Serial killer from Germany "Wait, just wait a while" - why the "Werewolf of Hanover" is still polarizing today
A folder in the Lower Saxony Police Museum provides an insight into the Fritz Haarmann murder case. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
Fritz Haarmann - shown here in an undated archive photo in the center - murdered at least 24 boys and young men.
Image: dpa
Children found bones on the River Leine in Hanover at the time - this is how the Haarmann case got rolling. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
A folder in the Lower Saxony Police Museum provides an insight into the Fritz Haarmann murder case. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
Fritz Haarmann - shown here in an undated archive photo in the center - murdered at least 24 boys and young men.
Image: dpa
Children found bones on the River Leine in Hanover at the time - this is how the Haarmann case got rolling. (archive picture)
Image: dpa
He was known as the "Werewolf of Hanover": Fritz Haarmann killed at least 24 boys and young men. He was executed 100 years ago. A morbid fascination remains.
14.04.2025, 21:09
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- 100 years ago, serial killer Fritz Haarmann was executed. His gruesome deeds against at least 24 boys and young men still trigger media and cultural fascination today.
- Haarmann was a police informer, unchallenged for a long time despite the evidence, and only confessed to his crimes after days of interrogation and psychological pressure in prison.
- Many questions remain unanswered - such as the actual number of victims, possible cannibalism or his mental sanity.
At night, illuminated skulls stared at him from the corners of his prison cell, their eye sockets covered with red paper. A sack of human bones lay in one corner of the cell. Thus weakened, Fritz Haarmann finally admitted the gruesome truth: it was he who had bestially killed at least 24 boys and young men as the "Werewolf of Hanover".
But as gruesome as it was, people were soon singing songs about the sinister murderer on the street, to a popular pop tune of the time: "Wait, wait just a little while, soon Haarmann will come to you too." The serial killer was executed 100 years ago.
"A major media event"
"This case has always remained something of a mystery to me," said Dirk Götting, Scientific Director of the Lower Saxony Police Museum in Nienburg. It is strange that the case of the paedophile serial killer has "acquired such a status over the years": "It has always been a major media event." A morbid fascination remains - obviously.
After all, the unprecedented case probably also captivates artists - Götz George played Haarmann in the award-winning 1995 film "Der Totmacher", based on the recorded conversations that psychiatrist Ernst Schultze had with Haarmann. There was a musical at the Schauspiel Hannover theater, and the Haarmann case was also adapted into literature, for example as a graphic novel. In Hanover, there are also guided tours of the city in the footsteps of the criminal, who was born in 1879. And: the serial killer with the cleaver appeared in Hanover as a figure on an Advent calendar.
Carotid artery bitten through
Haarmann's incomprehensible crimes were presented at exhibitions early on: in 1926 there was a large police exhibition in Berlin - where the Hanover police showed the Haarmann room from the street Rote Reihe, as Götting said. The serial killer lived at this address in Hanover, among others.
What is known about the case? Between 1918 and 1924, the criminal, who was known to the police, murdered male children and young men aged between 10 and 22. Haarmann strangled his victims or - possibly in ecstasy - bit through their carotid arteries. Many were runaways and were not initially missed in the turmoil of the post-war period. He dismembered the corpses and threw them into the line, selling the clothes. When children found bones on the banks of the Leine in the spring of 1924, these were the first clues to the series of murders.
Haarmann was a police informer
He was arrested on June 22, 1924 - initially only because he had got into an argument with a teenager. When the police searched his apartment, they found evidence of the crimes, including traces of blood and bloodstained clothing belonging to young men. However, there were clues long before that - Haarmann's first murder is said to have taken place as early as 1918. The only problem was that clues from the public were not known in the German Empire and were not taken seriously, as Götting explained.
What's more: The well-known petty criminal served as an informer for the police. After the First World War, Fritz Haarmann provided the authorities with information from the red-light district. Initially, the police did not follow up on indications that Haarmann was the perpetrator - after all, they knew each other. When the evidence was clear, he was arrested and even tortured, as Götting said.
Not the real hatchet
Among other things, the police museum in Nienburg houses a replica of a police custody cell in Hanover during the Weimar Republic. Haarmann was imprisoned there after his arrest. An axe is also on display. However, its provenance is questionable, as no traces were found during a forensic examination 25 years ago, said the police historian.
Haarmann finally confessed after days of interrogation. The psychiatrist Ernst Schultze was asked to examine whether he was sane - and came to the conclusion that Haarmann was responsible for his actions. In December 1924, the Hanover Regional Court sentenced the serial killer to death and he was beheaded on April 15, 1925. His head, preserved in formalin, was stored for a long time in Göttingen's forensic medicine department and was only cremated and buried anonymously in 2014.
How many people did he really kill?
The trial and verdict were repeatedly criticized: Christine Pozsár, an expert in forensic psychiatry, wrote in "The Haarmann Protocols" that there should at least have been doubts about Haarmann's sanity at the time of the murders. His ability to control himself at the time of the murders should at least have been considerably impaired. Haarmann's childhood abuse was hardly mentioned, nor were seizures or possible organic damage following meningitis.
Much is likely to remain unexplained forever: Haarmann was accused of cannibalism, but this was never proven. It also remains questionable how many people Haarmann actually killed. Götting: "There is a lot to suggest that the number is higher than the number for which he was convicted."
