Madonna robbery
The so-called Madonna robbery (also Volkacher Madonnenraub , Volkacher Kunstraub ) on August 7, 1962 is considered one of the most spectacular art thefts of the German post-war period . Among other things, the thieves stole the so-called Rosary Madonna by Tilman Riemenschneider from the Volkach pilgrimage church Maria im Weingarten . After the theft, the Stern magazine offered a “ransom” for the Madonna and was able to achieve the return of the works of art with the controversial campaign.
prehistory
A church has existed on this site since the 10th century. Since the 14th century, a regional pilgrimage to a Pietà , which has healing powers, has been established. Between 1521 and 1524, the sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider created the so-called Rosary Madonna, which is considered to be the master's last image of the Virgin. This carving was initially suspended in the choir, but since 1954 it has been presented above the right side altar and was therefore easier to reach. The community and the dean's office in Volkach , who renovated the church in the middle of the 20th century, also refrained from installing an alarm system .
At the beginning of 1962, two petty criminals and a sculptor and painter met in Bamberg . The trio had started to steal and sell sacred art objects in the Bamberg area. In July 1962 they stole a field cross near Köttmannsdorf and broke into the Käppele near Zeil am Main on the night of July 6th, 1962 . Both thefts brought little profit for the gang and so it was planned to carry out a major coup in August 1962.
Before the theft, the trio let a fourth man into the plan. He worked as a transport company in Bamberg and provided a flatbed truck . The group, although they only committed a so-called " boarding theft ", was later referred to by the media as a "Madonna robber gang". In the evening the group met in the sculptor's apartment and then drove in separate cars via Ebrach to Volkach.
Process of theft
Arrived at the pilgrimage church, one of the thieves climbed on a rope to the approximately six meter high church window on the north side. Here he opened a hinged window element and slipped inside the church. Here it turned out that the rope of the gang was too short because the church was built on the slope. The thief jumped the last few meters and was unharmed. Then he opened the locked church door for the accomplice waiting outside .
The thieves worked in pairs to fix the rosary Madonna. It took them several hours, and it was likely that they had entered the church without tools. The Madonna eventually fell on the altar, with several parts of the rosary , angel wings and other filigree elements breaking off. The back of the Madonna was fixed by an iron cross, which the thieves took away. So it could be broken down into individual parts.
Now the parts were brought to the flatbed truck, in which another accomplice was waiting. The Madonna suffered some damage while overcoming the churchyard wall. The gang also stole an 80 cm high sculpture of " Anna selbdritt " from the right wall of the nave , the Pietà, which was once described as miraculous, and two allegorical depictions of "hope" and "faith" from the wooden epitaph of Sigmund Zollner von der Hallburg . The absence of these figures was only discovered after a week.
In 1962, only the pensioner Philipp Jäcklein, who was responsible for the church as sacristan , and his daughter Ludmilla lived on the site of the pilgrimage church . Around 4 a.m. the daughter heard the noise of an engine and, when she looked out the window, saw the flatbed truck drive past the house. She woke her father and ran with him to the west door of the church, which was open. On the ground they discovered the severed parts of the Madonna and alerted the police .
During the return trip, which took place via Schweinfurt and Haßfurt , the works of art were covered with grain by the perpetrators. The smaller works of art were housed in the Bamberg sculptor's workshop, while the Madonna initially remained on a small trailer. The thieves soon brought the great Madonna to a property in Hollfeld and prepared her with a protective layer of shoe polish and floor wax before they buried her.
consequences
Manhunt and initial reporting
The police at the Volkacher Station referred the case to the Würzburg detectives on the first day . This came with a forensics team and was able to secure several foot and tire tracks in the outside area of the church. In the meantime, some police officers searched the vineyards and orchards in the area for usable traces. Soon a special commission was set up in Würzburg under the police officers Gerald Förg and Eduard Schmitt.
At first the police suspected the sacristan Jäcklein and his daughter. The family's correspondence was checked, and the relatives living in northern Germany were interrogated by the police. Ludmilla Jäcklein visited several car dealerships in Würzburg with the detectives in order to be able to recognize the model of the flatbed truck. After a few days, the Jäcklein family was excluded from the group of suspects .
The national press, Bavarian radio and German television have now also reported on the case. Two British people who were traveling through Bavaria in their flatbed truck were temporarily arrested in Donauwörth . Shortly before the Madonna was stolen, they asked about the location of the works of art. However, the men were soon released because the suspicions were insufficient.
