. Thereupon Schlittenbauer denied paternity and reported Andreas Gruber in September 1919 for incest . As Andreas Gruber had already been convicted, he was in custody taken. Shortly thereafter, Schlittenbauer withdrew his allegations and recognized paternity. Some time later, however, he rejected it again and reiterated his previous allegations. Because of these contradicting statements, there was ultimately no further conviction; Gruber had already been released from prison.

heritage

In the inheritance certificate dated June 7, 1922, one half of the property was assigned to Andreas Gruber's family and the other half to Cäzilia Gruber's daughter, Cäzilia Starringer, who came from her first marriage. All gold and silver money was to be ceded to the tax authorities for tax evasion (but this was later revised and the heirs were able to receive the money). Karl Gabriel senior, father of Viktoria Gabriel's deceased husband and grandfather of Cäzilia Gabriel, then sued on the grounds that the seven-year-old Cäzilia, as a universal heir, was demonstrably killed after her mother. These and all other lawsuits by Karl Gabriel were rejected by the court. Finally, Josef Gabriel (son of the above Karl Gabriel and brother-in-law of the murdered Viktoria Gabriel) acquired the property from the 13-member community of heirs on September 22, 1922 for 3 million marks .

Found the murder weapon

In February 1923, Karl Gabriel Sr. began to tear down the murder court with some helpers. During the demolition, the blood-smeared tool was found, a Reuthaue , which came from the possession of Andreas Gruber and had been hidden in the attic under the floorboards (in the so-called false floor ) near the fireplace. It could be proven beyond doubt that a protruding screw, which had apparently been attached during an unprofessional repair, had left traces of injury on the victims. Usable fingerprints could no longer be determined, but the buildup of human hair.

Result of the investigation

Despite repeated arrests, no perpetrator has been found to this day; the files were closed in 1955. Nevertheless, the last interrogations took place in 1986 , and Chief Detective Konrad Müller continued investigating while he was retired. In 2018, at the age of 83, he handed over the files he had collected on the case to the Bavarian Police Museum in Ingolstadt.

Public reactions

Shortly after the murder was discovered, many onlookers gathered in Hinterkaifeck, and some even stayed at night to pray for “the poor souls”. Several thousand people attended the funeral on April 8, 1922 at the Waidhofen cemetery. After the crime there was a real backcountry hysteria, and the population of the area speculated about possible perpetrators.

Funeral and memorial

Marterl near the crime scene

The dead are buried without skulls in the Waidhofen cemetery , a memorial stone was erected on the grave. The skulls of the dead were last in a judicial building in Augsburg and were destroyed in a bomb attack during World War II. The courtyard was demolished in 1923, and today there is only a Marterl in the vicinity .

Inconsistencies in the case and failure to investigate

In the inspection protocol of the Schrobenhausen Judicial Commission it was noted that the victims were probably lured into the stable by unrest in the stable (roaring, untied cattle). However, an experiment showed that at least human screams from the barn (scene of the crime or where Andreas and Cäzilia Gruber and Viktoria and Cäzilia Gabriel were found) could not be heard in the living area. This raises the question of whether the Hinterkaifecker were really lured into the barn as described above or in some other unknown way.

The exact course of events could not be clarified beyond doubt. Only five pictures of the crime scene were taken: two with the corpses in the barn, one of the dead maid in her room, one of Josef's bassinet in Victoria's bedroom and an outside view of the courtyard. Dactyloscopic traces were not saved. A reconstruction of the crime based on the situation showed that Viktoria Gabriel was probably the first murder victim. Cäzilia Gruber, then her husband Andreas Gruber and finally Cäzilia Gabriel were killed in the barn. In the house, the maid was probably killed first, followed by Josef in the end. All corpses had severe head injuries, and Viktoria Gabriel is also said to have had strangle marks on the neck, but the sources are not clear.

The assumption that the perpetrator or perpetrators had been in the house before the offense was also questioned. Some of the evidence for this - such as the shifted roof tiles and the hollows in the hay - were later interpreted as the love hiding place of the incest relationship between Andreas Gruber and Viktoria Gabriel. This would also explain why the hollows and bricks were not noticed or mentioned by Andreas Gruber, although, according to reliable statements, he is said to have thoroughly searched the yard several times before the act.

