Klaus Grabowski

Marianne Bachmeier (3 June 1950 – 17 September 1996) became famous in Germany after she shot and killed the murderer of her daughter in an act of vigilantism in the hall of the District Court of Lübeck in 1981.

Youth and family

Bachmeier grew up in Sarstedt, after her parents fled from East Prussia. Her father had been a member of the Waffen-SS. Her parents divorced, and her mother later remarried.

In 1966, at the age of 16, Bachmeier had her first child, who she gave up for adoption as an infant. She became pregnant again at the age of 18 by her then-boyfriend. Shortly before the birth of her daughter, Bachmeier was raped. Her second child was also given up for adoption as an infant. In 1973, Bachmeier's third daughter, Anna, was born. After that birth, Bachmeier had a tubal ligation operation, and she raised her child as a single parent.

Murder of her daughter

On 5 May 1980, when Anna Bachmeier was seven years old, she had an argument with her mother and decided to skip school. Anna was abducted by Klaus Grabowski, a 35-year-old butcher, whose home she had visited to play with his cats. He held Anna for several hours at his home, sexually assaulted her, and ultimately strangled her with a pair of his fiancée's tights. According to the prosecutor, he tied the girl up and packed her into a box, which he then left on the bank of a canal. His fiancée turned him in to the police.

Klaus Grabowski was a convicted sex offender and had previously been sentenced for the sexual abuse of two girls. In 1976, he voluntarily submitted to chemical castration, though it was later revealed that he underwent hormone treatment to try to reverse the castration. Once arrested, Grabowski stated that he did not intend to abuse Anna sexually. He said that Anna tried to seduce and extort him, and his fear of going back to prison prompted him to kill her. He said the girl had wanted to tell her mother that he had touched her inappropriately, with the aim of extorting money from him.

Vigilante justice in the courtroom

On 6 March 1981, the third day of the trial, Marianne Bachmeier smuggled a Beretta 70 into the courtroom of Lübeck District Court and shot the confessed killer of her daughter, Klaus Grabowski, in the back. She aimed the gun at Grabowski's back and pulled the trigger eight times. Seven of the shots hit him, and the 35-year-old defendant was killed almost instantly.

This is likely the most well-known case of vigilante justice in West Germany. It sparked extensive media coverage, and television crews from all over the world traveled to Lübeck to report on this case.

A large part of the population showed understanding for her actions. She sold her life story for about 250,000 Deutsche Mark in an exclusive to the news magazine ''Stern''.

Sentence for manslaughter

On 2 November 1982, Bachmeier was initially charged in court with murder. Later the prosecution dropped the murder charge. After 28 days of negotiations, the Board agreed on the verdict. Four months after the opening of proceedings she was convicted on 2 March 1983 by the Circuit Court Chamber of the District Court Lübeck for manslaughter and sentenced for unlawful possession of a firearm to six years in prison but was released after serving three years.

Moving abroad

Marianne Bachmeier married in 1985 and in 1988 moved to Lagos, Nigeria, with her husband, a teacher. They lived in a German camp where her husband taught at a German school. They divorced in 1990 and she moved to Sicily. She was diagnosed with cancer in Sicily, and then returned to Germany.

Interview

On 21 September 1995, she appeared on the talk show ''Fliege'' on the Das Erste TV channel. She admitted that she had shot the alleged killer of her daughter after careful consideration, to enforce the law on him, and to prevent him from further spreading lies about her daughter Anna.

Death

On 17 September 1996, Bachmeier died at the age of 46 from pancreatic cancer in a hospital in Lübeck. It had actually been her desire to die in her adopted home of Palermo. Before her death, she asked the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) reporter, Lukas Maria Böhmer, to accompany her and film the last stages of her life. She is buried in the same grave as her daughter Anna in a graveyard in Lübeck.

Legacy

In the early 1980s, the Anna Collective, a group made up of Aida Jordão, Suzanne Odette Khuri, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Patricia Nichols, Baņuta Rubess, Tori Smith, Barb Taylor, and Maureen White, began work on a theatre piece about Bachmeier and her vigilante act. A short version of the play premiered in 1983. The completed play, ''This is for You, Anna'', premiered in 1984.

See also

* Gary Plauché
*Ellie Nesler

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachmeier, Marianne
1996 deaths
1950 births
Vigilantes
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
Vigilantism against sex offenders