Exactly 30 years ago

A trifle led to a massacre in the district court

Police officers guarded the Urfahr district court with guns drawn.(Bild: Christian Koller)

After thirty years, the memory is still fresh in the minds of contemporary witnesses: on March 10, 1995, a Mühlviertel man on the rampage executed five people after an insult trial at the district court in the Urfahr district of Linz. A crime that is still unprecedented in the history of Upper Austria.

"I was a young judge at the time and had just been appointed. I remember the secretary suddenly saying: 'Did you hear that, they've just announced on the radio that they've shot up the Urfahr district court'. A murdered judge, Dr. Eugen Kordik, was previously our colleague at the regional court. If you know people well, then that's a whole other dimension. It was a really bad story," recalls Walter Eichinger, Vice President of the Linz Regional Court, of the bloody March 10, 1995.

What happened back then?

"He shot off like crazy"
A lost honorary insult trial ended in a bloodbath: the amok runner Rudolf Kehrer (63) from Bad Mühllacken had fallen out hopelessly with his neighbor Ludwig Schürz (52) over a foundation stone that had allegedly been secretly moved by 20 centimetres. The latter is said to have called Kehrer a "dog bag". When Schürz was acquitted, Kehrer went completely berserk. He shouted: "What kind of justice is this?" He then went to the checkroom and pulled his pistol out of his coat. "He immediately started shooting at us like crazy," his lawyer, Maria Navarro from Linz, later told the "Krone" newspaper.

It was a moment like 9/11, like the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, where you still know exactly where you were when you heard the news.

Walter Eichinger ist der Vizepräsident des Linzer Landesgerichts

Five people killed
The bloodbath in courtroom 209 was horrific: the trial leader Eugen Kordik (36, father of two), opposing counsel Alfred Eichler (67) and neighbor Ludwig Schürz collapsed, dying from the gunshots. Attorney Navarro (30) was hit in the left leg, secretary Gerald Kocher (26) was injured in the neck and one leg.

But Kehrer had not had enough. Witness Heidemarie Schinkinger (34), a mother of four, fled with other witnesses. Kehrer chased after her and shot her in the back. A cleaner fled to the office of juvenile court judge Erwin Streinesberger (40). He tried to rush to help but was fatally shot himself. The murderer finally fled and shot himself in the head in Neulichtenberg.

After the killing spree, courts throughout Austria were equipped with security gates.(Bild: Markus Schütz)

A wreath-laying ceremony will be held in front of the district court on Monday.