Ernst August Wagner
Encyclopedia
Ernst August Wagner was a German spree killer
who, on September 4, 1913 killed his wife and four children in Degerloch
and subsequently drove to Mühlhausen an der Enz
where he set several fires
and shot 20 people, of whom at least 9 died, before he was beaten unconscious by furious villagers and left for dead.
After several psychiatric assessments diagnosed him to suffer from paranoia
, and thus becoming the first person in Württemberg
to be found not guilty by reason of insanity, he was brought to an asylum
in Winnenthal
, where he commenced to write several plays
and drama
s. He died there of tuberculosis
in 1938.
as the ninth of ten children, not including one half-brother and half-sister. Most of his siblings died early, so that in 1913 only two sisters and one brother remained. After his father, a poor peasant with drinking problems, died one day before Ernst Wagner's second birthday, the indebted family was forced to sell their farm. His mother tried to make a living of a small shop and soon remarried, but due to Mrs. Wagner's many affairs the marriage was again divorced when Ernst was seven years old.
Ernst Wagner, who was known as the "widow's boy" in the village, suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts, though he was quite intelligent and did well enough at school to earn a public stipend, and thus, despite his poverty, was able to study and become a teacher. After his exam he worked as auxiliary teacher at several schools in Württemberg
from 1894 to 1901, though in April 1900 he was suspended for half a year, because of severe nervousness and irritability. In consequence he went to Switzerland
for two months, where he tried to sell some of his poems to newspapers.
In July 1901 he was assigned as teacher to Mühlhausen an der Enz where he stayed until 1902. Some time in the summer of 1901, in drunk condition, he sodomized
an animal. As a result he became increasingly wary and suspicious that others might know of his deed and began to see signs and hints that the villagers of Mühlhausen are mocking him for this act of bestiality
. Thus he bought a revolver, which he always carried with him from that point on, so that he could evade a potential arrest. He began an affair with Anna Friedericke Schlecht, the daughter of a local innkeeper, who became pregnant from him in spring of 1902, but as Ernst Wagner hated the Schlecht-family, thinking that his future father-in-law despised him, he tried to elude the, finally unavoidable, marriage.
In December of the same year, Wagner's mother, to whom he felt deeply attached to, died, he had his final examination as a teacher and was transferred to Radelstetten, a poor and isolated village. Although he was embittered to be ordered to such a puny place, it also temporarily eased his feelings of constant persecution, even though the incident of sodomy continued to haunt him. On December 29, 1903 he and Anna Schlecht married in Ludwigsburg, mostly due to pressure from outside, as their daughter Klara was already 10 months old. Ernst Wagner never made a secret out of the fact that he didn't love his wife anymore and thought that she was intellectually inferior to him, considering her to be more of a servant than his wife. Though Wagner's friends also stated that he always treated her kindly.
In the summer of 1904 he once again went to Switzerland, trying twice to commit suicide there, once by drowning himself and by jumping off a bridge, though both attempts failed, because he was, according to his own words, too weak. In the following years his wife bore four more children, the last being Rudoplh Alfred Wagner, born in July 1909, who died on September 22 of the same year, Ernst Wagner's 35th birthday, who apparently was quite indifferent to the death of his son. Wagner was said to have been unhappy about the births of his children and complained about the financial stress the feeding of his large family caused.
Some time in 1906 or 1907, thinking that the people from Mühlhausen had passed on their knowledge about his crime, the feelings of being ridiculed and watched by others returned, and as a consequence he began to make plans to take revenge on those whom he deemed to be the cause of his misery, the villagers, and especially the men, of Mühlhausen. In autumn 1907 he bought the first Mauser
pistol, the other one following in 1909 and, with his bicycle, which he loved more than anyone or anything else, he made extensive journeys through the surrounding area and trained his shooting skills in remote forests.
Between 1909 and 1911 he made several requests to be transferred to another school, which was finally granted, so that on May 1, 1912 he began his work at a school in Degerloch, a suburb of Stuttgart
. At that time he also decided to go ahead with his plan to avenge the derision he had to endure, as even at his new workplace he saw hints of people "knowing", and initially chose the spring of 1913 to put it into practice, but finally determined the last days of the summer holidays for his revenge. In the days leading to the murders he wrote several letters to explain his deed.
, cutting her carotid arteries
and hitting her heart and lungs. Afterwards he successively entered the bedrooms of his two sons, Robert and Richard, and his daughters, Klara and Elsa, and stabbed each of them in their throat and chest. Wagner initially claimed that he had also hit his children with the blackjack, though later he was uncertain of this. All of his victims died of massive haemorrhaging
.
