March 8, 1981. Marianne Bachmeier confidently walks through the halls of the Lübeck Regional Court. She attended the third day of the trial of Klaus Grabowski, accused of murdering Anna, Marianne’s daughter.
Anyone who saw her enter the room where Grabowski faced justice could not imagine what would happen. That day, Bachmeier was wearing a Beretta 70 and wanted to use it.
This is the story of a German mother who decided to take law into her own hands and shot her daughter’s confessed killer in court.
Marianne Bachmeier did not have an easy life. Born in Sarstedt, the daughter of a former WaffenSS member who served in the Third Reich, she grew up with inherited remorse.
That feeling suffused her when, following her pregnancy at the age of 16, she gave up her first child for adoption when it was still a baby. The same thing happened with her second child, which she gave to another family two years later. From afar, the woman accepted that the pain of the rape prevented her from seeing herself as a mother.
When she was surprised by a third pregnancy in 1973, Marianne decided to put her past behind and try to start a new life. With the birth of their daughter Anna Bachmeier, a new chapter in their history was opened. One that would unfortunately bring even more pain.
On May 5, 1980, Anna Bachmeier left home to go to school. A fight with her mother made the 7yearold girl consider skipping school and running away from all her obligations. It would be a day without school riots and family squabbles.
However, along the way she met Klaus Grabowski, a 35yearold butcher who caught the eye of the girl with her cats. According to police reports, Klaus a registered sex offender kidnapped Anna and took her to his home. There he raped the minor and strangled her with stockings that belonged to his fiancee.
In the hours that followed, while Marianne had not yet started searching for her daughter, Grabowski attempted to dispose of her victim’s body. He tied it up and put it in a box that he would set on the bank of a canal. Since he had nothing in common with Anna, he could easily escape any punishment. At least that’s what he thought, not considering that his girlfriend would report him to the police as soon as she found out about the situation.
After being questioned by the police, Klaus Grabowski said he did not want to rape or kill Anna. He even tried to defend himself, claiming the 7yearold girl had seduced him and threatening to tell her mother he touched her unless he gave her money.
He repeated this lie to Marianne and the relevant authorities when he appeared in court in March 1981. The mother was disgusted by the man’s words and feared they would serve to evade punishment. She needed justice and that her daughter’s memory not be attacked in this way again.
On March 8, Marianne brought the Beretta 70 she had kept at home to the Lübeck District Court. As Klaus listened as the judge dictated his fate, the woman stood and drew her gun. Before the stunned eyes of everyone in the room, Marianne Bachmeier shot her daughter’s killer eight times. Seven of those shots hit his body and immediately claimed his life. “I did this for you, Anna,” she said.
The act caused a shock in German society. Of course there were critics of Bachmeier’s approach, but the general consensus supported them. In fact, popular support prevented prosecutors from charging Marianne with Grabowski’s murder.
In 1983, a jury convicted her of manslaughter and illegal gun possession. Her sentence was only six years in prison, but she only served three. In 1988, Bachmeier moved to Nigeria with her new husband, a German professor. Two years later she returned to Germany after her divorce and cancer diagnosis in Italy.
Marianne Bachmeier died of pancreatic cancer on September 17, 1996. The news was secretly circulated by the local press and they allowed the few relatives he had to pay their respects to him in private.
A few days after her death, the mother’s body was buried in the Lübeck cemetery, on the same spot where her daughter’s remains are buried. Everything had an end.