Otto-Erich Simon

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Otto-Erich Simon (* 1919 or 1920; † on or after July 12, 1991 ) was a German multimillionaire who lived in Düsseldorf .

Life

Simon came from a family of winemakers from Lösnich on the Moselle . In 1963 he bought two commercial buildings on Düsseldorf's magnificent Königsallee 76 and 78. Simon led an inconspicuous life and was hardly known in the city of Düsseldorf. Only the media reports after his disappearance made him known in the city. Simon was known for his unconventional lifestyle and has previously traveled alone without letting anyone know.

Simon was last seen alive on July 12, 1991. This date is also the presumed date of death. Only a short time after the disappearance, on July 22, 1991, the Düsseldorf businessman and building contractor Hans Hansen submitted the purchase agreement for both properties on Königsallee to a Swiss notary. On September 14, 1992, the local edition of “Bild” published the article “Der Komische Grandpa von der Kö”, in which it was reported that the 71-year-old Simon sold both houses for 30 million DM and with the suitcases (total weight 45 kg) disappeared. According to the later witness reports, Simon lived in a luxurious ambience, furnished with paintings and porcelain. However, the newspaper reports did not arouse the interest of the judicial authorities.

Only in December 1991, after the first construction troops entered the houses and found personal items in the apartment that had not been completely cleared, was the police notified. A missing person report was filed by a friend of Simons. After the first police investigation, Simon's signature on the purchase agreement turned out to be a forgery. The buyer Hans Hansen was arrested as a suspect.

The 17-person special police commission could not find Simon's body, nor were there any traces in his apartment. The murder trial against Hansen began on February 1, 1994. The Simon case caused a sensation not only in the regional press. Reports soon followed in nationally distributed magazines. The forged sales contract and a receipt for the purchase of a saw, spade, garbage bags and pickaxe served as evidence against Hansen. During the trial, more than 100 witnesses were heard and the most curious scenarios were played out. After 135 days of the trial, the circumstantial trial was suspended in 1996 because the defendant suffered from depression and was temporarily unable to take part in the trial. In 1998 the arrest warrant against Hansen was overturned.

After the disappearance Law Simon was legally considered lost. Simon was declared dead by the Düsseldorf District Court at the end of January 1997. In early 2002, the murder trial was suspended because the accused was permanently incapable of standing.

The two properties, which have grown enormously in value in recent years, were sold by Simon's nephew for a price of 90 million euros. Where there used to be a well-known auction house (Königsallee 76) in the building that was poorly rebuilt after the war, a modern office and commercial building was built after the demolition of both houses in 2006, into which the model chains H&M and Esprit moved.

A grave slab with the inscription “In Memoriam Otto-Erich Simon” commemorates him at the Düsseldorf Nordfriedhof .

aftermath

In 2008, the murder without a corpse was the subject of the television series Das Kriminalmuseum . In 2017 the ensemble of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus in Dreischeibenhaus premiered the play The Third Skin: The Simon Case .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b "At the age of 71, the Kö millionaire disappeared without a trace in 1991." Düsseldorf: The Otto-Erich Simon case , rp-online.de , March 3, 2017
  2. ↑ a b c d Trial: Murder without a corpse , Focus 34/1993
  3. ↑ Millionaire as a victim / defense demands attitude: murder without a corpse in court , Berliner Zeitung of February 2, 1994
  4. ↑ In diffusing vagueness . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1994 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Obituary for a murder charge . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 1996 ( online ).
  6. ↑ a b Justice: When the corpse is missing Focus 19/2005
  7. ↑ 50 years of EXPRESS Was Otto-Erich's body in this wheelbarrow? , express.de, February 6, 2014
  8. ^ Lost millionaire Simon officially declared dead , FAZ, January 28, 1997
  9. ↑ Dead is legally revived , welt.de, April 7, 1997
  10. ↑ a b Kö millionaire disappeared for 17 years: The "Murder without a corpse" case in the museum , rp-online.de, February 28, 2008
  11. ↑ Files in the case of "Murder without a corpse" closed , Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , January 9, 2002
  12. ↑ a b c Murder without a corpse - the case of Otto-Erich Simon, pp. 78–81, in: Jan Wucherpfennig: Witches, Executioners and Scoundrels: Düsseldorfer Grusel-Orte, Droste Verlag, 2017, pp. 78 - 81
  13. ↑ Schäbige Kö: Permanent construction site and no end , Express from May 23, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Simon, Otto-Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German multimillionaire
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century
DATE OF DEATH after July 12, 1991