Manfred Genditzki was innocently imprisoned for more than 13 years because of the “bathtub murder in Rottach-Egern”. Now the process is being reopened and the 62-year-old is free. He didn’t see his children grow up, missed the birth of his grandchildren and his mother’s funeral – and now wants his acquittal.
Manfred Genditzki was in prison for 4,912 days – for a murder he may not have committed. Winning the World Cup in 2014, Donald Trump’s US presidency from 2017 to 2021, the summers of the century in 2018 and 2019 or the corona pandemic from 2020 – the 62-year-old only saw all of this behind bars.
Now he is free. The trial against Genditzki is being reopened at the Munich I district court because of new findings. At the end of the process, he could be acquitted, for which he has fought in recent years.
Judicial victims in the case of the “bathtub murder”?
On Wednesday evening, the man who may have been wrongly convicted spoke for the first time star TV about his life in freedom: “You can’t describe it in words, it’s beautiful. You can only enjoy every day there,” he says after 4912 days behind prison walls, barred cell windows and barbed wire.
He protested his innocence for 13 years and seven months – but almost nobody wanted to believe him over the years. At least not the key people in the Bavarian judiciary. Eventually he was convicted as a murderer.
On May 12, 2010, the jury found Manfred Genditzki guilty. life sentence Although the Federal Court of Justice later overturned the verdict, the new trial ended with a life sentence again. Manfred Genditzki remained in the Landsberg prison until August 12, 2022. Then the Munich I Regional Court decided to resume the proceedings and ordered Genditzki’s immediate release. A first success for the former caretaker and all those who support him.
Manfred Genditzki was convicted of the murder of 87-year-old Lieselotte K. The two lived in the same residential complex in Rottach-Egern am Tegernsee. He supported the pensioner in everyday life. When shopping, when cooking, when doing the laundry. He gave his word to her husband before his death, he says star TV: “I promised him that I would take care of her.” That’s what he said to me: ‘If I’m gone, take care of my wife.’ And then I said: ‘I’ll do that.’ And that’s what I did. And that’s what I enjoyed doing.”
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On October 28, 2008, Genditzki left Lieselotte K’s apartment at around 3:00 p.m. At 6:30 p.m., a geriatric nurse discovered the elderly woman’s body, fully clothed and lying in the bathtub – and Genditzki was targeted by the investigators. According to both convictions, he beat her during an argument and then killed her. The case made national headlines as the “Bathtub Murder in Rottach-Egern” – and Genditzki maintained his innocence. Both verdicts were highly controversial from the start, many observers had expected an acquittal and were stunned.
“There was no motive, no murder weapon, no DNA from Mr. Genditzki. In the bathroom there was only DNA from Mrs. K,” says defense attorney Regina Rick. “In the first hearing, that was bad,” Genditzki recalls. “I thought nobody was interested in the truth. The second hearing was similar, we uncovered so many things that nobody was interested.”
Retrial process is designed to bring truth to light
Regina Rick fought for resumption for years, was certain that Lieselotte K. had died in a household accident. But the lawyer was not initially successful. A retrial in Germany is subject to stringent conditions, and the court did not see them as fulfilled. It was only 13 years after the first judgment that the time had come. Two new reports indicated that the elderly woman’s death by drowning could actually have been an accident. New findings from thermodynamics and a biomechanical computer simulation should prove that it cannot have happened as previously assumed.
So an accident, not a murder? The total of 20 scheduled days of negotiations should clarify this. For Regina Rick there is no doubt: “This is one of the biggest judicial scandals in post-war history. I don’t think there are many other cases in which someone has been wrongly sentenced for 13.5 years.” At the beginning of the retrial, Rick called the actions of the judiciary “scandalous”, among other things addressing the public prosecutor’s office and an expert. After a conversation with the prosecutors, he adjusted his report and only then stated that Lieselotte K.’s death by drowning could not be the result of an accident.
Manfred Genditzki appears unbroken in court after the long period in which he may have been innocently imprisoned. The 62-year-old’s hair is gray, but his voice is firm and his mind clear. He went through an “ebb and flow of feelings” in prison – but he never wanted to do anything to himself.
His semi-detached house he built with a friend is gone. Nobody could pay the installments anymore. “Yes, that was nice, a project of mine, I did it with my heart, but I don’t have to complain, what’s gone is gone,” he says star tv If he is acquitted, he is entitled to compensation: 75 euros per day, a total of 368,400 euros. He won’t get his old life back from it.
Manfred Genditzki’s wife stood by him for 4912 days. “We also have to find ourselves again. I’m not going to talk everything in pink now, that’s not it. We’re in it, I love my wife more than anything,” he says. In prison, Genditzki not only missed the World Cup, Trump’s presidency or Corona, but also said goodbye to his deceased mother, his children growing up – and the birth of his grandchildren. “13 years and seven months, they’re just gone. You can’t catch up that quickly.”
You can watch the whole stern TV show see here on RTL+.