Peter Kürten: Deadly Vampire of Düsseldorf “The Sadist”

Let’s analyze the primary source material on Peter Kürten, known as the “Vampire of Düsseldorf,” as documented by Professor Karl Berg, the medico-legal expert and psychiatrist who conducted an in-depth examination of him. Berg’s book, The Sadist, offers a chillingly detailed and clinical insight into Kürten’s mind and crimes, featuring the killer’s own detailed, often self-serving, confessions. This work moves beyond speculative profiles by relying on direct examination and forensic evidence.

The Düsseldorf Terror: A Medico-Legal Perspective

Professor Berg begins by recounting the wave of horror that swept Düsseldorf and beyond between February and November 1929, as a series of bafflingly diverse and brutal attacks terrorized the populace. The initial phase, concentrated in February within the Flingern district, established a pattern of sudden, vicious assaults with multiple stab wounds, often targeting the temple.

• Case 37 (Frau Kühn): Waylaid at dusk, stabbed 24 times with scissors after a brief confrontation. Kürten later confirmed using scissors and noted the tip broke off. Berg later confirmed the embedded scissor point via X-ray.
• Case 39 (Rosa Ohliger, 8 years old): Found murdered under a hedge, clothing partially burned with petroleum. She suffered 13 stab wounds to the chest, five penetrating the heart. Evidence indicated strangulation prior to stabbing, minor vaginal injury consistent with digital penetration, and semen traces on underclothing. Berg deduced death occurred between 6-7 pm based on stomach contents. Kürten confirmed strangling the child, stabbing her (claiming this induced ejaculation), returning later to attempt arson, and returning again the next morning to successfully set the body alight to cause public indignation. He denied intentional sexual contact beyond digital penetration during the strangling.
• Case 38 (Rudolf Scheer, approx. 45 years old): Found murdered the morning after leaving a beer-house drunk. Sustained 20 knife wounds, predominantly to the neck. Berg concluded Scheer was attacked from behind. Kürten stated he stabbed Scheer with scissors after the seemingly drunk man confronted him, achieving ejaculation upon hearing the blood spurt. He returned to the scene the next morning and even spoke to a detective there.

“In the case of Ohliger, I also sucked blood from the wound on her temple, and from Scheer from the stab in the neck. From the girl Schulte I only licked the blood from her hands. It was the same with the swan in the Hofgarten. I used to stroll at night through the Hofgarten very often, and in the spring of 1930 I noticed a swan sleeping at the edge of the lake. I cut its throat. The blood spurted up and I drank from the stump and ejaculated.”

From the confessions of Peter Kürten

Berg noted the common factors: sudden attacks, dusk/night, Flingern locale, multiple stabs (often temple), same tool type (initially unclear), absence of typical motive. However, the investigation was critically hampered when an unrelated imbecile, Stausberg, committed two non-fatal strangulation attacks in April 1929 (Erna Penning, Frau Flake). Stausberg, disturbingly, confessed not only to his own crimes but also, with surprising detail likely gleaned from interrogation or local gossip (as he was illiterate), to the February attacks, confusing the police effort until later contradictory crimes emerged.

The attacks resumed in August 1929, now sometimes featuring a dagger and later a hammer, further muddying the “single perpetrator” theory initially. Berg details several cases from this period analyzed via autopsy and Kürten’s later confessions:

• Knife/Dagger Attacks (August 1929): Included Anna Goldhausen, Frau Mantel, and Heinrich Kornblum, all stabbed suddenly. Kürten confirmed these, noting he achieved orgasm only during the Kornblum stabbing.
• The Flehe Child Murders (August 24, 1929): Gertrud Hamacher (5) and Louisa Lenzen (14). Both found strangled with throats cut (Hamacher) or stabbed multiple times in the back (Lenzen). Berg reconstructed the crime based on tracks and wounds, suggesting Hamacher was killed first, Lenzen attempted escape after being throttled, and was then fatally stabbed. Kürten’s confession largely matched: luring Lenzen away, strangling Hamacher, slitting her throat, returning to strangle Lenzen, then stabbing her when she regained consciousness and screamed. He confirmed returning the next day to “savour the effect” and listen to the public’s horror, deriving pleasure from it.
• Gertrud Schulte (August 25, 1929): Attacked the day after the Flehe murders. After accompanying Kürten (as ‘Baumgart’), she resisted sexual advances, prompting him to cut her throat and stab her repeatedly (“Then you shall die!”). The dagger blade broke off in her lumbar vertebra, providing crucial evidence linking the weapon to a Solingen manufacturer. Kürten confirmed the attack, the broken dagger, and watching from nearby as she was rescued.
• Hammer Attacks (Autumn 1929): After the dagger broke, Kürten switched to a hammer. Victims included Ida Reuter (Sept 29, found dead) and Elisabeth Dörrier (Oct 12, died later), both killed with multiple blows from a square-faced hammer (approx. 20-27mm face), sexually assaulted, and dragged from the initial attack site. Frau Meurer (Oct 25) and Frau Wanders (Oct 25) survived similar hammer attacks. Kürten confirmed these attacks, detailing how he bludgeoned Reuter and Dörrier, assaulted them (claiming ejaculation occurred during the hammer blows, not necessarily coitus), and dragged them. He also confirmed attacking Meurer and Wanders, noting the hammer handle broke during the latter assault. The hammerhead was later found based on his directions.
• Gertrud Albermann (5 years old, Nov 7, 1929): Found two days after disappearing. Throttled, stabbed 34 times in the chest, plus head wounds. Vagina and anus were torn. Kürten confessed to strangling her, stabbing her repeatedly while penetrating her vaginally (achieving ejaculation during the stabbing), and leaving the body. He sent the “murder letter” revealing the body’s location to a newspaper.
• Maria Hahn (Disappeared Aug 11, 1929): Her buried body was found Nov 15, 1929, based on information in Kürten’s Albermann letter and a previous anonymous tip with a map. Autopsy showed multiple stab wounds (temple, neck, chest), including heart penetration. The anus was notably dilated with debris, suggesting anal assault. Kürten confessed in detail: meeting Hahn, having consensual intercourse, then deciding to kill her. He strangled her repeatedly, stabbed her throat (drinking the gushing blood, which induced ejaculation), stabbed her chest, let the body roll into a ditch, and returned the next day to bury it meticulously. He described caressing the body during burial and experiencing another orgasm.

