Max Sefeloge

Maximilian Joseph Sefeloge (born March 29, 1821 in Wetzlar ; † January 27, 1859 in the Nietleben sanatorium near Halle an der Saale ) was a fireworker of the Prussian fireworks who had been dismissed from service due to mental confusion (at that time often represented diagnosis: monomania ) Guards Artillery Brigade , which carried out a pistol assassination attempt on the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV at noon on May 22nd, 1850 at the Potsdamer Bahnhof in Berlin . The king was injured in the arm (bullet), the assassin was arrested on the spot; The police had to protect him from the crowd.

After numerous investigations and discussions, Sefeloge was officially declared insane on December 4, 1850 - in the wording at the time: "stupid in judicial terms". On December 20, the proceedings against him were dropped, and in February 1851 he was taken to the "Provincial Insane Asylum" in Halle-Nietleben.

The heated debate about Sefeloge's motivation, which was conducted in the Prussian and German press for weeks after the attack, revolved around the question of whether he had either acted for political reasons or whether "democratic forces" had instrumentalized him and instigated him to do his thing. Although, according to later findings, the perpetrator was a lone perpetrator who did not pursue any political interests, the Prussian state reacted extremely harshly in the days after the attack: Numerous people who had nothing to do with the attack were temporarily arrested, because their "democratic" outlook was seen as sufficient for a possible involvement in the crime; Printing works and workers' associations were also closed or banned, although no connection to Sefeloge's act could be established. Friedrich Wilhelm IV himself was convinced that Sefeloge had acted out of political conviction and not because of mental illness.

literature

• Heinrich Philipp August Damerow : Sefeloge. An insane study . Pfeffer, Halle 1853
• K. Haack, S. Herpertz, E. Kumbier: The "Sefeloge Case". A contribution to the history of forensic psychiatry . In: Der Nervenarzt , 78, 5, 2007, pp. 586-593.
• Kathleen Haack: The "Sefeloge Case". On the history, development and establishment of forensic psychiatry. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8260-4565-3
• Kurt Wernicke: To the cover picture - Assassination attempt on Friedrich Wilhelm IV. In: Berlinische monthly ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 5, 2000, ISSN  0944-5560 ( luise-berlin.de ).
• Ernst Keil : Sefeloge . In: The Gazebo . Volume 41, 1853, pp. 452 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
• Heinrich von Marquardsen: Review of HPA Damerow, Sefeloge. An Insane Study (1853). In: Critical Journal for the Entire Jurisprudence , 2, 1855, pp. 193-203; Digitized digital library of the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History