The story of “Dragon Lord” Rainer Winkler is a mutual tragedy in countless acts. One of them expired today in the district court of Nuremberg-Fürth and ended with a suspended sentence.
When the public gathers in front of a courthouse in the middle of the night, something important usually happens. At the Nuremberg-Fürth district court, the German judiciary gave a group of people what they had been working towards for years: The dragon lord, bourgeois Rainer Winkler, was again on trial – it was imprisonment or freedom. Years of mutual provocations between him and his “haters” culminated again in a judge’s decision.
The dragon lord was in court again because years ago two uninvited guests at his house had irritated him so much that he struck with a flashlight and was reported for it. In October 2021, a court ruled that Winkler had to go to prison for two years for assault and other crimes. Both he and the prosecutor appealed against this. Winkler pleaded self-defense, the public prosecutor’s office was not satisfied with the sentence.
The judgment
In the plea before the verdict, Winkler’s lawyer said Information from T-Online journalist Lars Wienand, who attended the process: “Anyone who takes part in the dragon game (that’s how the systematic humiliation of Rainer Winkler is called by participants, editor’s note) and knows what the general conditions are like on the field and that Mr. Winkler also freaks out at some point, he is not worthy of protection. They knew, now there’s a beating, that was an act of consent.” The prosecutor saw it differently. According to Wienand, she continued to ask for a prison sentence – this time two years and three months. So actually less than in October. At that time they asked for two and a half years.
In her speech, she referred to the psychiatric report, which had previously been read in camera. In it, Winkler was attested to have a significantly reduced ability to control. Basically, this means that Rainer Winkler is able to distinguish right from wrong, but cannot control his actions accordingly.
After a 12-hour trial, the verdict came: Judge Axel Dunavs sentenced Winkler to one year’s probation. In his closing words, the dragon lord promised to change his life. It remained unclear whether he also meant the publication of videos.
That’s how the process went
The process was similar to that in October 2021. In the middle of the night, the first onlookers lined up at the courthouse, wanting to secure a seat in the hall. Those who didn’t make it waited outside the door until they were sent off later, making March 23rd a real holiday. A private amateur live stream about the process said: “What a wonderful day” or “That’s something very special”.
But then one of the most important witnesses caused a stir, namely the person who had injured Winkler with the flashlight. According to his own statements, he had already consumed alcohol before the trial began, apparently too much. Later, around noon, the police then issued a dismissal for the visitors in front of the court, since the “party” got the upper hand from the point of view of the officials – the said witness rioted and was driven from the yard in an emergency vehicle. The police later explained that the witness had been found to have a blood alcohol level of 1.76. The judge said that was factored into the assessment of his statements.
The behavior of the process visitors will not have come as a surprise to Winkler – that’s how it went for years in front of his own house.
The dragon drama began years ago
It all started in 2014 at the latest with a video: “Dragon Lord” Rainer Winkler responded to insults on the Internet with an invitation: “Come to me,” he shouted, threatened violence and publicly announced his address. What followed next, no one could have guessed. People followed his call again and again and spurred each other on to humiliate the dragon lord as creatively as possible and ultimately to lure him out of his “Drachenschanze”, the parents’ house in Altschauerberg, which has since been demolished. The Dragon Lord rose again and again to the provocations, yelled from the house, came to the property line and reliably delivered what was ordered. He became violent several times, damaged cars and property.
The “Haider”, as his pursuers are called, shared the videos of the actions in social networks or specially set up chat groups. Over the years, this led to increasingly blatant assaults, insults and damage on both sides. At the end, shortly before it was demolished a week ago, the tranquil family home was barely recognizable. There were no more intact disks.
The village experienced a sad high point in the “Dragon Game” in 2018, when between 600 and 800 people gathered for the “Schanzenfest” and besieged his house. Altschauerberg itself has around 40 residents – a visitor-resident ratio that is otherwise more familiar from Wacken in northern Germany at the annual metal festival.
At the end of the day, the police issued over 300 evictions and called for help, so that even 20 special forces left the DFB Cup game in Fürth and drove to Altschauerberg. This did not change the situation. The perfidious game continued uninterrupted, the uninvited guests kept irritating the dragon lord to the extreme, wanting him to stop posting videos on the internet. He continued to get involved and never tried to end the dispute at least unilaterally.
His financial dependence on the income from his Internet activities played no role for the people, after all he “should have looked for work”. The videos continued, the dragon lord could not be helped, continued to climb on his “haters” and stoked the fire.
For many people it became a real life task to want to determine the future of Rainer Winkler. Get off the internet, get to work. The measures were secondary, in the eyes of the “Haider” Rainer Winkler had to blame himself for everything.
Ultimately, it was this apparently hopeless constant stress that made Winkler completely blind to the extent of his actions and caused him to fight. And so in 2019 he injured a person with a flashlight who had previously insulted his late father in the worst possible way. The goal was achieved, finally they could sue him and put him “in jail”. The project only just failed.
After today’s court hearing, it cannot be assumed that the “Dragon Game” will end. Rather, the “Haider” are preparing for another chapter of the so-called “scavenger hunt”. By that you mean the Republic’s pursuit of the Dragon Lord currently living in his car.
source: T-Online