In the night after the crime (i.e. three days before the bodies were found), the craftsman Michael Plöckl, who happened to be passing Hinterkaifeck, observed that the oven in the courtyard had been heated by a person he did not know. The person then approached him with a flashlight and blinded him, whereupon he hurriedly continued on his way. Plöckl also noticed that the smoke from the fireplace had a disgusting smell. The incident has not been investigated, and there are no known investigations into what was burned in the oven that night.

On April 1, at 3 a.m., the farmer and butcher Simon Reissländer claims to have seen two unknown figures on the edge of the forest near Brunnen on the way home. When the strangers saw him, they turned around so that their faces could not be seen. When he later heard of the murders in Hinterkaifeck, he thought it possible that the unknowns could be connected to it.

After the crime, the fitter Albert Hofner was in the yard for several hours for repair work, but was not questioned until 1925 because the police had missed an interrogation immediately after the crime. His testimony suggests that the perpetrator or perpetrators were either still or in the meantime on the farm. So he found the entrances to the house locked and found no person, but on arrival he allegedly heard barking dogs from inside the house. When leaving the homestead a few hours later, he noticed that the grubers' barking spitz was now tied up in front of the still locked front door and that the gate was open (though he did not step through it). When the bodies were discovered in the early evening of the same day, the visibly disturbed dog with an injured eye was found with the victims in the barn, the door of which was now closed again.

In mid-May 1927, a strange man is said to have stopped a resident of Waidhofen around midnight. He asked him questions about the murder and then shouted that he was the murderer; then he ran into the woods. Who the man was could not be determined.

The victims' personal environment was insufficiently investigated. In the first few years, this also applies in particular to the new maid Maria Baumgartner. It is noteworthy that the murders happened a few hours after they arrived at the courtyard. It is at least possible that the motive for murder is related to her person.

Robbery and murder was often assumed as the motive, although a large amount of money (approx. 1800 gold marks ) was found in a cupboard that was searched by the perpetrator or perpetrators who remained in the house for longer. In addition, the complex and excessively brutal execution of the crime, in which the family including the children was wiped out, as well as various nightly acts (for example, the positioning and covering of the corpses or the obvious care when trying to keep the murders undetected for as long as possible) speak more for an emotional act of relationship.

The murder weapon is also a mystery. The discovery report speaks of a pickaxe that was found at the scene and that the sledge maker claimed to have been in a feed trough for the cattle. The police explicitly mentioned this hoe in the discovery report. A year later, when the courtyard was demolished, a hiding place in the ground was found, which was identified as a murder weapon (see above). There was then no more talk of the first hoe or of an allegedly bloody iron band, which was also discovered when the courtyard was demolished. The question remains whether the two objects, which are no longer mentioned, are further weapons or not. If so, it would point to multiple perpetrators. That too can no longer be finally clarified.

In the 1970s, when the sacristy of St. Vitus Church in Hagelstadt was demolished, a picture of the death of the family was found in a church book , which bears the handwritten notes jealously usuriously , despised in the whole area , because of morality 1 year , incest and punishment from God . It is not known who was probably labeling the picture as early as the 1920s and how or when it got to Hagelstadt, about 85 kilometers away.

Final report from the Fürstenfeldbruck Police College

In 2007, 15 police officers wrote a 188-page report as part of their thesis at the Fürstenfeldbruck civil service college, in which the case is again examined in depth. Although the police students attested that the interrogations at that time were meticulous in detail, they also criticized the fact that numerous clues were not followed up, and the lack of professional evidence security. With a probability bordering on certainty, the murderer will no longer be able to be identified, since even a mass genetic test of living relatives of the suspect at the time would not lead to a result due to the lack of trace material. All of the officers involved in the report, however, independently of one another unanimously agreed who the perpetrator must have been, but his name was not given due to moral consideration for the descendants.

