Murder is not barred. And so on the fourth day of the trial Sylvia D. enters hall A 215 of the district court of Hanau, flanked by her two lawyers, and smiles in the round.
She denies that on August 17, 1988, she tied the then four-year-old Jan in a burlap sack to kill him. The boy smothered in vomited gruel while sleeping, she says. This is also the case in the then investigation report.
But even more than 30 years later, there are still doubts about the circumstances of death. In the fall of 2014, the Frankfurter Rundschau publicized the possible crime, now Sylvia D. is charged with murder. A woman who has for decades propagated her special relationship with God, proclaiming his messages and writing books about them. She is said to have lived, worked, and ruled with a further 30 people in a sect-like community in Hanau.
An ex-pastor, called to higher
In court, the life circumstances of this grouping are of interest on this trial day: Jan died in the house of Sylvia D. and her now deceased husband Walter. He was once a pastor of the United Methodist Church until he left the church because he felt called to higher things. The boy had moved in 1988 with his parents temporarily with the family D. Sylvia D. is said to have regarded the child as a "reincarnation of Hitler", obsessed with evil.
It was Walter D. who found the dead child in the bathroom on that summer's day, trying to reanimate it. He acted intuitively, says Jan's mother in court. She is convinced of the accidental death of her son. "Nobody expected that," she says. On every day of the trial, she had to sit in the witness stand so far, the process participants have many questions for the 58-year-old.
Sexual-erotic energy
Attorney General Dominik Mies is on this trial to so-called energy times, which belonged to the life of the group. The defense had requested that the public be excluded from questions on this subject; The Chamber, chaired by Peter Graßmück, rejects the motion.
The mother now explains inconveniently what was happening with the energy times: According to the whole group there is a positive and a negative side of God, every man strengthens the side he lives, she says in a firm voice. The positive side is of course the better and you can strengthen it - through sexual-erotic energy.
"Mr. D. did not always feel like it"
This is by no means meant "the sexually filthy or abusive," the witness emphasizes. And: "Everything was always voluntary! No one was forced!"
As the Attorney General comes to a close, the witness becomes even clearer. It turns out that the couple D. set the energy times within the sect-like unit, told the members corresponding times and also with whom they were to live: with Walter D.
Attorney Mies: Did people resist?
Jan's mother: no. If there was any doubt, it was openly talked about.
Attorney Mies: How did you deal with concerns?
Jan's mother: It was about time logistics. We have deliberately decided to help.
Attorney Mies: Was there also objections like "I have time, but I do not feel like it"?
Jan's mother: What's that motive?
Attorney Mies: That's quite an important motive for me.
Jane's mother: But if you have the attitude that you are doing this for God, not.
The woman is upset. She had hoped that the public would be excluded from this intimate topic. Almost defiantly, she now adds: "Mr. D. did not always feel like it, he did it because it was necessary."
Walter D. seems to have shown much commitment to the positive side of God, as evidenced by a letter read by the chairman: According to this, on some days he agreed energy times at 10.30, 11.00, 18.00, 20.30, 22.00 and 0.30 to achieve "goals and returns".
On behalf of the Creator
The defendant Sylvia D. shows no emotion.
She had suffered a lot, had experienced so much resistance, says the mother of Jan. From an early age, Sylvia D. received the clear mandate from God: "I, the creator, the old man, commission you to show people that There are two sides that work in each. "
On the coming trial days, other former members of the group will be brought to court as witnesses, including the child and adopted children of the defendants. They are now supposed to have a very different perspective on life alongside Sylvia D.