List of German serial killers

A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more people, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them.[1][2] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines serial killing as "a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone".[2][3]

Pre-unification

Name	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Status	Notes	Ref
Bartsch, Jürgen	1962–1966	4	4	Died during castration surgery	Known as "The Carnival Killer"; killed boys aged 8–13, with one managing to escape	[4]
Beck, Ernst-Dieter	1961–1968	3	3	Died while imprisoned	First murderer in German history on whom a chromosome test was applied	[5]
Bingelhelm, Simon	16th century	26	26	Executed 1600	Known as "The Thousand Devils of Halberstadt"; robber who confessed to multiple murders in the present-day area of Saxony-Anhalt	[6]
Boost, Werner	1953–1956	1	5	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Known as "The Couples' Killer"; along with accomplice Franz Lorbach, murdered couples in the 1950s, but only convicted of one murder	[7]
Denke, Karl	1903–1924	30	42+	Committed suicide in police custody	Cannibal who killed homeless vagrants and travellers in Prussia; allegedly sold his victims' flesh as meat to unsuspecting customers	[8]
Fleischer, Simeon	16th-century	19	19	Executed 1581	Wool weaver who murdered 19 wives for money; existence is disputed	[9]
Gatter, Arthur	1990	8	8	Committed suicide before sentencing	Known as "The Hammer-Killer of Frankfurt"; killed people with a hammer in Frankfurt city parks	[10]
Genipperteinga, Christman	1568–1581	964	964	Executed 1581	Possibly fictitious bandit who kept a registry of all the people he had killed, tallying up to 964	[11][12]
Gossmann, Klaus	1960–1965	7	7	Released 2015	Known as "The Midday Murderer"; committed robberies and murders at noon, hence his nickname	[13]
Gottfried, Gesche	1813–1827	15	15	Executed 1831	Poisoned people with arsenic in Bremen and Hanover; last person to be publicly hanged in the city of Bremen	[14]
Großmann, Carl	1918–1921	26	100+	Committed suicide while imprisoned	Known as "The Berlin Butcher"; killed women and later sold their flesh on the black market	[15]
Haarmann, Fritz	1918–1924	24	27+	Executed 1925	Known as "The Butcher of Hanover"; murdered young men and boys before dismembering their bodies; allegedly sold some of the flesh as contraband meat	[16]
Hagedorn, Erwin	1969–1971	3	3	Executed 1972	Killed three boys in Eberswalde; last civilian to be executed by East Germany in 1972	[17]
Hanebuth, Jasper	17th-century	19	19	Executed 1653	Former mercenary and highwayman who killed people around the Eilenriede forest	[18]
Holst, Thomas	1987–1989	3	3	Committed to a psychiatric clinic	Known as "The Heidemörder"; tortured and then killed women in south Hamburg	[19]
Honka, Fritz	1970–1975	4	4	Died 1998	Murdered prostitutes in Hamburg's red light district	[20]
Hopf, Karl	1902–1906	4	4	Executed 1914	Poisoned family members and attempted to kill others in the Frankfurt area	[21]
Kroll, Joachim	1955–1976	14	14	Died while imprisoned	Known as "The Ruhr Cannibal"; raped and killed mostly women in and around the Ruhr region, eating parts of their flesh afterwards	[22]
Kürten, Peter	1913–1929	9	9+	Executed 1931	Known as "The Vampire of Düsseldorf"; responsible for numerous sexual assaults, murders and attempted murders in Düsseldorf	[23]
Lehmann, Christa	1952–1954	3	3	Released 1977	Poisoned family members and the family dog; initially sentenced to life imprisonment but released after 23 years
Ludy, Franz Josef	1952–1968	4	4	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Serial child abuser who murdered two children and a couple	[24]