Kürten’s Psychology: Sadism, Confession, and Motivation

Berg’s analysis, informed by extensive interviews where Kürten eventually dropped his pretense, paints a portrait dominated by profound sadism.

• Sexual Sadism as Primary Driver: Kürten explicitly stated his sexual urge was immense, particularly stimulated by the crimes themselves. Orgasm was frequently achieved not through normal intercourse, but through the act of violence – throttling, stabbing, seeing/hearing/drinking blood, or witnessing fire/panic. Normal intercourse often required violent fantasies or acts to achieve potency. He differentiated between orgasm with and without erection, finding the latter “nicer”.
• Development of Sadism: Kürten traced his urges back to childhood: witnessing animal cruelty by a dog-catcher, being taught bestiality, progressing to stabbing sheep during bestial acts (associating blood/wounding with orgasm around age 13-14), strangling a squirrel (inducing orgasm), fascination with slaughter, and deriving pleasure from fires. Prison fantasies of wounding and killing became his primary means of sexual release during long incarcerations.
• Vampirism/Blood: The sight, sound, and taste of blood were peak stimuli. He confessed to drinking blood from Scheer, Ohliger, and Hahn, and licking it from Schulte’s hands. He even cut a swan’s throat and drank from the stump, achieving orgasm. He morbidly asked Berg if he would hear his own blood gush after decapitation, calling it the “pleasure of all pleasures”.
• Throttling: Used frequently, both as a primary method for orgasm and a prelude to other violence. He described his technique and noted victims often remained conscious longer than expected. Berg meticulously analyzed the forensic evidence (or lack thereof) from throttling across numerous cases.
• Arson: Also sexually stimulating, linked to the excitement, screams, and visual spectacle. Multiple arsons in one night often occurred if earlier fires failed to provide sufficient “commotion” for ejaculation.
• Motivation & Confession: Kürten initially told police his motive was revenge against society for unjust imprisonment. He later admitted to Berg this was partly adopted from reading Lombroso and suggestions during questioning, although the sense of injustice was a genuine, recurring theme. His primary driver was the sadistic sexual urge. His detailed confession was driven partly by a desire to secure the reward money for his wife, and partly by vanity and the enjoyment of shocking his interrogators. He enjoyed recounting his crimes, finding it sexually gratifying.
• Psychopathy & Personality: Berg concluded Kürten was not legally insane (under Paragraph 51) but a psychopath with deep-seated character deficiencies and abnormal urges, likely rooted in heredity (alcoholic/violent father/grandfather) and his traumatic upbringing. He possessed remarkable cunning, memory, presence of mind, and a capacity for dissimulation, maintaining a respectable facade. He was vain, capable of brutal frankness, and often hid emotions behind irony. He lacked genuine remorse, though expressed pity for victims later and abhorred his actions when “sobered up”. He grappled with concepts of free will and responsibility.

Conclusion: A Unique Case Study

Berg ultimately views Kürten not as fundamentally different from other sadists in kind, but unparalleled in the quantity and variety of his pathological expressions. His ability to switch methods (stabbing, throttling, arson, hammer blows), driven partly by a desire to confuse investigators, set him apart. Berg stresses that despite the monstrous acts, Kürten possessed intelligence, sound judgment (outside his compulsions), and could appear disarmingly normal – a chilling reminder that extreme pathology doesn’t always present as overt madness. His case remains a cornerstone in the study of sexual sadism and criminal psychopathy.

“After my head has been chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood gushing from the stump of my neck? That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.”

Peter Kurten before beheading….

Bibliography

Berg, Karl. The Sadist. Translated by Olga Illner and George Godwin, Elektron Ebooks, 2013. (Primary source for this analysis)