Sylvester Matuska

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Szilveszter Matuska

Sylvester Matuska (actually Szilveszter Matuska ; born January 29, 1892 in Csantavér near Maria-Theresiopel ; † 1944/45) was a Hungarian railroad assassin and mass murderer .

Life

Sylvester Matuska came from a Roman Catholic family in Csantavér, which is still the largest village with a Hungarian majority in the area ( Serbian Opština ) of the city of Maria Theresiopel (Szabadka) , which belonged to Hungary until 1918. His father was Antal Matuska, his mother Anna Németh (the father's surname indicates a Slavic origin, the mother's means ' German ' in Hungarian ). After training as a teacher, he retired from military service as an Austro-Hungarian First Lieutenant in 1918 and became a teacher in his hometown. In 1919 he tried his hand at being a spice dealer , in 1928 as a house speculator in Vienna and as a farm product dealer. In 1930 he suffered heavy business losses. On September 23, 1930, he had to take the oath of disclosure in the course of judicial insolvency proceedings after insolvency .

From the end of 1930 he tried to derail trains , after which he was later charged with the following acts in court:

  • On December 31, 1930 he carried out a railway attack near Anzbach - west of Vienna - without consequences .
  • On January 30, 1931, he carried out the second railway attack near Anzbach. The night express train's locomotive derailed . There was only little damage.
  • In April 1931 Matuska drove to Berlin and tried to destroy rails with a welding torch near Jüterbog . The attempt failed. Matuska now legally acquired explosives and traveled to Jüterbog again with it. On August 8, 1931, he blew up a 3.40 m long piece of rail from the track . The Basel – Berlin express train derailed. There were four seriously injured and about 50 slightly injured.
  • On September 13, 1931, Matuska blew up the rails of the 25 m high, multi-arched railway bridge near the town of Biatorbágy, west of Budapest . The locomotive , baggage car , sleeping car and three passenger cars of the 12-car night express train Budapest – Vienna crashed into the valley floor. There were 22 dead, 14 seriously injured and many slightly injured.

In Austria , Matuska was questioned in Vienna on October 1, 1931, at the request of the Hungarian police, because he was claiming compensation as an alleged passenger on the train that had crashed. On October 7, 1931, during a second interrogation, he was arrested. He immediately admitted his crimes. His motives could not be clearly clarified at the trial. At times Matuska gave the impression of being confused, religiously insane. The jury sentenced Matuska to six years in heavy prison for the two attacks in Anzbach. After four years of serving his sentence, he was extradited to Hungary. There he was sentenced to death for murder . During the extradition negotiations, however, Austria had agreed on a pardon for life.

Matuska has been missing since the end of the war in 1944/45. According to another source, he is said to have been released by the Red Army , to have carried out railway attacks there for the communist side during the Korean War and to have been imprisoned by UN troops. Some of the attacks carried out in the first years after 1945 occasionally led the press to suspect that Matuska was behind them.

Movie

The case was filmed in 1982 under the title “Viadukt”, also “The Train Killer”, in a German-Hungarian production with Michael Sarrazin in the lead role and the German actors Towje Kleiner , Constanze Engelbrecht and Armin Mueller-Stahl . In Germany , the film was broadcast by ZDF in July 1983 under the title "The Sylvester Matuska Case". Directed by Sándor Simó .

literature

  • Julius Donath: "The psychopathology of the railway bomber Sylvester Matuska" . In: "International Journal of Legal Medicine." Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. Volume 20, No. 1, December 1933. pp. 53-58.
  • Bruno Schultz: "The case of Sylvester Matuska" . In: "Archives for Criminology" . Vogel, Berlin 1932. Volume 91, p. 127 ff.
  • Regina Stürickow: " Sylvester Matuska - The Railway Assassin ". In: Regina Stürickow, “ Commissioner Gennat determined. The Invention of Murder Inspection ”. 2nd edition Berlin 2017, pp. 110–129.

Criminal cases without example Vol. 2; G. Prodöhl;

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erhard Born: Classic Railway Accidents (Part 3). In: Hamburger Blätter for all friends of the railroad April 1956 = 3rd year No. 5/6, p. 10.
personal data
SURNAME Matuska, New Years Eve
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Matuska, Szilveszter (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian rail bomber and mass murderer
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Čantavir , Subotica Municipality , Vojvodina
DATE OF DEATH around 1944