September 22, 1874 - Ernst August Wagner
Wagner's 1913 rampage in Mühlhausen an der Enz and Degerloch — killing his family and then nine villagers in a single night — made him one of the most significant mass murder cases in Wilhelmine Germany, and his subsequent trial helped establish an early legal and psychiatric framework for adjudicating criminal insanity in the region.
From Wikipedia
Ernst August Wagner (22 September 1874 – 27 April 1938) was a German teacher and mass murderer. On 4 September 1913, Wagner fatally stabbed his wife and four children in Degerloch. He subsequently travelled to Mühlhausen an der Enz where he fatally shot nine people and wounded eleven others, before he was beaten unconscious by intervening villagers and left for dead.
Wagner cited his fear of being exposed as a zoophiliac as the primary motive. He was the first person in Württemberg to be found not guilty by reason of insanity after several psychiatric assessments had diagnosed him with paranoia. He was brought to an asylum in Winnenthal, where Wagner wrote several plays and dramas, none of which were ever performed. He died there of tuberculosis in 1938.
The case was of immediate interest due to Wagner's troubled personal life, marked by mental illness and familial issues, which was seen as having heavily contributed to the murders.
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