On a quiet morning in Lübeck, Germany, on March 6, 1981, a woman named Marianne Bachmeier walked into a courtroom with a calm but determined demeanor. What happened next would shock a nation and echo across the world for decades. Marianne, carrying a small loaded pistol in her handbag, took aim at Klaus Grabowski—the man accused of kidnapping, abusing, and murdering her seven-year-old daughter, Anna. In a matter of seconds, she fired seven shots into him, ending his life on the courtroom floor.
Her arrest was immediate, but Marianne showed no remorse. She had done what many parents might secretly dream of in their most broken moments: she exacted her own justice. Her act, raw and emotional, sparked global debate.
Four decades later, Marianne Bachmeier’s name still resonates as a symbol of vengeance, grief, and the moral gray area between justice and vigilantism.
Marianne’s story began in hardship. Her childhood was marked by tragedy, trauma, and deep emotional wounds. Her father had served in the Waffen-SS during Nazi Germany’s reign, a shadow that loomed over the family. As a young girl, Marianne endured abuse and trauma. She became pregnant at sixteen and gave her baby up for adoption. Two years later, she became pregnant again and made the same heartbreaking decision. But in 1973, when she gave birth to her daughter Anna, everything changed. This time, Marianne kept the child and raised her as a single mother.
By all accounts, Anna was a bright, open-hearted little girl, full of curiosity and energy. She lived with her mother in Lübeck, where Marianne worked hard to make ends meet by running a small pub. Life was far from easy, but the two shared a deep bond. That bond was brutally severed on May 5, 1980, when Anna disappeared after a minor argument at home. She had decided to skip school and head to a friend’s house but never made it. On her way, she was lured and abducted by 35-year-old Klaus Grabowski, a convicted sex offender who had previously molested two young girls.
Grabowski, who lived nearby, had a history of violence and manipulation. While serving a sentence for his past crimes, he had voluntarily undergone chemical castration. But in an attempt to resume a “normal” life, he later received hormone therapy to reverse the effects. At the time of Anna’s murder, he was living with his fiancée and had returned to the community with little fanfare, despite his history. He held Anna captive in his apartment for several hours, during which time he abused and ultimately strangled her to death.
He placed Anna’s small body in a cardboard box and left it by a canal. Later that day, Grabowski returned to move and bury her, but his fiancée, who had learned of the crime, tipped off the police. He was arrested the same night at a local bar.
Grabowski’s arrest brought little comfort to Marianne. During his trial, he made disturbing claims, including an assertion that Anna had tried to seduce and blackmail him—an outrageous statement that only deepened Marianne’s anguish. Already struggling with the pain of losing her daughter, she now had to endure listening to her child being slandered in court.