After covering his family members' bodies with blankets, Wagner got out of his blood-soaked nightshirt and washed himself, before packing a bag with three guns (two Mauser C96
and a small revolver
), 500 rounds of ammunition, a black veil from his wife and a belt. He subsequently left his home, leaving a note at his own door that the family was jaunting to Ludwigsburg
, as well as another one at the door of Mrs. Stepper, the proprietor of the house he was living in, ordering milk and leaving behind 35 pfennig
e as payment.
With his cycle he then drove towards Stuttgart
and took a train to Ludwigsburg, where he bought a backpack, before making his way to his brother's home in Eglosheim, arriving there at about 11 a.m.
As his brother was not at home, Wagner chatted a while with his wife, telling her he wanted to spend the night at their home after fetching his children from Mühlhausen, and, as it could get late, the house should stay accessible to him during the night. In an unobserved moment he hid 228 rounds in a haystack in the garden. Wagner, accompanied by his nephew and niece, walked to the next train station, where he took a train to Bietigheim
at about 1 p.m. From there he took off towards Großsachsenheim, where he mailed letters to several people, among them some of his relatives (one of them, addressed to his sister, simply reading "Take poison! Ernst" (Nimm Gift! Ernst)) and theologist
and philosopher Christoph Schrempf, as well as a newspaper. Subsequently he returned to Bietigheim, where he got his bicycle checked by a mechanic and mailed two copies of his auto-biography, one again to Christoph Schrempf. At about 7 p.m. he left for Mühlhausen an der Enz.
. His bicycle and the small revolver were later found hidden in a corn field. Next Wagner set out to cut the telephone lines to the village, but as the poles looked too high to him and due to heavy rain that had set in by that time, he dropped that part of his plan and immediately went into Mühlhausen, where he set fire to four barns. The lower part of his face hidden with the veil he began walking through the streets, shooting at any male person that crossed his path. Wagner later claimed that his female victims were accidentally hit.
In total he spent about 80 rounds and shot 20 people, instantly killing eight of them, as well as two animals, and several buildings burned to the ground, before the villagers, with help of the military, managed to extinguish the fires. A ninth person, Jakob Knötzele, was mortally wounded and died a few hours after the shooting had ended. At one point Wagner forgot to reload his weapons and thus three men were able to strike him down with hoe
s and sabre
s. He suffered several wounds in his face and right hand, and his left hand was smashed and nearly cut off. Knocked unconscious, he was disarmed and left for dead, but at 2 a.m. a police officer found him lying on the street, still breathing. When he regained consciousness, Wagner immediately confessed to killing his family, and stated that he would have committed suicide in the end, but as this was now impossible, he would appreciate, if he'd be sentenced to death and decapitated.
Finally, in the evening of September 5, Wagner, who uttered concerns he might get ill if he'd stay too long in Mühlhausen, was brought to a hospital in Vaihingen, where his left forearm was amputated and his other wounds treated.
Spree killer
A spree killer is someone who embarks on a murderous assault on two or more victims in a short time in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders."-Definition:According to the...
who, on September 4, 1913 killed his wife and four children in Degerloch
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
and subsequently drove to Mühlhausen an der Enz
Mühlacker
Mühlacker is a town in the eastern part of the Enz district in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. Mühlacker station has direct rail connections with Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Pforzheim and the Northern Black Forest....
where he set several fires
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
and shot 20 people, of whom at least 9 died, before he was beaten unconscious by furious villagers and left for dead.
After several psychiatric assessments diagnosed him to suffer from paranoia
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
, and thus becoming the first person in Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
to be found not guilty by reason of insanity, he was brought to an asylum
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
in Winnenthal
Winnenden
Winnenden is a small town in the Rems-Murr district of the Stuttgart Region in Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany. It lies in a wine-growing area approx. northeast of Stuttgart and has a population of less than 28,000...
, where he commenced to write several plays
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
s. He died there of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in 1938.
Life
Ernst August Wagner was born on September 22, 1874 in Eglosheim near LudwigsburgLudwigsburg
Ludwigsburg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg urban district with about 87,000 inhabitants...
as the ninth of ten children, not including one half-brother and half-sister. Most of his siblings died early, so that in 1913 only two sisters and one brother remained. After his father, a poor peasant with drinking problems, died one day before Ernst Wagner's second birthday, the indebted family was forced to sell their farm. His mother tried to make a living of a small shop and soon remarried, but due to Mrs. Wagner's many affairs the marriage was again divorced when Ernst was seven years old.
