Fahrdorf massacre

On 20 April 1970, 44-year-old Harry Kecinski shot his wife and seven children before he turned the gun on himself. The motive for the familicide appeared to be the Schleswig-Holstein tax office, where Harry worked until he was fired on 7 April. In a farewell letter, Kecinski wrote of economic difficulties and his hopeless situation. He acted with the consent of his wife.

As of 2026, it is the deadliest familicide in post-WW2 Germany.

Victims

The victims included his wife, Lisa, and seven of their eight children. Klaus, the eldest son, was not at home at the time and was the sole survivor of the family.

Perpetrator

Harry Kecinski (c. 1926 – April 21, 1970) was a 44-year-old unemployed ex-tax collector. For most of his early life, He grew up in Hamburg. For what is cheerfully called professional life (but which in reality is a life-or-death struggle) he had nothing more than a commercial apprenticeship. When he was due to start work in 1946, no opportunities opened up for him. Until the currency reform, he was a laborer in southern Germany, then, back in Hamburg, a commercial employee, but also experienced a prolonged period of unemployment. He worked in a sugar factory, then worked at the welfare office, then went back to a factory before he finally landed a job at the Schleswig-Holstein tax office in 1963. He started at the very bottom of the tax office in Schleswig, with simple clerical work. Eventually, he was promoted to the position of senior inspector with a monthly salary of around 2,000 Deutsche Marks.

In 1949, Harry, then 23, married Lisa, the 19-year-old daughter of a farmer in the Schleswig district. They had eight children born between 1953 and 1966. In 1959, Harry Kecinski's father-in-law died, leaving behind land; The Kecinskis were able to raise 60,000 marks from this land.

In 1968, the Kecinskis received another cash payment from the ill-fated inheritance. In Autumn 1969, they moved into a new house in a housing development for families with many children in Fahrdorf near Schleswig. The house at Am Lundbarg 27 was a modest house despite its six rooms.

In March 1970, a job transfer involving Harry Kecinski fell through. His creditors contacted the tax office. Kecinski's superior demanded a full disclosure from his subordinate: an overview of the nature and extent of his debts. Kecinski refused to provide such a statement, the total of which would have exceeded 125,000 marks. He argued that he would be dismissed with this statement just as he would be without it. On April 7, 13 days before the massacre, Harry Kecinski was dismissed without notice. This followed a period of declining work performance and a failed bill of exchange in March 1970, leaving the family with only 400 Deutsche Marks monthly after debt payments.

A farewell letter left by Kecinski outlined these economic pressures as the driving force. Despite inheritance money from his father-in-law in the 1960s, the family's high consumption (including multiple cars, new furniture, and a color television) had led to unsustainable borrowing.

See also

• List of [...] in Germany