Mayer, Johann	1918–1919	5	5	Executed 1923	Known as "Stumpfarm"; disabled man who shot and killed people with a carbine	[25]
Niers, Peter	16th-century	544	544+	Executed 1581	Reputed bandit and gang leader who killed numerous people with his accomplices
Ogorzow, Paul	1940–1941	8	8+	Executed 1941	Known as "The S-Bahn Murderer"; SA sergeant who killed women in wartime Berlin	[26]
Pleil, Rudolf	1946–1947	10	25	Committed suicide while imprisoned	Known as "The Deadmaker"; killed one salesman and nine women in the Harz mountain range, but confessed to killing more	[27]
Poehlke, Norbert	1984–1985	6	6	Committed suicide to avoid apprehension	Known as "The Hammer-Killer"; police officer and bank robber who killed people during his crimes; killed his wife, two sons and then himself in Italy to avoid capture	[28]
Pommerenke, Heinrich	1959	4	4+	Died while imprisoned	Killed women around Baden-Württemberg; longest-serving prisoner in Germany until his death	[29]
Prigan, Bernhard	1947–1952	3	16	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Known as "The Strangler"; killed women near controlled-access highways and major roads	[30]
Reinstrom, Lutz	1986–1988	2	2	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Known as "The Acid Killer"; sadomasochist who tortured and killed two women in Hamburg	[31]
Schiffer, Egidius	1983–1990	5	5	Died in prison	Known as "The Strangler of Aachen"; murdered girls and women, sexually abusing three of them	[32]
Schumann, Friedrich	1918–1920	7	7	Executed 1921	Known as "The Terror of Falkenhagen Lake"; criminal who killed people in the Berlin area	[33]
Seefeldt, Adolf	1908–1935	12	12+	Executed 1936	Known as "The Sandman"; travelling watchmaker who poisoned and then sexually assaulted young boys in their sleep	[34]
Steinwegs, Kurt-Friedhelm	1974–1983	6	6	Committed to a psychiatric institution	Known as "The Monster from Lower Rhine"; juvenile delinquent who killed six people	[35]
Sternickel, August	1905–1913	7	7	Executed 1913	Petty criminal who killed his employer in 1905; while on the run for authorities in the next years, proceeded to kill other people for profit	[36]
Stiebitz, Mario	1983–1984	5	5	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Killed a young man and two boys in Neubrandenburg and two boys near Oranienburg	[37]
Stumpp, Peter	c. 1564–1589	18	18	Executed 1589	Known as "The Werewolf of Bedburg"; farmer and accused cannibal who killed people in the 16th-century	[38]
Tessnow, Ludwig	1898–1901	4	4	Executed 1904	First criminal in history on whom a blood type test was performed	[39]
Ursinus, Sophie	1796–1803	3	3	Died 1836	Poisoned her family members with arsenic; her trial led to a method of identifying said type of poisoning	[40]
Velten, Maria	1963–1982	3	5	Unknown	Known as "The Poison Witch from Lower Rhine"; poisoned her family members and partners with parathion; released from prison at 93, current status unknown	[41]
Wiese, Elisabeth	1902–1903	5	5	Executed 1905	Known as "The Angel Maker of St. Pauli"; poisoned her grandchild and other children with morphine, burning their bodies in the stove afterwards	[42]
Wichmann, Kurt-Werner	1989	4	21+	Committed suicide	Cemetery gardener thought to be responsible for the Göhrde Murders, and other ones as well	[43]
Wittmann, Ferdinand	1860–1865	6	6	Executed 1868	Poisoned his relatives with arsenic; youngest serial killer in German history	[44]
Wittmann, Manfred	1968–1969	3	3	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Known as "The Staffelstein Killer"; sadist who killed underage girls in Coburg	[45]
Zwanziger, Anna Maria	1801–1811	4	4	Executed 1811	Bavarian poisoner who killed people with arsenic	[46]

