Erwin Hagedorn

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Forest area where the first victims were found

Hans Erwin Hagedorn (born 30 January 1952 in Eberswalde; died 15 September 1972 in Leipzig) was a German child murderer.

On May 31, 1969 Hagedorn killed two nine-year-old boys in a forest in Eberswalde with a knife. The bodies were found two weeks later. Extensive investigations were commenced, with a psychological offender profile being assembled and the Ministry for State Security obtaining documents about the case of West German child murderer Jürgen Bartsch. However, first investigations were not successful.

More than two years later, on 7 October 1971, Hagedorn killed a twelve-year-old boy in the same area and in the same way he had killed his first two victims. Shortly afterwards the decisive clue came from a boy who reported to have been sexually harassed in the year before the first murders took place. Erwin Hagedorn was arrested on 12 November 1971 and immediately confessed to the murders.

In May 1972 Hagedorn was sentenced to death. An appeal for clemency was denied by Head of State Walter Ulbricht. The 20-year-old Hagedorn was executed by a single shot in the back of the neck on September 15, 1972. His body was cremated and buried in a secret place. Hagedorn was the last civilian to be executed in the German Democratic Republic and in Germany more generally.

Documentary Film

Die großen Kriminalfälle: Tod einer Bestie – Der Fall Hagedorn, 2001 (German)