Murderer Fritz Haarmann throws Hanover into turmoil

In 1924, 500 body parts were recovered from the Leine in Hanover. The police suspect the criminal Fritz Haarmann as the perpetrator. Under pressure he confesses. He was executed on April 15, 1925.

by Levke Heed, NDR.de

A city holds its breath:in the spring of 1924, children in Hanover discover a human skull while playing on the Leine River. More are found in the days that follow. After all, there are 500 body parts from at least 22 people. The people of the city are shocked. What is behind these grisly finds? The investigations show that the skulls all come from young men. Could it be a homosexual serial killer?

Numerous young men missing

Since 1918, the police in Hanover had repeatedly received reports of missing persons from worried parents whose sons had disappeared. In the turmoil of the post-war period, Hanover train station became a gathering place for the homeless, fences and prostitutes. This is where Fritz Haarmann came into the sights of the investigators in 1918. He is no stranger:Born on October 25, 1879 in Hanover, Friedrich "Fritz" Heinrich Karl Haarmann was accused of "fornication against boys" at a young age. Again and again he has to struggle with psychological problems and is then released from military service. He ended up in prison several times for petty crime and sexual abuse of children.

When they searched his home, officers found no evidence. The police did not take any further information seriously - probably also because Haarmann had been working for the police as an informer since 1918. In order to make ends meet financially, he trades in meat and old clothes - together with Hans Grans, whom he met in 1919 when he was 17 and with whom he lives.

Chance encounter leads to Haarmann's arrest

In June 1924, Haarmann is once again on the move at the Hanover train station. There he gets into an argument with a young man named Kurt Fromm. Both are arrested by the police. An officer from the vice department, who is currently investigating the skull found on a leash, recognizes Haarmann and quickly issues an arrest warrant, because Haarmann is one of around 80 well-known men in the city who have often come into conflict with the law because of fornication with men are.

During a search of his apartment at Rote Reihe 2, the investigators found clothing belonging to young men. The police then called on the population to inspect the lost property, hoping for further clues. When a witness is questioned, there is a concrete clue:A woman recognizes her missing son's jacket on a young man. He had previously bought the garment from Haarmann. Hans Grans also comes under suspicion. While Grans is waiting at the police station for questioning, a mother recognizes the suit Grans is wearing as that of her missing son. Grans then claims to have bought the clothes against a receipt from Haarmann.

Dubious police methods

Despite the clues, there is not enough evidence to convict Haarmann and his accomplices of the murder. The police use dubious and illegal methods:Four skulls are fastened to the corners of Haarmann's cell. The eye sockets are covered with red paper and there is a burning candle behind them. A sack of bones is also placed in a corner of the cell. Haarmann is persuaded that the souls of the dead would take him. He is also beaten during interrogation. But these facts only came to light in the 1990s, when the memoirs of the then detective inspector Hermann Lange were found. If the interrogation methods had become public sooner, the police would have had to let Haarmann and Grans go.

But things turned out differently:on July 1, 1924, the 44-year-old Haarmann finally confessed. He admits to having killed more than 20 young men while "sexually intoxicated". However, he cannot remember the exact number of victims. He lured his victims, whom he calls "doll boys," to his apartment with a free meal, usually had sex with them and then bit their throats. He dismembered the corpses and disposed of them in the line.

Despite an extensive search, the police have not found all the victims. A cruel suspicion then persists:Did Haarmann sell the remains of his victims for a profit? However, this is never proven.

Fritz Haarmann is sentenced to death

After a psychological examination, Haarmann is declared fully responsible. The trial against him and Hans Grans begins on December 4, 1924, with great interest from the public and the media. The pressure from the public is great. The offender should be punished as soon as possible. On December 19, Fritz Haarmann, the "Butcher of Hanover", was sentenced to death by guillotine for 24 murders. He was executed on April 15, 1925. His head is made available for research and stored in formalin for almost 90 years in the Göttingen University Clinic. In 2014 he was cremated and buried anonymously in a cemetery in Göttingen.

Hans Grans is accused of having introduced the victims to Haarmann and then having sold the clothes of the dead. Grans denies knowing about his lover's machinations. Nevertheless, he is convicted of being an accessory to murder, which also means the death penalty for him. But then the Grans case took a surprising turn:while he was in prison, Haarmann managed to throw a letter to Grans' father out of the car window on the way from prison to police headquarters.

The letter is found and printed in the "Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung". Haarmann relieves Grans of this. "Grans had absolutely no idea that I was murdering, never saw anything," writes Haarmann. He only incriminated him out of revenge and was forced to do so during the interrogations. The proceedings against Hans Grans were then reopened in 1926. In the end, he was sentenced to twelve years in prison for complicity.

Haarmann enjoys the attention

"I want to be executed on the Klagesmarkt. There is a saying on my grave:Here lies the mass murderer Haarmann. On my birthday, Hans comes and lays a wreath," trial observer Theodor Lessing quoted the accused as saying in his notes. According to Fritz Haarmann, he enjoyed the attention during the trial:"If I had died like this, I would have been buried and nobody would have known me, but like this - America, China, Japan and Turkey - everything knows me."

With the hit "Wait, just wait a while, soon Haarmann will come to you too - with the little cleaver and make liver sausage out of you" is a horrifying monument to the events in Hanover. The 1931 film "M - Eine Stadt sucht ihr Mörder" by Fritz Lang or the Oscar-nominated film "Der Totmacher" (1995) with Götz George in the leading role also deal with the gruesome story of the serial killer.

An advent calendar gets people excited

The Hanover Advent calendar has been causing heated debates for years. In addition to well-known personalities such as Wilhelm Busch and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the 2007 edition also shows Fritz Haarmann with an ax for the first time. The reactions are violent beyond the city limits:the Hannover Tourismus Service receives threatening letters by e-mail, the makers are insulted as blasphemers. But Haarmann still appears in the current calendars to this day - albeit rather hidden.

To visit:Haarmann's cell

The Haarmann case is also a topic in the Lower Saxony Police Museum in Nienburg:a replica of his cell can be seen there. The exhibition also shows the original cleaver with which Haarmann cut up his victims and the camera with which the police picture of the perpetrator was recorded.