Post-unification

Name	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Status	Notes	Ref
Becker, Irene	2005–2006	5	8	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Known as "The Angel of Death from Charité"	[47]
Bodenfelde Black Widows	1983–2000	4	4	Sentenced to life imprisonment/12 years imprisonment	Lydia L. killed 4 older men with the help of Siggi S. in Bodenfelde.	[48]
Böhnhardt, Uwe	2000–2007	10	10	Killed by partner	Neo-Nazi who killed immigrants throughout Germany, with accomplices Beate Zschäpe and Uwe Mundlos	[49]
David, Horst	1975–1993	3	7+	Sentenced to life imprisonment	One of his murders proved to be a milestone in German criminal history, as it was the first 20-year-old crime to be solved with the help of the computer-assisted tracking system of AFIS	[50]
Eckert, Volker	1974–2006	6	14+	Committed suicide in police custody	Trucker who abducted, tortured and killed prostitutes in Germany, Spain and France; confessed to additional murders, including ones in Italy and the Czech Republic	[51]
Gust, Frank	1994–1998	4	4	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Known as "The Rhine-Ruhr-Ripper"; sexual sadist who killed and subsequently mutilated women in the Rhine-Ruhr region	[52]
Hoffmann, Marc	2004	2	2+	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Sex offender who sexually abused and murdered two children; suspected of other murders	[53][54]
Högel, Niels	2000–2005	106	106+	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Male nurse who killed patients in two hospitals in Oldenburg and Delmenhorst	[55]
Lemke, Thomas	1995–1996	3	3	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Former mercenary and far-right extremist who killed political opponents	[56]
Letter, Stephan	2003–2004	29	29+	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Male nurse who poisoned patients in Sonthofen	[57]
Metzler, Marco	2003–2006	3	3	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Truck driver who attacked and killed women along highways	[58]
Mundlos, Uwe	2000–2007	10	10	Committed suicide to avoid apprehension	Neo-Nazi who killed immigrants throughout Germany, with accomplices Beate Zschäpe and Uwe Böhnhardt	[59]
Ney, Martin	1992–2004	3	4	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Known as "The Masked Man"; prolific pedophile who murdered children in school camps; additionally suspected of killing French boy Jonathan Coulom	[60]
Nölle, Marianne	1993	7	17	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Nurse who killed patients in Cologne	[61]
Plumain, Jacques	1999–2000	3	3	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Known as "The Ghost of Kehl"; Guadeloupean man who killed two women in Kehl and one in the French forest of La Wantzenau	[62]
Rieken, Ronny	1996–1998	2	2	Sentenced to life imprisonment	First German criminal to be captured via DNA profiling	[63]
Rung, Thomas	1983–1995	7	7	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Raped and murdered six women in Berlin, as well as his stepbrother; another man falsely confessed to his first murder	[64]
Schmidt, Beate	1989–1991	6	6	Committed to a psychiatric hospital	Known as "The Beast of Beelitz"; trans woman who killed five women and an infant in Beelitz	[65]
Seel, Manfred	1971–2004	5	9	Died from esophageal cancer	Known as "The Hesse Ripper"; suspected of killing women in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main and other places; died before crimes were discovered	[66]
Wenzinger, Gerd	1991–1996	2	17+	Committed suicide before trial	Known as "The Havel Ripper"; tortured, murdered and dismembered prostitutes in Berlin, but also in Brazil	[67]
Zschäpe, Beate	2000–2007	10	10	Sentenced to life imprisonment	Neo-Nazi who killed immigrants throughout Germany, with accomplices Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos	[68]

Unidentified serial killers

Name	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Region where active	Notes	Ref
Hamburg rubble murderer	1947	4	4	Hamburg	Killed 4 people during the cold winter in Hamburg; convicted serial killer Rudolf Pleil was questioned, but later cleared of these murders	[69]
Pirmasens child killer	1960–1967	3	3	Rhineland-Palatinate	Suspected abductor and child killer responsible for the disappearance of three children from the town of Pirmasens	[70]
Saw-Killer of Hanover	1975–1977	6	6+	Lower Saxony	Killed and dismembered at least four women and two men around Hanover, dumping their body parts at various places in the city	[71]
Sewer Murders	1976–1989	7	7	Frankfurt Rhine-Main	Also called "The Sewage Plant Murders"; the bodies of several young boys and adolescents were discovered near sewage treatment plants, leading authorities to believe they were killed by a serial killer	[72]

See also

• List of serial killers by country
• List of serial killers in the United States
• List of Russian serial killers
• List of French serial killers

