77 Facts About Fritz Haarmann

Fritz Haarmann was executed by guillotine in April 1925.

Fritz Haarmann became known as the Butcher of Hanover due to the extensive mutilation and dismemberment committed upon his victims' bodies, and by such titles as the Vampire of Hanover and the Wolf Man because of his preferred murder method of biting into or through his victims' throats.

Fritz Haarmann was born in Hanover on 25 October 1879, the sixth and youngest child born to Johanna and Ollie Haarmann.

Fritz Haarmann was a quiet child, with few friends his own age or gender, and who seldom socialized with any children outside of school, with the exception of his siblings.

From an early age, Fritz Haarmann's behaviour was noticeably effeminate, and he was known to shun boys' activities, instead playing with his sisters' dolls and dressing in their clothes.

Fritz Haarmann developed a passion for both needlework and cookery, and would develop a close relationship with his mother, who spoiled her youngest child.

Reportedly, Fritz Haarmann's father married his mother when she was 41 years old and seven years his senior, largely due to her wealth and the substantial dowry their marriage would eventually bring him.

In 1886, Fritz Haarmann began his schooling; he was noted by teachers to be a spoiled and mollycoddled child who was prone to daydreaming.

On one occasion, when he was about eight years old, Fritz Haarmann was molested by one of his teachers, although he never discussed this incident in detail.

Fritz Haarmann initially adapted to military life and performed well as a trainee soldier.

Fritz Haarmann was first arrested for committing offences of this nature in July 1896.

Fritz Haarmann was returned to the institution on 28 May 1897.

Seven months later, in January 1898, Fritz Haarmann escaped the mental institution and, with apparent assistance from his mother, he fled to Zurich in Switzerland.

Fritz Haarmann remained in Zurich for sixteen months before he returned to Hanover in April 1899.

In October 1900, Fritz Haarmann received notification to perform his compulsory military service.

On 12 October 1900, Fritz Haarmann was deployed to the Alsatian city of Colmar to serve in the Number 10 Rifle Battalion.

Fritz Haarmann was later deemed "unsuitable for [military] service and work" and was discharged on 28 July 1902.

Fritz Haarmann returned to live with Erna in Hanover, briefly working again in his father's cigar factory.

Nonetheless, Fritz Haarmann was ordered to undertake a psychiatric examination in May 1903.

On one occasion when working legitimately as an invoice clerk, Fritz Haarmann became acquainted with a female employee with whom he later claimed to have robbed several tombstones and graves between 1905 and 1913.

Consequently, Fritz Haarmann spent the majority of the years between 1905 and 1912 in jail.

Fritz Haarmann was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for these offences.

Between 1918 and 1924, Fritz Haarmann committed at least twenty-four murders, although he is suspected of murdering a minimum of twenty-seven.

The victims were lured back to one of three addresses in which Fritz Haarmann is known to have resided throughout those years.

Fritz Haarmann is known to have killed upon the promise of assistance, accommodation, work, or under the pretence of arrest.

All of Fritz Haarmann's known victims were dismembered before their bodies were discarded, usually in the Leine River, although the dismembered body of his first known victim had simply been buried, and the body of his last victim had been thrown into a lake located at the entrance to the Herrenhausen Gardens.

Fritz Haarmann typically kept his victims' personal possessions for himself or his lover, Hans Grans.

Fritz Haarmann's first known victim was a 17-year-old runaway named Friedel Rothe.

Shortly after their initial acquaintance, Fritz Haarmann invited the youth to move into his apartment, and Grans became Fritz Haarmann's lover and criminal accomplice.

On several occasions, Grans was evicted after heated arguments, only for Fritz Haarmann to plead with him to come back.

Fritz Haarmann initially resided in a hotel, before he and Grans lodged with a middle-class family.

Fritz Haarmann secured a letting agreement with the landlady, ostensibly to use the property for storage purposes.

The second murder Fritz Haarmann is known to have committed occurred on 12 February 1923.

On 9 June 1923, Fritz Haarmann moved into a single-room attic apartment at 2 Rote Reihe.

Bronischewski's jacket, knapsack, trousers, and towel would all be found in the possession of Fritz Haarmann following his arrest.

Fritz Haarmann is next known to have killed on or about 30 September 1923.

Fritz Haarmann was seen by several witnesses sitting upon a trunk in the waiting room.

Fritz Haarmann had been seeking employment at the time of his disappearance.

None of the human remains recovered were identified as belonging to Hennies, whom Fritz Haarmann specifically admitted to dismembering, but denied killing.

Ten days later, Fritz Haarmann killed a 20-year-old named Heinrich Koch, whom he is believed to have been acquainted with prior to the youth's murder.

Hogrefe's murder would be followed 9 days later by that of a 16-year-old apprentice named Wilhelm Apel, whom Fritz Haarmann encountered on his "patrols" of Hanover-Leinhausen station.