Ernst Wagner, who was known as the "widow's boy" in the village, suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts, though he was quite intelligent and did well enough at school to earn a public stipend, and thus, despite his poverty, was able to study and become a teacher. After his exam he worked as auxiliary teacher at several schools in Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
from 1894 to 1901, though in April 1900 he was suspended for half a year, because of severe nervousness and irritability. In consequence he went to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
for two months, where he tried to sell some of his poems to newspapers.
In July 1901 he was assigned as teacher to Mühlhausen an der Enz where he stayed until 1902. Some time in the summer of 1901, in drunk condition, he sodomized
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
an animal. As a result he became increasingly wary and suspicious that others might know of his deed and began to see signs and hints that the villagers of Mühlhausen are mocking him for this act of bestiality
Zoophilia
Zoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον and φιλία is the practice of sex between humans and non-human animals , or a preference or fixation on such practice...
. Thus he bought a revolver, which he always carried with him from that point on, so that he could evade a potential arrest. He began an affair with Anna Friedericke Schlecht, the daughter of a local innkeeper, who became pregnant from him in spring of 1902, but as Ernst Wagner hated the Schlecht-family, thinking that his future father-in-law despised him, he tried to elude the, finally unavoidable, marriage.
In December of the same year, Wagner's mother, to whom he felt deeply attached to, died, he had his final examination as a teacher and was transferred to Radelstetten, a poor and isolated village. Although he was embittered to be ordered to such a puny place, it also temporarily eased his feelings of constant persecution, even though the incident of sodomy continued to haunt him. On December 29, 1903 he and Anna Schlecht married in Ludwigsburg, mostly due to pressure from outside, as their daughter Klara was already 10 months old. Ernst Wagner never made a secret out of the fact that he didn't love his wife anymore and thought that she was intellectually inferior to him, considering her to be more of a servant than his wife. Though Wagner's friends also stated that he always treated her kindly.
In the summer of 1904 he once again went to Switzerland, trying twice to commit suicide there, once by drowning himself and by jumping off a bridge, though both attempts failed, because he was, according to his own words, too weak. In the following years his wife bore four more children, the last being Rudoplh Alfred Wagner, born in July 1909, who died on September 22 of the same year, Ernst Wagner's 35th birthday, who apparently was quite indifferent to the death of his son. Wagner was said to have been unhappy about the births of his children and complained about the financial stress the feeding of his large family caused.
Some time in 1906 or 1907, thinking that the people from Mühlhausen had passed on their knowledge about his crime, the feelings of being ridiculed and watched by others returned, and as a consequence he began to make plans to take revenge on those whom he deemed to be the cause of his misery, the villagers, and especially the men, of Mühlhausen. In autumn 1907 he bought the first Mauser
Mauser
Mauser was a German arms manufacturer of a line of bolt-action rifles and pistols from the 1870s to 1995. Mauser designs were built for the German armed forces...
pistol, the other one following in 1909 and, with his bicycle, which he loved more than anyone or anything else, he made extensive journeys through the surrounding area and trained his shooting skills in remote forests.
Between 1909 and 1911 he made several requests to be transferred to another school, which was finally granted, so that on May 1, 1912 he began his work at a school in Degerloch, a suburb of Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. At that time he also decided to go ahead with his plan to avenge the derision he had to endure, as even at his new workplace he saw hints of people "knowing", and initially chose the spring of 1913 to put it into practice, but finally determined the last days of the summer holidays for his revenge. In the days leading to the murders he wrote several letters to explain his deed.
Family murders
Wagner began his killing spree on September 4, 1913 at about 5 a.m., when he knocked his sleeping wife unconscious by hitting her on the head with a blackjack, before stabbing her numerous times in her throat and chest with a daggerDagger
A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...
, cutting her carotid arteries
Common carotid artery
In human anatomy, the common carotid artery is an artery that supplies the head and neck with oxygenated blood; it divides in the neck to form the external and internal carotid arteries. - Structure :...
and hitting her heart and lungs. Afterwards he successively entered the bedrooms of his two sons, Robert and Richard, and his daughters, Klara and Elsa, and stabbed each of them in their throat and chest. Wagner initially claimed that he had also hit his children with the blackjack, though later he was uncertain of this. All of his victims died of massive haemorrhaging
Bleeding
Bleeding, technically known as hemorrhaging or haemorrhaging is the loss of blood or blood escape from the circulatory system...
.
After covering his family members' bodies with blankets, Wagner got out of his blood-soaked nightshirt and washed himself, before packing a bag with three guns (two Mauser C96
Mauser C96
The Mauser C96 is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937...
and a small revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
), 500 rounds of ammunition, a black veil from his wife and a belt. He subsequently left his home, leaving a note at his own door that the family was jaunting to Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg urban district with about 87,000 inhabitants...
