On March 6, 1981, a woman named Marianne Bachmeier entered a courtroom in Lübeck, Germany, on a calm but determined morning. The events that followed would shock a country and have a lasting impact on the world for decades. With a small loaded pistol in her handbag, Marianne aimed at Klaus Grabowski, the man who is suspected of kidnapping, abusing, and killing her daughter Anna, age seven. He died on the courtroom floor after she shot him seven times in a few seconds.

Marianne was arrested right away, but she didn’t apologize. In her most broken moments, she had done what many parents might secretly wish they could do: she had exacted her own justice. Her emotional and unvarnished act provoked controversy around the world.

Marianne Bachmeier’s name continues to ring true forty years later as a representation of grief, retribution, and the morally ambiguous space between justice and vigilantism.

The beginning of Marianne’s story was difficult. Tragic events, trauma, and severe emotional scars characterized her early years. The family was plagued by the shadow of her father’s service in the Waffen-SS during the rule of Nazi Germany. Marianne experienced trauma and abuse as a young child. At sixteen, she became pregnant and placed her child for adoption. She made the same tragic choice when she became pregnant again two years later. However, everything changed when she gave birth to her daughter Anna in 1973. Marianne raised the child alone this time and kept the child.

According to all accounts, Anna was a lively, inquisitive, and intelligent young child. Marianne worked diligently to run a small pub in Lübeck, where she lived with her mother. Despite their difficult lives, the two had a strong bond. When Anna vanished on May 5, 1980, following a small argument at home, that bond was cruelly broken. She had never followed through on her plan to skip school and go to a friend’s house. Klaus Grabowski, 35, a convicted sex offender who had previously molested two young girls, lured her and kidnapped her on the way.

The neighbor, Grabowski, had a violent and manipulative past. He had voluntarily undergone chemical castration as part of his sentence for his previous crimes. However, he later underwent hormone therapy to undo the effects in an effort to return to a “normal” life. Despite his past, he had returned to the community with little fanfare and was living with his fiancée at the time of Anna’s murder. He tortured Anna and finally strangled her to death while she was imprisoned in his apartment for several hours.

He left Anna’s little body by a canal in a cardboard box. After learning of the crime, Grabowski’s fiancée informed the police, preventing him from moving and burying her later that day. That same evening, he was taken into custody at a nearby bar.

Marianne was not particularly comforted by Grabowski’s arrest. He made unsettling statements during his trial, such as the absurd claim that Anna had attempted to woo and blackmail him, which only made Marianne’s suffering worse. She was already dealing with the loss of her daughter, and now she had to listen to her child being defamed in court.

On the third day of the trial, which began that morning in March 1981, Marianne entered the courtroom carrying a pistol concealed in her purse. Just as the trial was about to start, she got up, drew the gun, and shot Grabowski seven times. He passed away right away. She was blunt and direct in her statement: “He killed my daughter. I shot him in the back instead of the face, as I had intended. I’m hoping he’s deceased. Police officers and other witnesses remembered her calling him a “pig” just after the gunfire.

She was arrested quickly. The following year, Marianne was put on trial after being initially accused of murder. She said that visions of her daughter in the courtroom had caused her to act in a trance-like state. However, investigators discovered evidence to the contrary. The accuracy of her movements and her familiarity with the gun indicated that the act had been planned. She wrote, “I did it for you, Anna,” with seven hearts—one for each year of her daughter’s life—in a handwriting sample she produced for a psychological evaluation.

The trial gained widespread media attention. She was viewed by many Germans as a tragic hero—a mother who had been pushed to the brink. Others were more critical, arguing that regardless of the crime, justice must be left to the courts. Her troubled youth, her time at the bar, and the children she had given up were all highlighted by the initially sympathetic press as they dug deeper into her past. The public’s views diverged.

Marianne was ultimately found guilty of unlawful firearm possession and premeditated manslaughter. Although she was released after only three years, she was given a six-year prison sentence. According to a nationwide survey, the public’s opinion of her punishment was divided: about one-third believed it was fair, another third believed it was too severe, and the remaining third believed it was too light.

Marianne left Germany after completing her sentence in search of a more sedate life away from the limelight. She married a German teacher after moving to Nigeria, and after their divorce, she moved to Sicily. She returned to Lübeck in the 1990s after receiving a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Even though she had made an effort to put her past behind her, her name was always in the news.

Interviews with Marianne years later showed that she was still troubled by what had transpired. She discussed the distinction between her crime and Grabowski’s in a 1994 radio interview. She spoke eloquently of the tragedy of her daughter’s passing and her conviction that Grabowski had no right to life because of his actions. She acknowledged in a different televised interview that the shooting was intentional, a calculated move to stop Grabowski from lying about Anna any longer.

Marianne passed away in Lübeck, her hometown, on September 17, 1996. Her grave was placed next to her daughter’s in the same cemetery, serving as a permanent reminder of a tragedy that altered the perception of justice in the country.

Her story still poses important questions. Was Marianne Bachmeier a grieving mother who went insane, or was she a representation of an ineffective legal system that did not defend the defenseless? In Germany and elsewhere, her story continues to divide people; some see her as a vigilante, while others see her as a martyr.

The extent of her suffering and the extent to which a distraught parent may go to seek justice are unquestionable. Marianne’s story continues to provoke thought about trauma, justice, and the brittle lines separating right and wrong, regardless of one’s agreement with her actions.