Erwin Hagedorn

Hans Erwin Hagedorn (born 30 January 1952 in Eberswalde; died 15 September 1972 in Leipzig) was an East German serial killer who murdered three young boys from 1969 until 1971.

On 31 May 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.

Forest area where the first victims were found

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 15 September 1972. His body was cremated and buried in a secret place.[1]

He was the last regular criminal executed in the German Democratic Republic, though executions for political-laden crimes continued until the abolition of the penalty in the 1980s. The last execution is believed to be that of Werner Teske in 1981.