On March 6, 1981 Marianne Bachmeier killed Klaus Grabowski in the court building in Lübeck. Grabowski, 35, was on the third day of his trial for the death of her seven-year-old daughter, Anna. Bachmeier was arrested at once. The killing was regarded as the first act of vigilante justice inside a German courtroom, and it divided public opinion in the Federal Republic.
She was charged with murder. After a trial that opened in November 1982, the Landgericht Lübeck convicted her in March 1983 of Totschlag, manslaughter, together with a further offense under the arms law, and sentenced her to six years in prison. The court did not find her guilty of heimtückischer Mord, murder by treachery. She was released early in 1985 after a little over two years, lived abroad for some years, and died in Lübeck in September 1996, aged 46.
Anna was seven years old when she died. She lived with her mother in Lübeck. Klaus Grabowski was arrested for her death and confessed to killing her. He had previous convictions, and his trial before the Lübeck jury court opened early in March 1981. Bachmeier took part in the proceedings as a joint plaintiff, a status German procedure gives to the relatives of a victim.
The killing happened on March 6, 1981, the third day of the hearing against Grabowski. It took place in the court building in Lübeck. Bachmeier was taken into custody in the building. Judges involved in the Grabowski case later described the event as unbelievable and said that Grabowski would certainly have been convicted.
The prosecution charged Bachmeier with murder. Her trial opened in Lübeck on November 2, 1982 and was adjourned after only a few minutes on its first day because two lay judges were absent. It was heard by the Landgericht Lübeck. In March 1983 the court gave its judgment: six years' imprisonment for Totschlag and for a further offense under the arms law. The court rejected the allegation of murder by treachery.
Bachmeier served a little over two years of the sentence and was released early in 1985. She then lived abroad for some years, first in Nigeria and later in Italy. In 1996 she came back to Lübeck and died there on September 17, aged 46.
German criminal law separates Mord, murder, from Totschlag, manslaughter. The court in Lübeck had to decide whether Bachmeier acted heimtückisch, by treachery, and found that she had not. A professor of criminal law at the University of Kiel, interviewed in 2026, called that finding defensible at the time but said the judgment would probably be assessed differently today. The killing is regarded as the first instance of Selbstjustiz, vigilante justice, in a German courtroom, and the fortieth anniversary in 2021 was marked as a moment in the country's legal history.
The charge of murder was not upheld: the conviction was for manslaughter.
March 6, 1981: Klaus Grabowski, the accused in the trial for Anna's death, is killed in the court building in Lübeck; Marianne Bachmeier is arrested.
November 2, 1982: Her own trial opens at the Landgericht Lübeck on a charge of murder.
March 1983: Convicted of Totschlag and a further offense under the arms law; sentenced to six years.
1985: Released early after a little over two years.
September 17, 1996: Dies in Lübeck, aged 46.