Fritz Haarmann killed his final victim, 17-year-old Erich de Vries, on 14 June 1924.

Fritz Haarmann's dismembered body would later be found in a lake located near the entrance to the Herrenhausen Gardens.

Fritz Haarmann was observed arguing with a 15-year-old boy named Karl Fromm, then approaching police and insisting they arrest the youth on the charge of travelling upon forged documents.

Fritz Haarmann had lived in this single-room apartment since June 1923.

Fritz Haarmann initially attempted to explain this fact as a by-product of his illegal trading in contraband meat.

Various acquaintances and former neighbours of Fritz Haarmann were extensively questioned as to his activities.

Many fellow tenants and neighbours of the various addresses in which Fritz Haarmann lived since 1920 commented to detectives about the number of teenage boys they observed visiting his various addresses.

Fritz Haarmann initially attempted to dismiss these revelations as being circumstantial in nature.

Nonetheless, Fritz Haarmann was insistent that his passion at the moment of murder was invariably "stronger than the horror of the cutting and the chopping" which would inevitably follow, and would typically take up to two days to complete.

Fritz Haarmann was insistent that none of the skulls found in the Leine belonged to his victims, and that the forensic identification of the skull of Robert Witzel was mistaken, as he had almost invariably smashed his victims' skulls to pieces.

On 16 August 1924, Fritz Haarmann underwent a psychological examination at a Gottingen medical school; on 25 September, he was judged competent to stand trial and returned to Hanover to await trial.

Fritz Haarmann was charged with the murder of 27 boys and young men who had disappeared between September 1918 and June 1924.

Several acquaintances and criminal associates of Fritz Haarmann testified for the prosecution, including former neighbours who testified to having purchased brawn or mince from Fritz Haarmann, whom they noted regularly left his apartment with packages of meat, but rarely arrived with them.

Fritz Haarmann was acquitted of three murders which he denied committing.

Fritz Haarmann claimed this was one of two murders committed upon the insistence of Grans and for this reason, Grans was sentenced to death.

Fritz Haarmann made no appeal against the verdict; claiming his death would atone for his crimes and stating that, were he at liberty, he would likely kill again.

At 6 o'clock on the morning of 15 April 1925, Fritz Haarmann was beheaded by guillotine in the grounds of Hanover prison.

Fritz Haarmann was acquitted of three murders at his trial: those of Adolf Hennies, Hermann Wolf, and Hermann Bock.

Fritz Haarmann is known to have given many of Wolf's clothes to his landlady in the days immediately following his 44th birthday.

Fritz Haarmann only chose to deny this murder midway through his trial, following heated threats made against him by the father of the murdered youth.

Fritz Haarmann was acquitted of the murder of Adolf Hennies due to conflicting testimony regarding the circumstances as to whether he or Grans actually murdered the youth.

Fritz Haarmann repeatedly contradicted himself regarding his claims as to how he acquired the youth's possessions.

Fritz Haarmann had known the youth for several years prior to his murder, and Bock was known to be heterosexual.

In September 1918, Fritz Haarmann is believed to have killed a 14-year-old named Hermann Koch, a youth who disappeared just weeks prior to his first confirmed victim, Friedel Rothe.

Fritz Haarmann is known to have written a letter to Koch's school providing an explanation for the youth's prolonged absence.

Koch's father had petitioned in 1921 for Fritz Haarmann to be tried for his son's murder however his requests were officially rejected.

Fritz Haarmann is strongly suspected of the murder of Hans Keimes, a 17-year-old Hanover youth who was reported missing on 17 March 1922 and whose nude, bound body was found in a canal on 6 May The cause of death was listed as strangulation, and the body bore no signs of mutilation.

Fritz Haarmann likely murdered Keimes in an attempt to frame Grans in reprisal for the theft of his property and pension.

Fritz Haarmann was not tried for the murder of either Koch or Keimes.

An examination of slices of Fritz Haarmann's brain revealed traces of meningitis, although no sections of Fritz Haarmann's brain were permanently preserved.

Nonetheless, Fritz Haarmann's head was preserved in formaldehyde and remained in the possession of the Gottingen medical school from 1925 until 2014, when it was cremated.

The discovery of a letter from Fritz Haarmann declaring Hans Grans' innocence subsequently led to Grans receiving a second trial.

Furthermore, Fritz Haarmann claimed many of his accusations against Grans prior to his trial were obtained under extreme duress, and that he falsely accused Grans of instigating the murders of Hannappel and Witzel as a means of revenge.

Fritz Haarmann claimed that his pastor would be informed as to the contents and the authenticity of the letter.

Fritz Haarmann was charged with aiding and abetting Haarmann in the murders of victims Adolf Hannappel and Fritz Wittig.

The murders committed by Fritz Haarmann stirred much discussion in Germany regarding methods used in police investigation, the treatment of mentally ill offenders, and the validity of the death penalty.