Homicide Margarete Meußdoerffer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Margarete Meußdoerffer murder was a criminal case on November 4, 1929 in Kulmbach , in which the 62-year-old Margarete Meußdoerffer, wife of a respected manufacturer, was killed. Two well-known criminals were convicted of the crime. There were suspicions against the 67-year-old husband, Kommerzienrat Heinrich Meußdoerffer, which could not be dispelled. He was taken into custody two days after the crime. However, the investigation against him was discontinued. It was suspected that he had influenced the proceedings.

Sequence of events

Late in the evening of November 4, 1929, around 10:50 p.m., Meußdoerffer, who was returning to his villa at Am Schießgraben 15 , wanted his wife tied up and gagged and found with strangle marks on her bed in the bedroom. According to him, he loosened her bonds, but did not remove the gag. Then he searched the house for burglars. When he returned, his wife was dead. He then drank a large amount of beer and only woke up the two domestic workers Frieda Tauer and Margarete Ellner in the middle of the night. A doctor, a Dr. Seidel, was only notified the next morning around 7:30 a.m. He could only determine the death of Margarete Meußdoerffer and notified the criminal police. The Bayerische Rundschau only reported on November 8th of the act, which caused a great public stir. Commentators of the newspaper accused the press of sensationalism and dismissed it. On November 12th, Heinrich Meussdoerffer's defense attorney, Dr. Greifenstein, in detail. He described a harmonious marriage and business life.

Investigations

A superintendent Hans Schiffner examined the crime scene superficially and reported the case to the Bayreuth public prosecutor . Rebey's Chief Public Prosecutor (LOStA) took over the lead of the investigation. He arranged for a forensic examination of the body. Two reports came to the conclusion that the victim had suffocated. However, the authors of a third report, Professor Eugen Kirch , later director of the Pathological Institute in Erlangen , and Privy Councilor Max Borst , determined that the cause of death was cardiac arrest due to an already existing cardiac insufficiency. On November 5, Rebey obtained a pre-trial detention warrant against the husband, who was then placed in custody for four months. Several complaints about arrest were unsuccessful.

According to investigations by Commissioner Schiffner, however, Hans Popp and Fritz Schuberth, two people with previous convictions for burglary, were suspected of the act. On January 8, 1930, an investigation "for robbery and fatality" began. Both made a confession after massive interrogations. However, the left-wing Bayreuth newspaper Fränkische Volksbühne suspected “shift”. On February 3, 1930, she quoted the rumor that Popp and Schuberth had received 6,000 marks from Meußdoerffer for accusing themselves of the crime. However, both of them revoked their confessions. Subsequently, for unexplained reasons, there was a serious explosion in her home, in which the mother of one of the accused was killed.

process

The 41-day trial, which, to the displeasure of LOStA von Rebey, concentrated on the alleged burglars Schuberth and Popp from the start, was characterized by a violent dispute between experts. The court finally followed the report by Kirch and Borst, according to which the agitation suffered during a burglary committed by Schuberth and Popp had led to the victim's death. Schuberth and pops were for aggravated robbery resulting in death to a prison sentence condemned by four and a half or six years. Heinrich Meußdoerffer was “out of persecution”, which was not regarded as an acquittal.

reception

Due to the numerous unexplained circumstances surrounding the course of events, investigations and trial, the crime is still regarded as unresolved. The activity of the investigating authorities was presented controversially, the judiciary's eagerness to burden Meußdoerffer and private influence on the investigation were discussed. After the trial, a book with a title similar to “The Truth About the Meußdoerffer Case” is said to have been published, which, however, was withdrawn from circulation at the instigation of the Meussdoerffer family. The retired detective Gotthold Lehnerdt published a book in 1933 in which he accused the public prosecutor of unilaterally investigating Meußdoerffer's detriment. The regional press described the case as a trial of the century. The villa, built in 1889, is still known today in Kulmbach as the "Mord-Villa".

literature

  • Gotthold Lehnerdt: The Meußdoerffer case , Berlin 1933.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Murder in the villa. December 31, 2009, accessed March 17, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b Wolfgang Schoberth: Kulmbacher murder case Meußdoerffer is unsolved. infranken.de, accessed on March 17, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Mystery of the murder in the villa. infranken.de, accessed on March 17, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Dagmar Besand: Mystery of the murder in the villa. Bayerische Rundschau (in the GBI Genios press archive), November 3, 2010, accessed on March 21, 2017 .