Rosemarie Nitribitt
Rosemarie Nitribitt
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Rosemarie Nitribitt

Maria Rosalia Auguste Nitribitt (1 February 1933 – 29 October 1957), better known as Rosemarie Nitribitt, was a German luxury call girl whose violent death caused a scandal in West Germany during the Wirtschaftswunder years. The case gave rise to a novel, three movies and a musical.

On 1 November 1957, Nitribitt was found dead in her apartment in Frankfurt, Stiftstraße 36. Her death was alleged to have occurred three days earlier. Her body showed signs of strangulation and a head wound. Heinz Pohlmann, a businessman and friend of Nitribitt's, became the prime suspect. He had visited her on 29 October. A few days after the murder, Pohlmann was able to settle high debts and bought an expensive car, but could not explain the origins of the money; he provided contradictory information during questioning. He had embezzled money at his job. Pohlmann was charged with Nitribitt's murder but acquitted in July 1960 on grounds of reasonable doubt.

Born in Düsseldorf, Rhine Province, Prussia, "Rosemarie" Nitribitt and her two younger half-sisters were raised in low-income conditions by their mother in Ratingen and Düsseldorf. The girls were placed in a juvenile home and after 1939 lived with foster parents. There Nitribitt was raped at the age of 11. Still in her teenage years, she began to work as a prostitute. She was later sent to juvenile correctional homes, from where she escaped on several occasions. She then moved to Frankfurt am Main, where, after a brief interlude as a waitress and model, she took up prostitution again and was arrested at the Frankfurt railway station in 1951.

According to people who knew her at the time, Nitribitt tried hard to disguise her humble origins in order to be able to keep up conversation in polite society and to attract more sophisticated customers. For example, she started learning English and French.

One of her regular clients gave her a car—a used Opel Kapitän—as a present. Others invited her to spend a Mediterranean holiday with them. Accordingly, she became very wealthy quite quickly, a fact which she demonstrated by buying a black Mercedes-Benz 190SL (a roadster which was to be colloquially referred to as the Nitribitt-Mercedes) with red leather upholstery in 1956; she would drive around Frankfurt in the car to solicit customers. Also in 1956, she moved into a luxurious apartment at Stiftstraße 36. The police later estimated that she had earned about 80,000 DM in 1956 (building a single-family house cost about 25,000 – 30,000 DM in Germany at the time).

On 1 November 1957, she was found dead in her apartment in Frankfurt, Stiftstraße 36. Her death was alleged to have occurred three days earlier. Her body showed signs of strangulation and a head wound.

She was interred at the Nordfriedhof ("north cemetery") in Düsseldorf. Her head, however, was kept in police custody as evidence and later exhibited in the Kriminalmuseum ("criminal museum") in Frankfurt; it was eventually buried on 10 February 2008.

Police investigations into the case were conducted very sloppily, with much evidence being destroyed during the first days. Several prominent citizens were exposed as her personal acquaintances, including Gunter Sachs and her close friend and benefactor Harald von Bohlen und Halbach, brother of Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, head of Krupp industries.

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