The murder of the maid Maria Schwaighofer in Oberbuchen in 1899 is considered a particularly cruel violent crime. Today it has been forgotten.
Oberbuchen - Was the sometimes quoted “guade oide time” really that good? Anyone who flips through the newspapers from those years at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century will quickly be taught another: everyday life at that time was sparse and rough, the judiciary had its hands full. Such as the clarification of the particularly cruel violent crime to which the servant maid Maria Schwaighofer fell victim on March 5, 1899.
That evening in the evening at around 8 p.m., it was already dark and the maid was on her way back from Tölz to her place of work at the "Bacher" in the Linden district of Oberbuchen, where she met her murderer. The act naturally caused a sensation and horror among the population. After the fiend was caught and punished, the dramatic incident was gradually forgotten. Today hardly anyone knows about it - not even the descendants from the victim's closest family.
Maria Schwaighofer is only 19 when she meets her murderer
The Tölz courier reported exactly what happened on that evening and after that until the convict was transferred, as well as the trial before the jury before the royal district court of Munich I in October of the same year.
At this point in the Linden district of Oberbuchen, the crime occurred.
© Matthäus Krinner
Maria Schwaighofer came from Kiensee. In the hamlet belonging to Heilbrunn, her parents had made a living on the "Graber" estate. Father Jakob Schwaighofer - so it can be seen from old documents - came from the "Schneggn" farm in Oberfischbach. Her mother Anna was a born Waldherr from the "Kohlhauf" estate in Stallau.
Maria grows up with an eight year older sister. As usual at the time, she hired herself after her school days as a maid. And she was only 19 when she met Johann Kobler on the evening of March 5 on the footpath between Glaswinkl and Dürrmühle (today Weiglhof). He, in turn, is currently serving as a servant at the "Glaswinkler" farmer Josef Heufelder and is also on his way back from Tölz to his job at this unfortunate hour.
After the lust murder of the maid, the wrong man is first suspected
Why and how exactly the "lust murder" occurs can only be found out a few weeks later. After finding the horribly battered body on the morning of March 6, the day laborer Mathias Duftner from Hauserdörfl, who was employed by a local sawmill owner, was initially suspected - he had a relationship with Maria Schwaighofer, but according to a rumor she is said to have ended this love affair and thus settled it Resentment. Duftner is arrested, but is soon released due to his alibi.
Thanks to the family that appeared in the Tölz courier at the time.
© Repro: Matthäus Krinner
And now Kobler is being targeted by the investigators. There are witnesses who saw him himself and a woman at some distance on her way home on that evening. One remembers his strange behavior during the transport of the body, in which he and his employer helped. There are footprints leading from the crime scene to the Glaswinkler estate. And a house search reveals the servant's clothes stained with fresh blood; a piece of cloth is torn out of his jacket.
Kobler is arrested five days after the crime. After initial denial, he confesses to the act on March 17, under pressure from the evidence. Only on March 30, however, did he reveal that he had made an immoral request to the girl, but was rejected. He then tried to enforce his will by force, but Maria Schwaighofer made vigorous resistance. After knocking her down with the handle of his knife or tobacco jar, he thought: "Now you have to kill her or she'll show you."
The perpetrator testifies that he acted "drunk and in anger"
The then 35-year-old Kobler, who was born in Stauern, Panzing (today Gangkofen), District Office Eggenfelden, is no stranger to the law enforcement officers. He already has a criminal record for theft, embezzlement, "serious subordination violation" and "crimes against morality". The cruel "slaughter" of the maidservant is beyond imagination. He acted “drunk and in anger”, he says.
The girl's clothes were torn and torn. The report describes an initial stab in the right ventricle, which is said to have already been fatal. Another puncture cut the larynx and esophagus up to the spine and - as if that wasn't enough of the intoxication of blood - "her stomach was cut 25 centimeters long, so that the intestines came out, from which Kobler forcefully tore out a 162 centimeter long piece. “The section does not find rape before or after inflicting the injuries.
"The verdict left the accused completely calm and cold"
The arranged six-week observation in the district mental institution comes to the conclusion that the perpetrator is mentally normal. Some of the 36 witnesses interviewed describe him as hardworking but irascible. His brutal behavior is explained in connection with his great preference "for reading a lot of plays in which murder and homicide play a major role". It is not for nothing that it is said that Kobler is also known here under the name “Acting Director” - in earlier years he arranged theater performances in Wackersberg.
The date for an interrogation at the crime scene in the presence of the investigating judge from Munich is not known publicly, but somehow the news spreads and many people gather at the Tölzer Isarbrücke to see the delinquent. The two gendarmes that Kobler has with him want to avoid a riot and therefore use the ferry at Lebender's Kaffeehaus (Isarlust) on the way back to the district court prison.
The court finally sentenced the murderer "to death, three years in prison and loss of civil rights for life". The Tölz courier writes: "The verdict left the accused completely calm and cold."
The death penalty is not enforced
It fits in with the more than macabre story that shortly afterwards a short-term cellmate Koblers appears at the Glaswinkler farmer and, upon presentation of a dubious will as the supposedly "chosen heir", lets the prisoner's few belongings be handed over. When examining this dubious appearance, Kobler confirms, despite existing contradictions, that he wants to leave his things to the former fellow inmate.
Ultimately, the death penalty is not enforced, and Kobler has to be imprisoned for life. Maria Schwaighofer found her final resting place on March 8, 1899 in the Tölzer Friedhof near the Franciscan Church.
Rosi Bauer
also read
"A gruesome sight": contemporary witness remembers the last days of the war in Bad Tölz
"The betrayed Isarwinkel": 100 years ago it was about the electrification of the railway
120 years of the spa in Tölz: a new time has sprung from the source
