Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann (13 December 1863 – 5 July 1922), better known as Carl Großmann, was a German serial killer and rapist who murdered at least twenty women in the Friedrichshain quarter of Berlin between 1918 and 1921. He killed himself while awaiting the end of his trial without giving a full confession.
Early life
Childhood Großmann was born in Alt Ruppin (now part of Neuruppin) as one of seven children to rag picker Karl G. Friedrich Großmann and Marie Dorothea Sophie "Sophia" Prößel (or Brüssel). Of his two brothers and four sisters, Großmann was closest to his half-brother Franz, who corroborated most of Großmann's own testimony about his childhood. His father was an alcoholic and locally regarded as an ill-tempered brute, who was often arrested for starting fights with other townsfolk, also regularly beating his wife and children in drunken rages using a fire poker. Großmann was often singled out in the abuse, as his father "hated how alike they were", and forced his son under threat of death to lie to teachers about the bruises, claiming that they were the result of accidents while playing.
Großmann was widely disliked and mocked for his ugly appearance and body odor. His brother Franz said that Großmann began voicing violent thoughts and sadistic sexual tastes in his youth. Early on, Großmann developed a fascination with the slaughter of animals, delighting in the flow of blood and final death throes. In one instance, when Großmann was six years old, he and his half-brother assisted in the slaughter of a pig at the local abattoir. The brothers were supposed to catch any run-off blood in a bowl, but when the butcher cut the pig's jugular vein, Großmann pushed his brother aside, opened his mouth, and gulped up as much blood as he could from the gushing stream. Franz Großmann described how his brother was "seizing as if he were having an epileptic fit" before an adult worker shoved the boy away. Großmann reportedly told his brother later in life that he could only achieve arousal at the sight of blood. Childhood friend Fritz Schirrmeister recalled a time when he slaughtered an injured rabbit for food while Großmann watched, noticing his friend's oddly pleased facial expression and fixed gaze on the animal's twitching.
From an early age, Großmann assisted his father's merchant business as a crier and tended to the family's goats kept in nearby Treskow. Neighbours often observed the young boy playfully smashing heads with one particular billy goat and covering his face and chest in salt to have the goats lick him, leading to Großmann being nicknamed "Zickenkarl" ("Nanny Goat Karl") for his overt fondness for the animals.
Großmann left Volksschule in the third grade, shortly after which he had his Evangelical confirmation. Großmann claimed to have continued school for a few years while working at a local fabric factory, but did not possess higher education.
Adolescence In 1876, he took an apprenticeship as a slaughterhouse worker at the meat shop of Ferdinand Kliefoth, who took the troublemaking youth in despite his unpopular reputation, having seen his potential as a slaughterer given his deftness with a knife and lack of aversion to blood. Großmann told his brother that he only took the position to get close to Klieforth's wife Dorothea and that he often had wet dreams about forcing himself on her. In 1879, Großmann was dismissed after he was caught attempting to rape Dorothea, and beaten by Klieforth as a result. According to Großmann, he never finished a proper course as either a slaughterer or butcher. He returned to selling cloth with his father, occasionally working as a laborer at the fabric factory. Großmann was thrown out of the house in 1880 for stealing money from his father. Großmann claimed that he moved to Berlin with friends at age 16.
Crimes
Vagrancy and sex offenses Berlin court records showed that his earliest available conviction was in 1882, at age 19, for vagrancy, with the court in Rixdorf noting that he already had an extensive history of begging and unemployment. In the following four years, he was convicted of theft, attempted blackmail, threat, and property damage. He was jailed thrice for assault in the years 1886, 1887, and 1888. Between 1886 and 1887, Großmann served in the Imperial German Army, in the 12th Grenadier Regiment in Frankfurt an der Oder, until he was discharged for a criminal arrest for rape, spending one year in prison. In 1889, Großmann received another one-year sentence by for aggravated assault.Störmer, Robert; In der Strafsache Großmann (20 May 1922); Landesarchiv Berlin Upon his release in 1890, Großmann worked for numerous butcher shops and slaughterhouses in Berlin-Mitte, subsidizing his income as a peddler of matches and other households items. In relation to his unsolicited sales, he was jailed twice for begging, once for fraud and once for trespassing, serving a total jail time of six months and two weeks by 1893.
