Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

Fritz Haarmann: The Butcher of Hanover (Part I)

Seven months later, Haarmann escaped the mental institution. With apparent assistance from his mother, Haarmann fled to Zürich, Switzerland. Here, he lived with a relative of his mother, and obtained employment as a handyman in a shipyard. Haarmann remained in Zürich for 16 months before he returned to Hanover in April 1899. Early the following year, he became engaged to a woman named Erna Loewert, who soon became pregnant with his child. In October 1900, Haarmann received notification to perform his compulsory military service.

Military service

On 12 October 1900, Haarmann was deployed to the Alsatian city of Colmar to serve in the Number 10 Rifle Battalion. Throughout his service, Haarmann earned a reputation among his superiors as an exemplary soldier and excellent marksman, and he would later describe his period of service with this battalion as being the happiest of his entire life. After collapsing while on exercise with his battalion in October 1901, Haarmann began to suffer dizzy spells and was subsequently hospitalized for over four months. He was later deemed "unsuitable for [military] service and work" and was dismissed from military service on 28 July 1902.

Discharged from the military under medical terms described as being "probable" dementia praecox, Haarmann was awarded a monthly military pension of 21 gold marks. Upon his military discharge, Haarmann returned to live with his fiancée in Hanover, briefly working in the small business his father had established, before unsuccessfully filing a maintenance lawsuit against his father, citing that he was unable to work due to the ailments noted by the military. His father successfully contested Haarmann's suit, and the charges would be dropped. The following year, a violent fight between father and son resulted in Haarmann's father himself unsuccessfully initiating legal proceedings against his son, citing verbal death threats and blackmail as justification to have his son returned to a mental institution. These charges would themselves be dropped due to a lack of corroborating evidence. Nonetheless, Haarmann was ordered to undertake a psychiatric examination in May 1903. This examination was conducted by Dr. Andrae, who concluded that, although morally inferior, Haarmann was not mentally unstable.

With financial assistance from his father, Haarmann and his fiancée opened a fishmongery. Haarmann himself briefly attempted to work as an insurance salesman, before being officially classified as disabled and unable to work by the 10th Army in 1904. As a result, his monthly military pension was slightly increased. The same year, his fiancée—pregnant with his child—terminated their engagement. According to Haarmann, this ultimatum occurred when he accused his fiancée of having an affair with a student. As the fishmongery was registered in her name, Erna Haarmann simply ordered her husband to leave the premises.

Criminal career

For the next decade, Haarmann primarily lived as a petty thief, burglar and con artist. Although he did occasionally obtain legitimate employment, he invariably stole from his employers or their customers. Beginning in 1905, he served several short prison sentences for offenses such as larceny, embezzlement, and assault. On one occasion when working legitimately as an invoice clerk, Haarmann became acquainted with a female employee with whom he would later claim to have robbed several tombstones and graves between 1905 and 1913 (he was never charged with these offenses). Consequently, Haarmann spent the majority of the years between 1905 and 1912 in jail.

In late 1913, Haarmann was arrested for burglary. A search of his home revealed a hoard of stolen property linking him to several other burglaries. Despite protesting his innocence, Haarmann was charged with and convicted of a series of burglaries and frauds. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for these offenses.

Due to compulsory conscription resulting from the outbreak of World War I, Germany saw a shortage of available domestic manpower. In the final years of his prison sentence, Haarmann was permitted to work throughout the day on the grounds of various manor houses near the town of Rendsburg, with instructions to return to prison each evening. Upon his release from prison in April 1918, Haarmann initially moved to Berlin, before opting to return to Hanover, where he briefly lived with one of his sisters before renting a single room apartment in August 1918.