Call of the star and debate
The editor of the weekly Stern, Henri Nannen , became aware of the case through the press reports . He had also got to know the Franconian sculptures by Riemenschneider while studying art history . A fellow student was also the later director of the Mainfränkisches Museum in Würzburg, Max Hermann von Freeden . Shortly after the theft, Nannen brought the subject of “robbery” to the agenda at an editorial meeting.
Nannen planned to save the works and informed the publisher Gerd Bucerius that he wanted to offer 100,000 DM as "ransom". Bucerius agreed and discussed the action with the police. The head of the Main Franconian Museum, Hanswernfried Muth , was first informed about the action on site. The Volkach chaplain Adalbert Dolata then traveled to Hamburg to discuss the details with Nannen.
In the August 26, 1962 issue of Stern, a large article was published on the robbery of the Madonna. It was associated with the appeal “Give back the Volkach Madonna! For a ransom of 100,000 marks . ”The authors of the article promised the thieves absolute secrecy if they provided any clues as to the whereabouts of the Madonna. Nannen protected himself from possible reproaches by emphasizing that he wanted to return the works of art and not reward the criminals.
The appeal initially served the desired purpose. American newspapers in particular reported about the theft, and the international art market was warned in this way. In Germany, the action sparked heated debates in the feature sections of the major newspapers. “ Die Welt ” outraged on August 22, 1962 with the words “Can you believe it? Robbers are treated as men of honor (...) ”.
In Switzerland , the Neue Winterthurer Tagblatt insisted that "Here (...) a nefarious crime was honored (...)". The Rheinische Merkur went even further and insinuated that on November 16, Nannen had "(...) strongly shook the foundations of the rule of law" with his campaign. In the " Zeit " the question was asked whether the "(...) devotion to art a word of honor to crooks (...)" was holy.
Several charges were also filed against Nannen and his deputy Reinhart Hoffmeister . A lawyer from Wesel was the first to report stolen goods to the Stern editors . A total of four legal proceedings were opened, one of them even before the Federal Court of Justice. All processes were discontinued, also because Nannen had secured himself with the Hamburg attorney general Ernst Buchholz before the publication .
By contrast, Nannen received mostly positive feedback from cultural workers and artists. The sculptor Gerhard Marcks supported the action as did Leopold Reidemeister from the State Museums in West Berlin. In Munich, Nannen received support from the museum man Emil Preetorius. The artist Oskar Kokoschka spoke of the Volkacher Madonna as "(...) one of the spiritual documents of mankind". Only the church viewed the action critically because it feared a “desecration of the Ars sacra ” for profit.
Find the artwork and return
The sculptures of "Faith" and "Hope" from the Zollner epitaph had already been found on August 22, 1962 . The sexton of the Frankfurt Cathedral discovered the pieces around 6:30 a.m. in front of the portal and handed them over to the police. The two sculptures were probably sold by the thieves to a Frankfurt antiques dealer. The buyer had probably found out about the origin of the pieces through media coverage and wanted to part with the stolen goods quickly.
After the thieves did not answer at first, Stern received a call around 10:30 p.m. on October 25, 1962 . Reinhart Hoffmeister was on the phone and spoke to a man who called himself "Leininger". Hoffmeister asked the man about details of the back of the Madonna to be sure that it was really one of the perpetrators . When "Leininger" was able to answer all questions correctly, it was clear that the thieves had reported.
After "Leininger" had phoned Hoffmeister several times, the deputy editor-in-chief was instructed by the thieves to leave for Hamburg-Altona at around 2:30 am . He should find some of the prey here. Hoffmeister drove to Eifflerstrasse with his wife . In this side street he discovered the figure of Anna the third and two medallions from the rosary. The next day, Max Hermann von Freeden identified the pieces. On October 27th, Hoffmeister positioned the first 50,000 DM under a steamroller.
The thieves then began to harass the Stern editorial team with constant calls. Nannen and Hoffmeister were also supposed to be intimidated by threatening the criminals with kidnapping their families. However, it was not until November 3, 1962 that the transfer of the other works was agreed. Nannen, Hoffmeister and a driver were instructed to drive to a field on the outskirts of Großgründlach near Nuremberg . Here the three discovered the Madonna and Pietà and left the other half of the money behind.
The pieces were initially stored in the police headquarters of the city of Hamburg. Here the Madonna was also treated forensic by the forensic team . On November 11, 1962, the works of art traveled to the Mainfränkisches Museum in Würzburg under a strong police presence . A day later, the Rosary Madonna came back to Volkach. Henri Nannen confessed: "This Monday is the day that I can count among the happiest of my life."