Großmann left Berlin in 1894 after failing to find steady employment and became a vagrant traversing southern Germany during the late 1890s, making a living through begging, peddling, and theft. Over the years, Großmann was sentenced at the courts of Heidelberg, Dresden, Aachen, Ludwigsburg, and Mannheim. In the Neckar area of Baden and Württemberg, his arrests were primarily for vagrancy, trespassing, and fraud. One-off convictions included physical insult, resisting arrest, and bestiality. On 3 January 1896, a gardener couple alerted police after hearing their nanny goat screaming, with officers finding Großmann inside the stable, at the hooves of the animal and hiding under an Inverness coat. He first claimed to have only trespassed for nightly shelter, but an examination of the goat showed that it had severe swelling around the genitalia while Großmann was "wet around the knees" and had the fly of his pants open. He was subsequently sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for sodomy by a court in Mannheim.
In the Franconian region of Bavaria, his criminal record included assault, petty burglary, and sex crimes against young girls. His first charge was for the rape of a four-year-old girl. The longest of these first sentences, 15 months' imprisonment, was served in Nuremberg, after Großmann was convicted in 1897 for molesting a twelve-year-old girl. After being released on 1 April 1899, Großmann molested a ten-year-old girl and raped a four-year-old girl. A court in Bayreuth sentenced him to 15 years' imprisonment for the rapes on 4 October 1899; the four-year-old died of an infection from a complete tearing of the perineum inflicted during the attack shortly after the judgement. During his sentence at Ebrach prison, Großmann continued his violent behaviour and received 55 citations for unprovoked fights with fellow inmates..
Murders After his release from prison in August 1914, Großmann again moved to Berlin. Despite the start of World War I just a few days earlier, he was not drafted due to his age. Initially supporting himself with peddling, Großmann rented out the kitchen habitation in the third-floor apartment of Mannheim Itzig at Lange Straße 88, in the area around Berlin Ostbahnhof, known at the time for its high rates of crime, unemployment, and prostitution. Although Großmann was a one-room lodger, he often had the apartment to himself as Itzig and his family were rarely home. Neighbors described Großmann as a quiet man, only remembered for his particularly repulsive looks and stench. Residents admitted to often hearing loud noises and screaming from his flat, but did not think more of it, believing Großmann was only having rough sex with prostitutes, which was not uncommon in the quarter. Großmann sold meat on the black market and managed a sausage stand at Andreas Square outside the train station. According to admissions made to the court after his arrest, Großmann kept constant savings of around 10,000 marks from his income as a peddler.
Beginning in at least 1918, Großmann used his location near Ostbahnhof to approach women, often job-seekers from the countryside newly arrived by train, and lure them to his home by offering them work as a domestic housekeeper. Some surviving victims said that they interpreted this as a code for solicitation, while others genuinely believed they would be given employment. At the apartment, Großmann would physically overpower the woman and rape her, though other times, he would let the victim do housekeeping for several days or weeks before drugging and sexually assaulting her. Some of the women were let go after agreeing not to report Großmann, while others were killed at Großmann's discretion. He would dump his victims' remains in Luisenstadt Canal and the adjoining Engelbecken basin. After each encounter, Großmann reported the women, whether dead or alive, to police, claiming they had run away after stealing from him to either explain their disappearance or disparage potential accusations made by surviving victims. On occasion, Großmann also targeted local women, ranging from female labourers, stay-at-home mothers, and sex workers, all invariably from poor financial backgrounds. Großmann's activities went mostly unnoticed due to the political climate of the time, during which Berlin Police was largely occupied with quelling armed protests.
Known and confessed incidents Großmann had been occasionally reported to the authorities, but a criminal investigation was never launched until his arrest. On 24 March 1920, 66-year-old downstairs neighbour Gertrud Grabowski called a social worker when she heard crying from upstairs. Grabowski said that she initially believed that Großmann had once more invited a prostitute, but soon recognised the voice as belonging to a child. The social worker found a 15-year-old girl in Großmann's flat and ordered police to the scene. The girl said that Großmann had invited her into his room and digitally penetrated her as she slept, while Großmann claimed that he had tried to undress her for a bath. The matter was not pursued further since the girl was a homeless runaway and did not press charges. The social worker demanded a house search after she realised that there was women's clothing in Großmann's possession and that Großmann had lied when claiming that they belonged to a deceased wife, but was ignored by the officers.
On 21 October 1920, police searched Großmann's apartment after one of his surviving victims, Martha Baltzer, went to police and accused Großmann of murdering a friend of hers, 33-year-old sex worker Frieda Schubert, who had disappeared on 2 October. Baltzer's testimony was supported by Schubert's fiancé Otto Tannenbaum, who also recalled last seeing her with Großmann. Two women were found in the company of Großmann, but police concluded that nothing pointed towards Großmann having any involvement in Schubert's disappearance.