The Prosecutor demanded ten years in prison, the defense pleaded to a maximum of five years. The truth in the administration of justice was in July 1977, somewhere in between, as in the case of Ingrid van Bergen was negotiated in Munich, Germany. The acclaimed actress had shot a few months earlier, her Beloved Klaus Knaths. Once, then a second and a third Time she had pulled the trigger. For seven years, the Star got after almost five years, van Bergen has been released early for good behavior from prison. At the time, over 40 years ago, a correct judgment? Was it murder or manslaughter? Was the van in front of mountains is actually a diminished capacity, as she was recognized by the court? In a ZDF documentary on Friday evening, the history was lit again.
ZDF/Bernd Reufels Teleschau
Ingrid van Bergen, Klaus Knaths presented in the Munich Bussi-Bussi-society as the perfect Couple. Shortly before the fact, they were still together in the city, nothing hinted at what on the night of 3. February 1977 was supposed to happen. Much needs to be done in the heat of passion, but the documentary “a motive of jealousy? In the case of Ingrid van Bergen’s” points out that the Drama had quite a history.
2015 /Sascha Steinbach Teleschau
Van Bergen was twelve years older than Knaths, he left you in snide remarks, always feel. She paid most of the bills, he’s behind you probably went several times with other women. Van Bergen knew about it, explains in the Film, but also: “I loved him.” The night of the Crime she expected the charming real estate agents in your Villa in Starnberg – he came back late, again because of another woman, as van Bergen learned. There was a motive? Yes, there was.
“A large theater piece,”
But was it murder, that is, had van Bergen planned to kill her Lover? Also, this question is the True-Crime documentary is intense. The actress drank this evening. In the Film, she remembers, to have red wine from the refrigerator brought. A per Mille of alcohol reduces the judgment of the people be felt, as it explained in the film. In the case of van Bergen for the time of the crime point about two per thousand have been calculated. In addition, she took a Valium tablet to a “very bad combination”, as a coroner explained. Quite possible that you will not fall into a “large black hole” – that you know what you are doing, and afterwards not remembered.
The finding of diminished responsibility, the van Bergen spared a harsher punishment – it is confirmed 40 years later in this Film, more or less. A fundamentally new assessment of the case, there is not. But significant criticism of the media, and then reporting. “Movie star shoots Beloved” – of course that was a giant punch line. A “sensation process of the first order” it was, recalls the former ZDF-Reporter Bernhard Töpper, who was, at the time, on all five days of negotiations on the spot. The tabloid media killed the story relentlessly, wore every little Detail about van Bergen’s love life to the Public. Court reporter Gisela Friedrichsen explained, you have accused the actress of the sensation-hungry readership, “bus”: “It was pretty disgusting.”
The Situation on the dock mastered van Bergen, if you believe the portrayals of the ZDF-Reporter Töpper, nevertheless, amazing scores. There’s a large theatre had been “listed”, a “Greek tragedy”. The defendants have acted, “as if she had rehearsed the Whole”.
“I got the gun, and then … well …”
It is reconstructed in much, much retold, and much confirmed that you already knew about this case. Nevertheless, question marks and room for interpretation will remain. If there is a Thesis of the Film followed, then it is this: Van Bergen had the Plan, her Lover to kill – rather, they wanted to kill themselves.
Knaths had disappointed her that night once again bitter, on top of that, he opened up for her on the phone prior to his arrival in Starnberg, that he wanted to leave. Van Bergen wrote a farewell letter to their daughters and called Knaths’ parents – they should care about it, please, in the future, the children. The psychologist Katinka Keckeis has speculated: “Presumably, in increased in the Situation. It is a narrowing of the thinking took place. In this Situation, you wrote probably the farewell letter. Because they wanted to take his life.” The former Profiler Axel Petermann, the calculated 30 years in murder cases, speculated on the following progression: “From a thought to a possible suicide was in fact, in the process of killing Klaus Knaths, who provoked them and thus the last straw brought.”
But whether everything is really expired? Van Bergen itself is unable to eliminate the last ambiguity in this tragedy, and tells what she has told countless times. “I got the gun, and then … well.” At the end of the film, the now-89 looks-Year-old once again back on the impact of the Starnberger horror night: “My children were alone, the children of him suddenly had no father. So it has made my life terribly influenced in any direction.” At least the accuracy of this statement is beyond doubt.
*The contribution of “manslaughter-Drama 43 years ago: Wanted to Ingrid van Bergen actually kill yourself?” is published by the tele look. Contact with the executives here.
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