Two Queens True Crime

Maria Baumgartner, Portrait of a Maid.

Part of The Hinterkaifeck Murders Series.

Maria was born on 2nd October 1876 in Kuhbach near Aichach, to Joseph and Maria Baumgartner. She was one of six children, growing up with her five siblings, Franziska, Narziss, Josef, Balbina and Brigitta. Maria would live in her parents’ house until 1904 when her Mother passed away, her Father having died a few years previous in 1888. Following their Mother’s death, the older sister, Balbina, continued on in the property and, from available records, it seems that Maria stayed with her.

During the later investigation into hers, and the other residents of Hinterkaifeck’s, deaths, Maria’s relatives and acquaintances were questioned about her demeanour and lifestyle. All spoke of Maria as being ‘mentally retarded’ (a phrase that is thankfully, and rightfully, no longer acceptable) and said she showed no interest in men or marriage. To them, at least, the young woman seemed perfectly content to stay in the family home, attend church and go about her chores. It was also mentioned that had a shortened foot which caused her to walk with a limp.

Sadly, Balbina was killed during the war (the date merely says between 1914 and 1918) and, with none of the other siblings wanting to keep the property going, the family home was put up for sale. This unfortunately left Maria technically homeless but a lifeline would be thrown when the property was bought by another relative, Franziska Birner, who appears to be possibly her Aunt.

With her accommodations now not guaranteed, Maria began to take work as a maid, often with her wages being solely clothes and food rather than money (a common practice at this time). This kept her somewhat trapped and reliant on her Aunt (?), with no savings and no way to pay for her own accommodation.

Side note; I’m not sure what happened to Maria’s share of the property sale, it is not mentioned in the few statements that remain. We can only hope that perhaps it was too little after duties for it to make a difference and not that her family took advantage of her.

Up until 3rd February 1922 she was in the employ of a farmer (or carpenter, it is unclear in translation) named Huber, Maria would then leave and move to Unterwittelsbach to work for an elderly woman there. Sadly for Maria, the Mayor of the town did not want a ‘cripple person’ within his community and her job there was terminated. Whilst we look upon this event with shock and disgust this man (?), at the time, would not be viewed with the contempt we feel today. It was very common for people who were not seen to be ‘normal’ to struggle in supporting themselves, being frequently turned away from any employment that they sought. (something that our global society today is still pushing back against).

Forced to return to her parent’s old house in Kuhbach, Maria decided to pay a visit to her sister Franziska in Muhlried. There she spoke about her frustrations with no longer having a real home and expressed her desire for a job that would pay her actual money. Franziska promised her sister that she would help and contacted an agent named Julia Rockesmuller (Roggesmuller). Julia quickly found what she believed to be a suitable posting, an isolated farmstead in Hinterkaifeck that had been seeking a new maid. She reached out to its owner, Viktoria Gabriel, and passed on Maria’s details.

Deciding that Maria could well be what she was looking for, Viktoria visited Franziska on 30th March 1922 hoping to meet with the potential new maid. Unfortunately Maria wasn’t there when she arrived, so the two women agreed that she [Maria] would come to the farm the next day so that they could be sure that both parties were happy with the employment and make the final arrangements if so.

Maria and Franziska would arrive at Hintekaifeck at around 5pm on 31st March 1922, the journey taking a little longer than it should as they got lost. After spending an hour at the farm, Maria’s employment was agreed upon and Franziska left, stating later that she saw nor experienced anything to make her feel uneasy regarding her sisters wellbeing.

sidenote: Franziska did mention in one of her statements that the isolation and the loneliness of the farmstead was palpable, but her sister seemed happy to stay, if a little nervous. There were also rumours that Franziska had mentioned to several people about seeing a figure on top of the roof of the farm as she was leaving, when questioned about this by the authorities she denied it, saying people were making up stories because of the nature of the murders and the ‘hype’ surrounding the case.

This would be the last time Franziska saw Maria alive, sadly she would return to Hinterkaifeck just four days later to identify her body.

Franziska, as far as we and the authorities know, was the last to see any of the residents alive (excepting the murderer). After she left no one can be absolutely sure what happened at the farmstead that evening. It seems that dinner had been eaten and at least three of the residents were in bed, including two year old Josef, when the attack began. Investigators believe that Maria was the second to last (fifth) victim to be killed, just four to five hours after her arrival at the farm. When her body was found she was still dressed, including her shoes, and her bag wasn’t yet unpacked. Maria seemingly had fallen forward next to her bed and the blankets had been pulled down on top of her, it is surmised that she had been turning down the bedcovers when she was struck from behind.

Authorities did look into Maria’s background and took an interest in her two brothers, leading to some theories that it was her who somehow brought the murderer to Hinterkaifeck but most agree that, tragically, she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either a perpetrator who had been planning the murders was not expecting to find a sixth person in the house or Maria simply got caught up in a spontaneous attack.

Along with the other victim’s, Maria’s skull was removed during the autopsy and sent to the Pathological Institute of the University of Munich in hopes that the experts could provide more answers. When this proved fruitless the skulls would find themselves in the hands of at least three clairvoyants in a desperate attempt to solve the Hinterkaifeck murders. This was in part due to the reward, which rose from 100,000 marks to 500,000 as the investigation went on.

Whilst it was always intended to reunite the skulls with the victim’s bodies, they were lost during the chaos of World War II, why they were still in circulation so many years later is unknown. Maria is buried, along with the others, in a cemetery in Waidhofen and a memorial also marks the spot where the now demolished farmhouse once stood.

Despite Maria being a victim of one of the more well-known true crimes within the community, she is rarely discussed outside of the tragic ‘wrong place, wrong time’ idiom. Upon deciding to write solely about her I quickly realised there is not too much information to be found outside of her last day and her murder. I hope one day I can add more about her life before, and about her as a person.

You can read more about the murders at Hinterkaifeck here – The Hinterkaifeck Murders

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