, as well as another one at the door of Mrs. Stepper, the proprietor of the house he was living in, ordering milk and leaving behind 35 pfennig
Pfennig
The Pfennig , plural Pfennige, is an old German coin or note, which existed from the 9th century until the introduction of the euro in 2002....
e as payment.
With his cycle he then drove towards Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
and took a train to Ludwigsburg, where he bought a backpack, before making his way to his brother's home in Eglosheim, arriving there at about 11 a.m.
As his brother was not at home, Wagner chatted a while with his wife, telling her he wanted to spend the night at their home after fetching his children from Mühlhausen, and, as it could get late, the house should stay accessible to him during the night. In an unobserved moment he hid 228 rounds in a haystack in the garden. Wagner, accompanied by his nephew and niece, walked to the next train station, where he took a train to Bietigheim
Bietigheim-Bissingen
Bietigheim-Bissingen is the second-largest town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with 42,515 inhabitants in 2007. It is situated on the river Enz, close to its confluence with the Neckar, about 19 km north of Stuttgart, and 20 km south of Heilbronn.- Buildings...
at about 1 p.m. From there he took off towards Großsachsenheim, where he mailed letters to several people, among them some of his relatives (one of them, addressed to his sister, simply reading "Take poison! Ernst" (Nimm Gift! Ernst)) and theologist
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and philosopher Christoph Schrempf, as well as a newspaper. Subsequently he returned to Bietigheim, where he got his bicycle checked by a mechanic and mailed two copies of his auto-biography, one again to Christoph Schrempf. At about 7 p.m. he left for Mühlhausen an der Enz.
Shooting spree
Wagner reached the hills near Mühlhausen at about 11 p.m., where he girdled himself with the belt, put a cap on his head and took the two Mauser C96, as well as a handbag containing ammunition, the black veil and a fileFile (tool)
A file is a metalworking and woodworking tool used to cut fine amounts of material from a workpiece. It most commonly refers to the hand tool style, which takes the form of a steel bar with a case hardened surface and a series of sharp, parallel teeth. Most files have a narrow, pointed tang at one...
. His bicycle and the small revolver were later found hidden in a corn field. Next Wagner set out to cut the telephone lines to the village, but as the poles looked too high to him and due to heavy rain that had set in by that time, he dropped that part of his plan and immediately went into Mühlhausen, where he set fire to four barns. The lower part of his face hidden with the veil he began walking through the streets, shooting at any male person that crossed his path. Wagner later claimed that his female victims were accidentally hit.
In total he spent about 80 rounds and shot 20 people, instantly killing eight of them, as well as two animals, and several buildings burned to the ground, before the villagers, with help of the military, managed to extinguish the fires. A ninth person, Jakob Knötzele, was mortally wounded and died a few hours after the shooting had ended. At one point Wagner forgot to reload his weapons and thus three men were able to strike him down with hoe
Hoe (tool)
A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural tool used to move small amounts of soil. Common goals include weed control by agitating the surface of the soil around plants, piling soil around the base of plants , creating narrow furrows and shallow trenches for planting seeds and bulbs, to chop...
s and sabre
Sabre
The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large hand guard, covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger...
s. He suffered several wounds in his face and right hand, and his left hand was smashed and nearly cut off. Knocked unconscious, he was disarmed and left for dead, but at 2 a.m. a police officer found him lying on the street, still breathing. When he regained consciousness, Wagner immediately confessed to killing his family, and stated that he would have committed suicide in the end, but as this was now impossible, he would appreciate, if he'd be sentenced to death and decapitated.
Finally, in the evening of September 5, Wagner, who uttered concerns he might get ill if he'd stay too long in Mühlhausen, was brought to a hospital in Vaihingen, where his left forearm was amputated and his other wounds treated.
Victims
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External links
- Mad teacher kills 15, wounds 16, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
(September 6, 1913) - Man who slew 15 insane, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
(February 5, 1914) - Massenmörder Wagner irrsinnig, Vorarlberger Volksblatt (February 6, 1914)
- Mass Murder - The Wagner Case
- Der Massenmord in Mühlhausen - Die Beerdigung der Opfer, Reichspost (September 9, 1913)
- Die Bluttat des Lehrers Wagner - Das letzte Verhör mit dem Mörder, Die Neue Zeitung (September 10, 1913)
- Ernst Wagner - Ein Lehrer, Dichter und Massenmörder
- Vom grausamen Mörder zum Dichter, Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg (May 2, 2005)