Soon after, the pieces were removed from the Maria im Weingarten church. The Madonna was to be restored at the State Office for Monument Preservation in Munich , while the other works of art were renewed by the Pracher workshop in Würzburg. In addition to the free restoration , the State Office for Monument Preservation also installed an alarm system in the pilgrimage church. In total, the work cost the State Office DM 36,840.18.
On August 6, 1963, the Madonna left Munich again and was taken to Volkach in great secrecy. The ringing of bells around 5:20 p.m. signaled the final return of the Madonna to the people of Volkach. On October 5, the community hosted a thank procession , the same day received Henri Nannen in shelf home the honorary citizenship . Reinhart Hoffmeister was honored with the Golden City Plaque.
Arrest of the perpetrator and trial
After the robbers broke into the Volkach pilgrimage church, they by no means waited. Instead, on September 18, 1962, they tried unsuccessfully to break into the Gügelkapelle near Scheßlitz and broke into the Walberla Chapel near Ebermannstadt that same night . In addition, the thieves were able to get three figures of saints from a small path chapel near Drgendorf which were reworked and sold.
After receiving the money and the return of the Madonna, the special commission of the Würzburg police was disbanded in May 1963. The gang then changed their profile and attacked banks and savings banks. In May they attacked the Sparkasse Gaustadt , planned a raid on the Volksbank Hollfeld in the fall of 1963 and committed a robbery on October 24th in Hirschaid when they attacked the local Raiffeisen bank.
In the following years, the gang, with changing cast, was able to steal other works of art from churches and chapels . In addition, cars were stolen and banks were robbed. At times, the robbers made their living selling fur coats in Turkey . Individual members were arrested for the first time around 1965, but were soon able to flee. On October 2, 1967, the two main perpetrators of the group were arrested and confessed to the crimes.
On March 20, 1968, the first trial against the Madonna robber gang began before the Bamberg Regional Court . A total of eight perpetrators were charged. Prosecutor Keime ruled during the trial: "(...) Without the 100,000 Marks being offered, the Madonna would have been lost." Another member of the gang had fled to Turkey and was only extradited in 1970. In January 1971, the second trial against the Madonna robbers began. It ended in February 1971 with the sentencing of the defendants.
literature
- Gerhard Egert: The Rape of the Rosary Madonna by Tilman Riemenschneider from the pilgrimage church Maria im Weingarten on the Kirchberg near Volkach 1962 , Volkach 2003, ISBN 3-930840-11-1 .
- Gerhard Egert: Henri Nannen and the Volkacher art theft 1962 . In: Ute Feuerbach: Our Main Loop. 1993-2007 , Volkach 2008, pp. 170-180.
- Rainer Zeh: The Madonna robber gang. Documentation of criminal cases from the 1960s , Norderstedt 2011, ISBN 978-3-8448-0221-4 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Gerhard Egert: Henri Nannen and the Volkacher Kunstraub 1962 . P. 170.
- ^ Rainer Zeh: The Madonna robber gang . Pp. 17-20.
- ^ Rainer Zeh: The Madonna robber gang . P. 27.
- ^ Rainer Zeh: The Madonna robber gang . Pp. 30-31.
- ↑ a b Gerhard Egert: The Rape of the Rosary Madonna by Tilman Riemenschneider . P. 9.
- ^ Rainer Zeh: The Madonna robber gang . P. 36.
- ^ Gerhard Egert: The robbery of the Rosary Madonna by Tilman Riemenschneider . P. 11.
- ^ Gerhard Egert: The robbery of the Rosary Madonna by Tilman Riemenschneider . P. 13.
- ^ Gerhard Egert: Henri Nannen and the Volkacher Kunstraub 1962 . P. 171.
- ^ Gerhard Egert: The robbery of the Rosary Madonna by Tilman Riemenschneider . P. 16.
- ^ Gerhard Egert: The robbery of the Rosary Madonna by Tilman Riemenschneider . P. 20.
- ^ Gerhard Egert: Henri Nannen and the Volkacher Kunstraub 1962 . P. 173.
- ^ Gerhard Egert: The robbery of the Rosary Madonna by Tilman Riemenschneider . P. 27.
- ^ Gerhard Egert: The robbery of the Rosary Madonna by Tilman Riemenschneider . P. 32.
- ^ Rainer Zeh: The Madonna robber gang . P. 51.
- ^ Rainer Zeh: The Madonna robber gang . P. 117.
- ^ Rainer Zeh: The Madonna robber gang . P. 219.