Lichtgedanken 04

Rubrik 44 Evil has had a morbid hold over the public since time immemorial. Whether it be fictional serial killers like Hannibal Lecter in the box-office hit »Silence of the Lambs« or reports about real per- petrators like Jeffrey Dahmer or Andrei Tschikatilo: »sex and crime« are a great way to sell tickets. During the early years of the Federal Republic, readers and cinema-goers were captivated by the demonic figure of serial killer Bruno Lüdke. Founder of »Spiegel«, Rudolf Augstein, wrote about Lüdke in a series of articles about the head of Germany’s Criminal Police Arthur Nebe; meanwhile, journalist and bestselling author Will Berthold laid a trail for the general public with 15 »fac- tual reports« about Lüdke. And a young actor by the name of Mario Adorf shone as Lüdke in 1957 in the award-winning film »Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam« by Robert Siodmak. The real Bruno Lüdke has been relegated to the background in all the frenzy. The coachman and labourer Bruno Lüdke was born near Berlin in 1908. In 1940, he was forcibly sterilised following the The fascination with evil Berlin coachman Bruno Lüdke was known as the »worst serial killer in criminal history« until the 1990s. Journalists created true crime stories based on artefacts from the National Socialist CID; the feature film »Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam« brought international attention to the case. A historian, a cultural scientist and a graphic designer have now reinvestigated the topic for a case study. The result is a multi-faceted visual his­ tory about racist conceptions of man and violence. How and why did the »fake news« about the alleged serial killer arise in the Third Reich and continue in the media democracy? The interdisciplinary study on construct­ ing the abnormal pleads for greater visuality in scientific depictions. BY STEPHAN LAUDIEN H I S T O R Y ruling of a Hereditary Health Court; the diagnosis stated »hereditary mental retardation«. Lüdke was arrested three years later as part of a murder inves­ tigation. During suggestive interroga- tions, he took the blame for 53 murders, mainly of women, which had been committed across the Reich since 1924. Bruno Lüdke was secretly murdered in the Viennese Institute of Criminological Medicine in mid-April, 1944. How did Bruno Lüdke become »the devil in human form«? What interests were the police and judicial system in