References

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2. Burkhalter Chmelir 2003, p. 1. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBurkhalter_Chmelir2003 (help)
3. Morton 2005, p. 4, 9. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMorton2005 (help)
4. "Der Kindermörder Jürgen Bartsch". Das Erste (in German). May 18, 2000. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved July 16, 2011.
5. Frankfurter Rundschau of November 5, 1968
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7. Der Spiegel, article Murderer on the way from July 5, 1971
8. Corke, Jonathan (December 7, 2003). "Cannibal's victim in cold packs; Exclusive pleased to meat you". Daily Star. p. 21.
9. Dreyerley Neüwezeitung, pp. 11–15. (in German)
10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 July 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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25. Entry on Kurtrierisches Amtshaus and Burgmannenhaus (altes Gefängnis „Prison", „Bulles", „Büllesje", heute Heimatmuseum Kaisersesch) in the „KuLaDig“ Database of the Landschaftsverbands RheinlandEntry on Kurtrierisches Amtshaus und Burgmannenhaus (altes Gefängnis „Prison", „Bulles", „Büllesje", heute Heimatmuseum Kaisersesch) in the „KuLaDig“ Database of the Landschaftsverbands Rheinland
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34. Central file for the murder cases and teaching materials collection at tools.wmflabs.org [Error: unknown archive URL] (archived 27 August 2013)
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37. (PDF) https://www.thueringen.de/mam/th3/polizei/vfhs/internetauftritt/140_dbs_13.03.19_serienmorde_in_der_ddr.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
38. Wagner, Stephen. "The Werewolf of Bedburg".
39. Tilstone, William J.; Savage, Kathleen A.; Clark, Leigh A. (2006). Forensic Science: An Encyclopedia of History, Methods, and Techniques. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576071946.
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41. Ute Bönnen and Gerald Endres. "The Bilberry Mariechen" (in German). boen-end.de.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
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43. ""Göhrde Murders": Perpetrators identified, questions remain" (in German). NDR. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
44. "Willibald Alexis: A collection of the most interesting crime stories of all countries of modern and modern times. Founded by the Criminal Director Dr. JE Hitzig and dr. W. Haring (W. Alexis). Continued by Dr. A. Vollert. New series. Fourth volume. Leipzig: FA Brockhaus. 1869. Chapter 3: The master bookbinder Ferdinand Wittmann (Wollin and Poznan, Sixfold poisoning) 1862-1868" (in German). Spiegel Online Kultur. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
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48. "Murder cases in Bodenfelde: Near Höxter: "Black Widow" lured victims into death trap by ads". Focus Online (in German). 2 May 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
49. "Döner-Mörder: Waren sie Einzeltäter oder gibt es ein Netzwerk?". Deutsch Türkische Nachrichten (in German). Retrieved 13 November 2011.
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54. Gerichtsurteil – Höchststrafe für Kindermörder Hoffmann Archived 2015-04-02 at the Wayback Machine, Stern, 2005, April 1, 2012
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61. Stephan Harbort - Kriminalist & Autor
62. «The" Ghost of Kehl "admits his crimes» Article by Geoffroy Tomasovitch published on May 19, 2005 in Le Parisien
63. Hans-Werner Loose (20 November 1998). "Rieken described how he murdered Christina". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 7 January 2017.
64. Berlin district court imposed a double life imprisonment; in: Berliner Zeitung on March 6, 1996
65. Becker, Claudia (July 16, 2013). "Der Serienkiller darf sich ein bisschen frei bewegen" [The serial killer may move a bit freely]. Die Welt (in German). Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
66. Maintower Kriminalreport Extra: The serial killer from Schwalbach.
67. Redaktion neues deutschland. "Alleged murderer should be extradited" (in German). Retrieved August 18, 2020.
68. "Döner-Mörder: Waren sie Einzeltäter oder gibt es ein Netzwerk?". Deutsch Türkische Nachrichten (in German). Retrieved 13 November 2011.
69. "Riddle about the Rubble Murderer: Hamburg police interrogated more than 1000 people - A hint from Berlin" (in German). Hamburger Abendblatt No. 225. 27 September 1952. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
70. "No bodies and no confession". Die Zeit (in German). 11 March 1976.
71. Der ungefasste Serienkiller von Hannover.
72. Film contribution, Kriminalreport Hessen.