media

Film adaptations

  • In 1981, Hans Fegert from the Ingolstädter Schmalfilm-Club (ISC) shot the Super 8 feature film Hinterkaifeck - Symbol of the uncanny in cooperation with the Pfaffenhofen theater . Around 20,000 viewers saw this film in the Ingolstadt / Schrobenhausen / Neuburg and Pfaffenhofen region.
  • The murder case was portrayed in 1991 by Kurt Hieber in a television documentary ( Hinterkaifeck - In the footsteps of a murderer ). Journalist Reinhard Köchl conducted the interviews with contemporary witnesses, some of whom have died today. In 1989 he also won the BLM radio award for the radio feature Die Mordnacht von Hinterkaifeck (Radio ND 1, Neuburg / Donau).
  • In 2009, the thriller Behind Kaifeck referred to the events.
  • Also in 2009, the thriller drama Tannöd was a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Andrea Maria Schenkel , which is based on the real murder case.
  • The case was presented a second time in 2009 by Kurt Hieber in The Hinterkaifeck case - The true story behind Tannöd .
  • As part of the ZDF-History TV series, the story was reported on June 17, 2012 in the feature Mysterious Criminal Cases of History . Film excerpts from Kurt Hieber's 2009 documentation were used.
  • Mention of a “spooky incident” at Marterl in 2008 in Sky Du Mont's series Haunted - Souls Without Peace (Season 1, Ep. 5, 2016).
  • In the second season of the Amazon Studios series Lore (2018), an interpretation of the murder case is presented. As a result, actors such as Jürgen Prochnow , Thomas Kretschmann , Susanne Wuest , Karoline Eichhorn and Vladimir Burlakov participated .

literature

In 1978, after years of research in Munich and Augsburg archives , the journalist Peter Leuschner presented a comprehensive - albeit dramatic - documentation of the murder case and the investigation. In 1997 this documentation was reissued; The third, revised edition was published in July 2007.

The very popular crime novel Tannöd by Andrea Maria Schenkel from 2006 was also inspired by the Hinterkaifeck murder; Allegations of plagiarism against the author by Leuschner have not been confirmed in court.

Non-fiction
  • Reinhard Haiplik: Hinterkaifeck . In other words: arsonists, murderers and bandits. Sensational crimes in our homeland . District Office (ed.): Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm 1995. 87 pp.
  • Reinhard Haiplik: Mysterious places in the Hallertau - Local history hikes between Ilm, Paar and Abens (summary of the most important theories). Hohenwart: Galli Verlag 2009. 128 pages, ISBN 978-3-936990-48-5
  • Winfried Rein: The attraction of the unsolved: 75 years after the fact, the Hinterkaifeck case again provides material for speculation . In: Der Sonntag , Ingolstadt 1997. 12 pp.
  • Rainer Schmeißner: The wayside shrine from Hinterkaifeck (Upper Bavaria): the only reminder of Germany's most puzzling murder case . In: Steinkreuzforschung series B (communications), anthologies, vol. 27, Regensburg 2002, pp. 81–86
  • Werner Vitzthum: Chronology of a bloody act: six murders have remained unpunished to this day; Hinterkaifeck . In: The big home book - the most beautiful stories from the district of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen and the old district of Schrobenhausen . Max Ballas MB Publishing pressure: Schrobenhausen 1997, pp. 127–129
  • Hinterkaifeck - Germany's mysterious murder case . In: Staatl. Education authority in the district of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen (ed.): Local history material collection for the district of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen , Munich 1982, p. 119
  • Peter Große: Don't be frightened! Everyone was struck by it: “Tannöd”, a slightly different crime thriller from Bavaria , Junge Welt from April 6, 2006, p. 12
Fiction
Bavarica
  • Peter Leuschner: The Hinterkaifeck murder case. Germany's most mysterious murder case . Verlag Ludwig: Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm 1978, ISBN 3-7787-2028-7
  • Peter Leuschner: The Hinterkaifeck murder case. Traces of a mysterious crime . 3rd, revised edition, Apus-Verlag: Hofstetten 2007, ISBN 978-3-9805591-0-2
  • Peter Leuschner: Hinterkaifeck: Germany's most mysterious murder case . Paperback, Apus-Verlag: Hofstetten 2009, ISBN 978-3-9805591-1-9
  • Peter Leuschner: The riddle about Hinterkaifeck - the unsolved sixfold murder of 1922 on a wasteland in Upper Bavaria , in: Michael Farin (ed.): Police report Munich . belleville: Munich 1999, p. 172 ff. In it: Reprint of the profiles of April 8, 1922 and May 3, 1927 (reward for the "fleeting" baker Joseph Bärtl, called Hans).
Play
  • Reinfried Keilich: Hinterkaifeck. A murder case . Publishing house of the authors: Frankfurt / M. 1989

music

  • The German indie musician Drangsal released a song on his debut album Harieschaim with the title Hinterkaifeck . Even if the text of the song has nothing to do with the murders, Drangsal, whose real name is Max Gruber, stated in an interview that he was related to the Gruber family who were murdered on Hinterkaifeck.

