Maria Sandmayer (25.2.1901 Odelzhausen – 6.10.1920 Munich)

Maria Sandmayer worked as a cook at Holzen Castle near Wertingen from the fall of 1919 onwards, but soon returned to her home town after a dispute with her employer. There she saw a poster calling on people to report concealed weapons based on the disarmament law enforced by the Allies on August 7, 1920: knowing that Holzen Castle was being used as a weapons cache, she asked at the printer’s in Munich who she could report this to. The plant manager at the printing company belonged to the local militia, and he informed his comrades. On October 6, 1920, Sandmayer’s body was found tied up on a tree in Forstenrieder Park with a note branding her a traitor.

This ‘Feme’ murder was organized with the knowledge of local militia leaders Rudolf Kanzler, Hermann Kriebel and Lieutenant Otto Braun. Four members of the local militia including Hans Schweighart had kidnapped Sandmayer in a car during the night. She was probably strangled by Schweighart. Accessories to the murder included the head of the police department Ernst Pöhner and his subordinate Wilhelm Frick, presumably also the Minister of Justice Christian Roth, Ritter von Epp, and Ernst Röhm of the Reichswehr. Max Neunzert, a friend of Crown Prince Rupprecht, was also involved in the murder. Schweighart was not arrested until October 12, 1921 in Tyrol. Since State Premier Gustav von Kahr was closely linked to the local militia, the government did its utmost to sabotage the police investigation. The case was finally dropped in 1925. Schweighart was shot in 1934 as Röhm’s aide-de-camp along with many of his henchmen.