The Tragic Story Of Marianne Bachmeier And The Murder Of Her Daughter

Marianne Bachmeier was born in Sarstedt in 1950. According to Spiegel, her father was a former member of the Waffen-SS who had, after World War II, become a harsh and often drunk authority figure at home. Her parents later divorced, but Marianne's relationship with her mother and stepfather was also troubled. She first became pregnant at 16, which got her thrown out of her stepfather's home, and again at 18 (per The Bulletin, via Trove). While still pregnant with her second child, Marianne was raped, a crime for which she was able to win some justice when she ignored her rapist's threats and reported him to the police. Anna was Marianne's third and last child — after her birth, the young mother had a tubal ligation.

Marianne had put her first two children up for adoption and had considered doing the same with Anna. Her lifestyle wasn't a conventional mother's. Anna's father, Christian Berthold, was a hippie with a successful pub. He and Marianne maintained a tumultuous relationship full of affairs, one-night stands, and, for Marianne, another episode of rape from a former lover. She was coerced into marrying one of Berthold's chefs who faced deportation otherwise, and she became a popular hostess at the pub and at the bar they opened afterward. Her long hours affected Anna, otherwise a happy child. In fact, her sleep and school attendance had been so affected that Marianne was considering putting her in the care of a doctor friend.