Country

Historical crimes in Germany

4 cases with their main events in Germany.

4 cases2 solved2 unsolved1833–1931

1833 · Germany

Kaspar Hauser

A foundling who claimed a childhood in a dark cell, rumours of a stolen prince, and a stab wound in an Ansbach park in 1833. Murder or self-inflicted?

Convicted

1906–1908 · Germany

Captain of Köpenick

In 1906 an unemployed shoemaker in a second-hand captain's uniform commandeered a squad of soldiers, arrested a mayor and walked off with the town's cash.

Unsolved

1922–1955 · Germany

Hinterkaifeck

Six people were killed on a lonely Bavarian farm in 1922, and someone kept feeding the cattle for days afterwards. A century later no one has been charged.

Executed

1929–1931 · Germany

Peter Kürten

For fifteen months Düsseldorf hunted a killer it could not see. The break came from a survivor's letter, misaddressed and opened at the post office.