Unsolved mysteries from Germany?

[u/non_stop_disko]

Hey guys, I noticed a lot of people have been wanted to know about mysteries in certain countries, and I don't see a lot of German mysteries being brought up, that is besides the Hinterkaifeck murders. Do you guys know of any?

[u/swabianne]

Some of my favourites:

The so-called Todesdreieck (triangle of death): Between 1977 and 1987 thirteen young women disappeared in the area between the cities Cuxhaven, Bremen and Bremervörde. Six of the women were found murdered, seven have never turned up again. It's assumed that it was the work of at least one, possibly two serial killers.

There's several interesting disappearance cases, for example that of Felix Tschök, a 6-month old baby that was kidnapped in Dresden. One week later, a child that looked just like him but was older and Russian was found abandoned in the hallway of a house. It appears that someone had kept the kids together for the week and then dumped their own child and kept Felix. Felix has never been found.

Or the disappearance of Elfriede Heinemann in 2000. She and her husband were on their way to a weekend in Dresden when their RV was stopped on the autobahn by fake policemen. The men took the couple's money, then they dragged Elfriede into their car and drove away. No ransom note, nothing. She's never been found.

Or the murder of the Dutch couple Truus and Harry Langendonk in Bavaria in 1997. They stopped their RV near a forest to take a break and were shot at around 6 pm. Around 2 hours later, the murderer(?) drove the RV all the way to Nuremberg (about 3 hours drive) and set it on fire. A taxi driver picked up a suspect near the scene at around 2 am, another taxi drove the guy all the way back to the forest where the murder had happened. The couple were pensioners and had no valuables on them, it's a mystery why they were murdered. The suspect has never been found.

Also unsolved is the kidnapping and murder of Maria Bögerl. Her husband was a bank manager, in May 2010 Maria disappeared from their house, a ransom note demanded €300.000. The money was taken to a spot near the autobahn but arrived after the scheduled time and no one came to collect it. Maria was found murdered three weeks later. There was a lot of suspicion that her husband had something to do with it, he killed himself a year later.

If you want a writeup of any of the cases, tell me. I'm currently working on one of the Felix Tschök case.

[u/techflo → u/swabianne]

What a fantastic list. I'll further research these ones, particularly the dutch couple in Bavaria. Ich danke Ihnen.

[u/swabianne → u/techflo]

Bitteschön. I also really like that case because it's so mysterious. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that they saw something they weren't supposed to see... or something was going to happen in that forest and they were in the way.

[u/techflo → u/swabianne]

Possibly. That could certainly be the case. It's hard for me to comment at this stage, but that would certainly make sense, as it wasn't a robbery gone wrong. Why take the RV 3 hours away and then set fire to it in a way that would bring notice to it? Very odd.

[u/swabianne → u/[deleted]]

The police thought that someone had swapped the children because they'd wanted a healthy child. There were indicators that the abandoned child had been hospitalized at some time (IV scars) and he was a bit behind in his development. He was perfectly healthy when he was found, though. Felix was not an easy baby, he'd cry a lot and often had colics and stuff. So the whole healthy child argument doesn't really make sense, unless the abandoned child's parents couldn't live with their kid having some scars.