Julius Becker (gunman)

The act took place in today's Friedenskirche in Saarbrücken, where the grammar school was housed.

Julius Becker (born January 3, 1853 in Saarbrücken ; † after 1905 ) shot on May 25, 1871 two classmates at the Saarbrücken high school (today: Ludwigsgymnasium ). Peter Wettmann-Jungblut described this act in an essay as the “'prototype' of the school shoot ”. He also drew parallels to the comparable acts of Winnenden , Erfurt and Littleton . The act, which shows a clear time lag to similar amoctations by students, was long forgotten.

background

The Saarbrücken grammar school was housed between 1820 and 1891 in the upper and attic floors of the garrison church (today: Friedenskirche ). In the school year of the act, a few months after the historic event of the Battle of Spichern , eight pupils attended the prima of the grammar school.

Julius Becker came from a respected Saarbrücken family. The father was an accountant at the Royal Railway . From 1850 he was married to the mother of Julius Becker, a widow from a baker's and host family. Julius Becker was considered an eccentric and loner at the school. Poetry duels with Leonhard Kraushaar, an older student who was serving as a soldier at the time of the crime, have survived. In these duels one of them read a poem and the other tried to counter it in the most disrespectful way possible the next day or after deliberation. Becker lost them regularly and to the scornful applause of his schoolmates. He was also teased and sometimes humiliated by his classmates. In the aftermath of his act, his classmates and teachers described him as “haughty, conceited and arrogant”, but also as “erratic and extremely suspicious”. There was also a need for validity and overconfidence. According to Wettmann-Jungbluth, his behavior indicates a narcissistic personality disorder .

A year before the act, Becker and his classmate Gustav Eybisch clashed several times. He must have mocked him with a chalk drawing. Becker then swore revenge on him. In addition to Becker's conflicts with his classmates, his school grades also deteriorated.

did

On May 25, 1871, Becker's father was informed in writing of his son's decline in performance. The father then confronted him with the letter during his lunch break. Before afternoon classes began, the student loaded a six-barrel pocket revolver that he had legally purchased from a gunsmith on May 10 ; it was not until 1922 that legal ownership restrictions were introduced . After the first lesson he shot three times in the head of his classmate Gustav Eybisch without warning. It hit him on the right parietal bone , behind the right ear, and grazed the right eyelid . Another shot hit Adolph Brandt on the right parietal bone and one on the left upper arm. Becker fired another shot, although it is unclear whether the revolver failed or the shot failed and hit the wall. Becker then sat down next to Eybisch and called after the panicked fleeing rest of the class to call the police. Becker then allowed himself to be arrested without resistance.

Both Eybisch and Brandt survived seriously injured. Adolph Brandt had to take a longer absence and was only able to take his Abitur a year later. Eybisch lost vision in his right eye for a short time, but was able to go back to school after five weeks. Brandt described the case in 1910 in a book by Wilhelm Glabbach.

process

Julius Becker spent six months in detention and was on 15 November 1871 before a Assis court charged with attempted murder and attempted manslaughter. The trial, about which numerous witnesses and experts made partly contradicting statements, had to clarify above all the question of whether the act was committed intentionally and whether Becker was guilty and responsible . Becker was defended by Heinrich Boltz , who pleaded that his client did not have a completely free determination of will at the time of the crime. Rather, he was "the object of systematic disregard and persecution" (Boltz, quoted from) and was shunned by his fellow men from an early age. Becker revoked a confession during the trial and said he was irritated by the laughter of his classmates and then acted in an affect. The jury argued that the defendant was temporarily insane and acquitted him.

Julius Becker's further life

Becker himself suffered from his actions for the rest of his life. He never returned to the Saarbrücken grammar school and has since been considered a “harmless lunatic” who lived with his father. His mother died shortly after the incident at the age of 50. Becker was able to successfully pass his Abitur at the Grand Ducal High School in Worms (today Rudi-Stephan-Gymnasium ) in July 1872 , to which he moved in the winter of 1871. Since Worms did not belong to Prussia, but was part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse , there were no reports of the crime. After graduating from high school, he began to study building sciences at the Polytechnic in Karlsruhe , from where he disappeared after a few months and then moved to the private mental hospital of Dr. Erlenmeyers was admitted to Bendorf. Four years later he came to the then still new Rhenish provincial mental institution in Merzig . Further stays in institutions followed in Pforzheim, Bendorf, Pützchen and Andernach. After 1905, Becker's track is lost. When and where he died is unknown.

aftermath

The case was reported at the time of the offense and during the court process, not only in the Saarbrücken daily press, but also beyond Saarbrücken. It was considered a curious legal case and was picked up like a minor scandal in the tabloids. However, there was largely no public reaction. It was an isolated case that did not attract imitators.

literature

• Wilhelm Glabbach: love of fatherland. Saarbrücken high school students in the wars with the French, after a collection of voluntary contributions from former high school students . Saarbrücken 1910.
• Peter Wettmann-Jungblut: “We are at the end”. Violence of the war and violence among pupils of the Saarbrücker Gymnasium in the years 1870/1871 . In: Ludwigsgymnasium Saarbrücken (Hrsg.): 400 years of Ludwigsgymnasium Saarbrücken. Continuity and change . Saarbrücken 2004, p. 213-224 .
• Peter Wettmann-Jungblut: Revolver shots instead of lunch . In: saargeschichte | n - The historical magazine for the Saar region . No. 3 . edition schaumberg, Alsweiler 2012, p. 26-32 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Tanja Bialojan: The Saarbrücken School Shooting of 25 May 1871 offenders - indeed - public .. Leipzig, 2015.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Peter Wettmann-Jungblut: Revolver shots instead of lunch . In: saargeschichte | n - The historical magazine for the Saar region . No. 3 . edition schaumberg, Alsweiler 2012.
3. ↑ Shots in the school desk: In 1871 a Saarbrücken high school student shot two classmates. In: SOL.DE. May 21, 2015, accessed July 15, 2016 .