True Crime Cases in Germany

Germany's place in the true-crime record is shaped less by lone serial predators than by attacks that struck public life directly. The cases I've mapped here include the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack, when a hijacked truck was driven into crowds at Breitscheidplatz, and the 2020 Hanau shootings, a far-right attack that killed nine people at two shisha bars.

School violence runs through several of these entries too, from the Erfurt massacre in 2002 to the Winnenden shooting in 2009, both carried out by former students. Other cases reach into more private horror, like Niels Hoegel, the Lower Saxony nurse who killed patients by inducing cardiac arrests, and Frank Gust, the so-called Vampire of Krefeld.

I research each case here by hand, drawing on court records and reporting. Below you'll find every German case I've documented so far, with the year, the city, and a short account of what happened.