THE ROSENHEIM POLTERGEIST

The Rosenheim Poltergeist remains one of the most famous—and controversial—paranormal cases in history. It didn't happen in a spooky Victorian mansion, but in a mundane law office in Bavaria, West Germany, between 1967 and 1968.

What makes this case unique is that it wasn't just reported by "believers"; it was investigated by physicists, police, and the German Post Office.

The Strange Occurrences

The "haunting" centered around the law firm of Sigmund Adam. It started with minor technical glitches but quickly escalated into physical chaos:

• Electrical Anomalies: Light bulbs would explode, fluorescent tubes unscrewed themselves, and power surges were recorded even when the main breakers were pulled.
• Phone Harassment: The office received hundreds of calls to the "speaking clock" (119) every minute, far faster than a human could physically dial.
• Physical Movement: Heavy filing cabinets were seen sliding across the floor, and paintings reportedly rotated 180 degrees on the walls.
• Liquid Manifestations: Ink was reportedly thrown across the room by unseen forces.

Source: Wikipedia

The Focus: Anne-Marie Schaberl

Investigators quickly noticed a pattern: the phenomena only occurred when the firm’s 19-year-old secretary, Anne-Marie Schaberl, was present.

Hans Bender, a famous parapsychologist from the University of Freiburg, concluded this was a case of Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK). The theory was that Anne-Marie’s extreme personal stress and repressed emotions were being "vented" as physical energy, causing the objects to move.

Skepticism and the "Aftermath"

While the case is often cited by paranormal researchers as "proven" due to the involvement of the police and physicists (who couldn't find evidence of fraud at the time), skeptics have raised several red flags:

The Claim	The Skeptical Counter-View
Tamper-proof meters recorded surges.	Skeptics argue the equipment used was not designed to detect deliberate manual interference.
Objects moved in plain sight.	Some witnesses later admitted they only saw the result of the movement, not the movement itself.
Anne-Marie was a "medium."	After she left the firm, she was caught in at least one instance of faking a "poltergeist" effect using hidden nylon threads.

The Conclusion

Once Anne-Marie left the law firm to take a different job, the activity stopped immediately. She eventually married and lived a quiet life, never again experiencing the "poltergeist" effects. Whether it was a genuine case of mind-over-matter or a very clever teenager playing a prank on a high-stress workplace remains a subject of heated debate.

Reference:

1. Strange & Twisted: The Rosenheim Poltergeist Explained.
2. Manchester Metropolitan University: Eight Things you need to know about Poltergeist - just in time for Halloween.

Google Gemini AI

16/2/2026: 9.37 a.m