Marianne heard the defense of the man who had killed her daughter. Anna, seven years old, missed classes in Lübeck on May 5, 1980, and was murdered by Klaus Grabowski, a butcher with a criminal record for sex offenses against minors. At the trial, he admitted the crime and claimed that the girl had tried to blackmail him.
On March 6, 1981, Marianne entered the courtroom armed and fired seven times; six bullets hit Grabowski, who died there. Germany was divided between those who judged her a murderer and those who saw a mother. She was sentenced to six years for homicide and illegal possession of firearms; she served three.
She lived in Nigeria and Sicily, returned ill, and died of cancer in 1996, aged 46. She was buried next to Anna.
