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Authors: Scott Andrew Selby
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transcript of his findings. He observed signs of asphyxiation, including hemorrhaging marks in the eyes. He did a thorough check of Mrs. Ditter’s fingers, hands, arms, and legs and found no signs of defensive wounds. This lack of defensive wounds, in an attack that involved a knife, suggested that the victim knew her killer. The totality of evidence suggested to Dr. Weimann that Mrs. Ditter invited her attacker into her home and he then strangled her with his hands before he attacked her with a knife. So that by the time the knife was part of the attack, she was not able to defend herself.
Given the lack of defensive wounds, the Kripo had someone they very much wanted to question. Then, as now, the first suspect when a woman was murdered was often her husband. He was in the German army, which had him stationed in Potsdam at the time of the murder. The distance between there and Berlin was only about thirty miles, but the husband was not free to come and go from his barracks.
The police worked very fast to locate him, however, and find out precisely where he had been during this crime. They arrived at Arthur Ditter’s barracks just hours after his wife’s body was discovered. The police were locking him into a timeline and a history of his relationship with his wife before her body was even cold.
The police interrogated him and then typed up a very detailed five-page statement with all the information that he had provided them about his now deceased wife, Gerda, and his whereabouts for all times between when she was last seen alive and when her body was discovered by Konrad Braun. Arthur Ditter signed this document, as did Kripo Detective Zach.
Mr. Ditter gave the police his work and educational history in addition to background on his relationship with his wife. They’d met as kids at school, and their mothers in turn had also been school friends. When Gertrude turned sixteen, their relationship became a romantic one. Gertrude’s mother did not approve of this relationship, as she wanted her daughter to marry a government official and believed that Arthur’s prospects in life were not great. A big part of this, according to Arthur’s mother, was that Arthur was not a German citizen.
The complicated change in control of territory in Europe in the early twentieth century resulted in Arthur’s father being considered a Czech citizen. This was a huge problem for Gertrude’s mother.
Arthur’s mother, confusingly named Gertrud Ditter, the same name as his deceased wife except without the “e” at the end of her first name, explained this citizenship issue to the Kripo detectives: “Because my husband was born an Austrian; his home town fell in 1919 to the former Czechoslovakia and, through this, my husband became a Czech citizen. Gerda’s mother did not want her daughter to marry a Czech man. My husband and I wrote to the Führer that he was born German and, therewith, Arthur became a citizen.” 5
By the Führer, she meant Adolf Hitler. Presumably someone in his office handled this matter and it never rose to Hitler’s personal attention. Many Germans wrote to Hitler personally, expecting that he could handle matters for them. In this case, it worked.
The young couple married in November 1938 and had two children, a daughter named Helga and a son named Wolfgang. When Ogorzow murdered Mrs. Ditter, Helga was around four months old and Wolfgang was a bit over a year and a half old.
Mr. and Mrs. Ditter had purchased their garden house in Kolonie Gutland II for one hundred and fifty reichsmarks. The associated fees for this place, what Germans call rent and Americans call maintenance fees, were sixteen reichsmarks a year. This was very little money—Mr. Ditter made much more than this in a single week.
As Mr. Ditter explained, it was his wife’s decision to continue to live in this garden house: “I gave my wages almost exclusively to my wife so that she could keep herself busy. I kept almost nothing for
Given the lack of defensive wounds, the Kripo had someone they very much wanted to question. Then, as now, the first suspect when a woman was murdered was often her husband. He was in the German army, which had him stationed in Potsdam at the time of the murder. The distance between there and Berlin was only about thirty miles, but the husband was not free to come and go from his barracks.
The police worked very fast to locate him, however, and find out precisely where he had been during this crime. They arrived at Arthur Ditter’s barracks just hours after his wife’s body was discovered. The police were locking him into a timeline and a history of his relationship with his wife before her body was even cold.
The police interrogated him and then typed up a very detailed five-page statement with all the information that he had provided them about his now deceased wife, Gerda, and his whereabouts for all times between when she was last seen alive and when her body was discovered by Konrad Braun. Arthur Ditter signed this document, as did Kripo Detective Zach.
Mr. Ditter gave the police his work and educational history in addition to background on his relationship with his wife. They’d met as kids at school, and their mothers in turn had also been school friends. When Gertrude turned sixteen, their relationship became a romantic one. Gertrude’s mother did not approve of this relationship, as she wanted her daughter to marry a government official and believed that Arthur’s prospects in life were not great. A big part of this, according to Arthur’s mother, was that Arthur was not a German citizen.
The complicated change in control of territory in Europe in the early twentieth century resulted in Arthur’s father being considered a Czech citizen. This was a huge problem for Gertrude’s mother.
Arthur’s mother, confusingly named Gertrud Ditter, the same name as his deceased wife except without the “e” at the end of her first name, explained this citizenship issue to the Kripo detectives: “Because my husband was born an Austrian; his home town fell in 1919 to the former Czechoslovakia and, through this, my husband became a Czech citizen. Gerda’s mother did not want her daughter to marry a Czech man. My husband and I wrote to the Führer that he was born German and, therewith, Arthur became a citizen.” 5
By the Führer, she meant Adolf Hitler. Presumably someone in his office handled this matter and it never rose to Hitler’s personal attention. Many Germans wrote to Hitler personally, expecting that he could handle matters for them. In this case, it worked.
The young couple married in November 1938 and had two children, a daughter named Helga and a son named Wolfgang. When Ogorzow murdered Mrs. Ditter, Helga was around four months old and Wolfgang was a bit over a year and a half old.
Mr. and Mrs. Ditter had purchased their garden house in Kolonie Gutland II for one hundred and fifty reichsmarks. The associated fees for this place, what Germans call rent and Americans call maintenance fees, were sixteen reichsmarks a year. This was very little money—Mr. Ditter made much more than this in a single week.
As Mr. Ditter explained, it was his wife’s decision to continue to live in this garden house: “I gave my wages almost exclusively to my wife so that she could keep herself busy. I kept almost nothing for
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