Ernst August Wagner

Ernst August Wagner (22 September 1874 – 27 April 1938) was a German teacher with depression who became a mass murderer when on 4 September 1913 he killed his wife and four children by stabbing in Degerloch. He subsequently drove to Mühlhausen an der Enz where he set several fires and shot 20 people, of whom at least nine died, before he was beaten unconscious by furious villagers and left for dead.

He was the first person in Württemberg to be found not guilty by reason of insanity after several psychiatric assessments had diagnosed him with paranoia. He was brought to an asylum in Winnenthal, where he wrote several plays and dramas. He died there of tuberculosis in 1938.