Karl Ludwig Sand

Karl Ludwig Sand (5 October 1795 - 20 May 1820) was a German student and liberal responsible for the murder of conservative dramatist August von Kotzebue.

Murder

Sand already contemplated the murder of Kotzebue in a diary entry of 5 May 1818. He called him a "traitor to the nation" and a "deceiver of the people" and characterized him as an enemy of the German people.

On the morning of 23 March 1819 Sand, using the pseudonym Henry, visited Kotzebue in his Mannheim house. Refused entry to the house and told to return in the afternoon, Sand returned just before five o'clock. Having exchanged just a few words with Kotzebue, Sand produced a dagger and, with the words "Here, you traitor to the fatherland!", stabbed him repeatedly in the chest. Surprised by Kotzebue's four-year-old son witnessing the event from the nursery, Sand lost his wits and stabbed himself. Leaving the house, he handed a servant a piece of writing he had prepared ("Death to August von Kotzebue"), and stabbed himself again in the street. His suicide attempt failed, and he was taken to hospital.

Sand was tried for Kotzebue's murder and quickly found guilty. He was sentenced to death and beheaded by executioner Franz Wilhelm Widmann on 20 May 1820.