Olaf Däter was a 32-year-old former nurse from Bremerhaven when he went on trial at the Landgericht Bremen in November 2001. On the first day of the hearing he admitted that, between June 5 and June 12 of that year, he had killed five women in the Bremerhaven area, all of them over 80, and robbed them of their cash. A sixth woman survived. Later that month the court convicted him of five murders and one attempted murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment, with a finding that his guilt was particularly grave.
The presiding judge, Harald Schmacke, told the court that five people had died for a total of 1,480 marks. He called a series of killings of this kind exceptionally rare in the history of the Federal Republic, and he described the man in the dock as a completely ordinary person of average intelligence whom no one had thought capable of such acts.
Only a short sketch of Däter's life emerged at the trial. He was a trained nurse, and the women who died knew him personally; the Nordsee-Zeitung's news site nord24 later described him as their former carer. At the time of the killings he was heavily in debt. The taz, reporting from the opening day of the trial, put his debts at between 50,000 and 70,000 marks; at the verdict the court was reported as working from a figure of 70,000 marks.
His working life had collapsed only days before the first killing. In early June 2001 he learned that his employer, the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB), was dismissing him without notice, accusing him of financial irregularities. By the court's account, police were already questioning him about the embezzlement of patients' money when the killings took place.
Däter told the court that he had needed money for his partner. According to his account, she kept asking him for more money. Judge Schmacke did not accept that this explained his spending. The court found that he had spent money to show off, and the judge pointed out that Däter had ordered a car costing 80,000 marks and booked a cruise for 24,000 marks.
The killings took place within eight days, from June 5 to June 12, 2001. The five women who died were between 82 and 89 years old. Their names have not been reported, and little is known of their lives beyond their ages and the fact that they knew the man who killed them. That acquaintance was central to the case. The court found that the women trusted him, and it treated the killings as treacherous, one of the two grounds on which it found murder.
Autopsies established that the women died of mechanical suffocation. Däter took only money. The prosecution's figure for the total he stole, as reported at the start of the trial, was about 4,900 marks. When the court delivered its verdict, Judge Schmacke gave the sum taken from the five women who died as 1,480 marks.
The court also credited Däter with admitting one killing that had not at first been recognized as a murder. Which of the five deaths that was, and how it had first been classified, has not been reported.
The sixth woman was 83 at the time of the trial. She survived the attack, and when she came round she was able to tell police who had been there. Her statement led investigators to Däter. The court later said she had survived by pure chance.
She took part in the trial as a co-plaintiff (Nebenklägerin) and gave evidence on the first day. She told the court that the man she had known as a refined and courteous gentleman had become mean and cruel toward her, and that she had not recognized him. She described her survival as the work of a heavenly power. Since the attack, she said, she had lived with constant fear and could not sleep properly, although she was no longer afraid of dying.
Before the verdict she had already won a civil claim against him. A court awarded her 10,000 marks in damages for pain and suffering (Schmerzensgeld). Her lawyer suggested that Däter could raise the money from the media rights to his story.
Däter was arrested in Bremerhaven in June 2001, soon after the attack on the sixth woman, once her statement had pointed police to him. The date and circumstances of the arrest have not been reported.
The trial began before the Landgericht Bremen in November 2001. The prosecution charged him with murder committed with treachery (Heimtücke) and out of greed (Habgier).
Däter made a detailed confession on the first day. The taz reported that he stopped several times and struggled to keep his composure, that he showed remorse, and that he called his own conduct shameful. He said he could not explain what he had done.
He insisted, however, that he had never meant to kill anyone. His plan, he told the court, had been to frighten the women, take their money and leave. Judge Schmacke was not persuaded. He asked whether Däter had not feared being reported, since every one of the women knew him personally. Däter answered that if any of them had accused him, he would have pointed to the confusion or dementia that is common among elderly people.
At the end of the first day he turned to the surviving woman and apologized to her. He said he admired the strength it had taken her to come through the trial, and that he hoped she would no longer have to suffer. She told the court that she felt sorry for him, because he had thrown away his young life.
A psychologist and a psychiatrist examined him for the court. Both found him fully responsible for his actions in every case.
In November 2001 the court sentenced Däter to life imprisonment for five murders and one attempted murder. It found that greed was the motive and that the killings were treacherous. Judge Schmacke said that any one of the five murders on its own would have called for a life sentence.
The court rejected Däter's claim that the deaths had been unintended. It pointed to the autopsy findings and to the nature of the deaths, and it concluded that he had meant to kill.
On the question of sentence, the court followed the prosecution and the co-plaintiffs and found that his guilt was particularly grave (besondere Schwere der Schuld). As the taz explained, a prisoner serving life can normally be released after 15 years at the earliest, and only if an expert opinion finds that he no longer poses a danger to the public. The finding of particular gravity rules out release at that point and means that any chance of release comes later, if at all.
The court counted several points in his favor: his confession, his remorse, his admission of the killing that had at first gone unrecognized, and the fact that his confession had shortened the trial. None of them changed the outcome.
The prosecutor, Fritz Haar, said the verdict matched the prosecution's expectations. He told reporters that 25 years in prison was a realistic expectation for Däter, and he cited cases in the legal literature in which prisoners serving life had been held for 38 and 42 years.
Däter's defense lawyer, Thomas Domanski, said that he had prepared his client for the verdict, which Däter received calmly. Domanski did not yet say whether he would appeal on points of law (Revision).
The surviving woman's lawyer called the trial dignified and fair.
In November 2017 nord24, the news site of the Nordsee-Zeitung in Bremerhaven, returned to the case in an article that asked whether anyone could become a killer. It recalled that the man it called Olaf D. had killed five retired women within ten days in 2001, and that the crimes came to light only because the sixth woman survived. The forensic psychiatrist Nahlah Saimeh told the paper that whether a person turns to violence depends on personality, and she named impulsiveness, greed, fearlessness and a wish for revenge as traits that can play a part. The article carried a photograph of Däter at a later court hearing on his detention and described him as serving a life sentence.
The amount of money involved is reported in two ways. At the opening of the trial the taz gave the total he took as about 4,900 marks, while at the verdict the presiding judge said the five women who died had been robbed of 1,480 marks in all. The second figure covers only the five killings and comes from the court itself.
His debts were reported as between 50,000 and 70,000 marks at the start of the trial and as 70,000 marks at the verdict.
His job is described in different terms. The 2001 trial reports call him a former nurse, while the 2017 nord24 article uses both "Altenpfleger" (geriatric nurse) and "Krankenpfleger" (nurse).
The span of the killings is given as June 5 to June 12, 2001, in the trial reporting and as "within ten days" in the 2017 article.
Early June 2001: Däter learns that the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund is dismissing him without notice over financial irregularities; police are questioning him about the embezzlement of patients' money.
June 5 to June 12, 2001: Five women aged 82 to 89 are killed in the Bremerhaven area. A sixth woman survives an attack.
June 2001: The surviving woman's statement leads police to Däter, and he is arrested in Bremerhaven.
Before the verdict: The surviving woman wins 10,000 marks in damages from him in a civil case.
November 2001: The trial begins before the Landgericht Bremen. Däter admits the five killings but denies intent to kill. The surviving woman gives evidence as a co-plaintiff (reported by the taz on November 9, 2001).
November 2001: The court convicts him of five murders and one attempted murder, sentences him to life imprisonment and finds that his guilt was particularly grave (reported by the taz on November 23, 2001).
November 4, 2017: nord24 revisits the case and describes him as serving a life sentence.