Podcasts

exhibition

  • The Hinterkaifeck myth - On the trail of a crime , exhibition in the Bavarian Police Museum in Ingolstadt from September 2016 to September 2018

Web links and sources

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The courtyard was rebuilt between autumn / winter 1862 and autumn / winter 1864, cf. Other: The Hinterkaifeck farm - construction in the Hinterkaifeck Wiki
  2. ↑ Statements: 1952-01-10 Mayer Josef - Das Hinterkaifeck Wiki. Retrieved September 7, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Admin: The most common questions about the Hinterkaifeck murder case - www.hinterkaifeck.net. Retrieved September 7, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Reports: 1922-04-06 Wiessner Konrad, chief magistrate - Das Hinterkaifeck-Wiki. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b c 90 years of Hinterkaifeck - the case. In: Donaukurier . February 27, 2012, accessed September 1, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Statements: 1922-04-05 Schirovsky Hans u. Eduard - The Hinterkaifeck Wiki. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .
  7. ↑ 90 years of Hinterkaifeck - the investigation article from March 8, 2012 on donaukurier.de
  8. ↑ The Suspect Karl Gabriel Article of March 27, 2012 on donaukurier.de
  9. ↑ https://www.donaukurier.de/themen/dossiers/hinterkaifeck/Ein-lebenslanger-Fluch;art199186,3034276
  10. ↑ Peter Leuschner: "Der Mordfall Hinterkaifeck." 1997, ISBN 3980559106 , pp. 38–50.
  11. ↑ http://www.hinterkaifeck-mord.de/homepage/html/Navilinks/Verdaechtige.html
  12. ^ Donaukurier.de March 23, 2012: 90 years of Hinterkaifeck - The suspect sledge maker
  13. ↑ süddeutsche.de March 11, 2009: Secret about a seventh corpse
  14. ↑ The Suspects - The Gump Brothers Article from March 27, 2012 on donaukurier.de
  15. ↑ Suspects on the hinterkaifeck-mord website, accessed on February 15, 2016.
  16. ↑ Issues: pocket knife - Das Hinterkaifeck-Wiki. Retrieved September 9, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Statements: 1922-04-07 Betz Josef - Das Hinterkaifeck Wiki. Retrieved September 7, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Statements: 1922-04-24 Rieger Kreszenz - Das Hinterkaifeck-Wiki. Retrieved September 9, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Statements: 1922-04-27 Siegl Georg - Das Hinterkaifeck-Wiki. Retrieved September 9, 2017 .
  20. ↑ People: Siegl Georg - Das Hinterkaifeck Wiki. Retrieved September 9, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Statements: 1952-07-09 Rieger Kreszenz I - Das Hinterkaifeck-Wiki. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .
  22. ↑ a b Hinterkaifeck or the stimulus of the uncertain article of March 21, 2012 in the Augsburger Allgemeine, accessed on September 22, 2012
  23. ↑ Neid, Blutschande, Gottes Strafe Article from March 30, 2012 on Süddeutsche.de, accessed on September 22, 2012.
  24. ^ Purchase contract for Hinterkaifeck to J. Gabriel on hinterkaifeck.net
  25. ↑ Horst Richter: The legacy of the commissioner. In: Donaukurier . October 26, 2018, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  26. ^ Proceedings of the court article from March 27, 2012 on donaukurier.de
  27. ↑ Issues: The encounter at the oven - The Hinterkaifeck Wiki. Retrieved September 7, 2017 .
  28. ↑ Statements: 1922-04-10 Reisländer Simon - Das Hinterkaifeck-Wiki. Retrieved September 7, 2017 .
  29. ↑ Newspaper article: 1931-04-01 Schrobenhausener Zeitung - Das Hinterkaifeck-Wiki. Retrieved September 7, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Final project report on the topic of Hinterkaifeck. A murder case and no end. of the 2004/2007 academic year of the "University of Applied Sciences for Public Administration and Justice in Bavaria". Online edition
  31. ↑ Hinterkaifeck Documentation - In the footsteps of a murderer Article from April 20, 2012 on donaukurier.de
  32. ↑ Mysterious murder 1922 Secret about a seventh corpse in: Süddeutsche Zeitung of March 11, 2009
  33. ↑ The film Tannöd article from May 11, 2012 on donaukurier.de
  34. ↑ Waidhofen: Once again Hinterkaifeck. Retrieved April 4, 2020 .
  35. ↑ Myth Hinterkaifeck - On the trail of a crime

Coordinates: 48 ° 35 ′ 38 ″  N , 11 ° 19 ′ 19 ″  E