Between 1905 and 1913, he committed various arsons of farmhouses and several murders across the German Empire for which he earned notoriety, leading to his crime spree being referred to as The Sternickel Horror by locals.

Sternickel claimed that he was looking to buy a manor for himself, but because of an alleged short-term liquidity platform, he turned to his fiancée's father and asked for a loan of 3,000 gold marks.

After the father had asked third parties about Sternickel and received negative answers, the engagement was broken off, but August evaded criminal prosecution in this case.

Between 1905 and 1913, Sternickel evaded capture by the Kriminalpolizei, surviving by working as an agricultural worker and occasionally as a journeyman, using false identities.

[4] Since people who led a similar lifestyle to Sternickel were already viewed as a considerable security risk by authorities, comprehensive reporting and identification requirements for police surveillance systems were gradually introduced.

Despite lacking proper papers for identification, Sternickel benefitted from the fact that during the harvest season, workers were needed and employers often didn't ask questions.

[6] In October 1912, Franz Kallies, the owner of an approximately 60-acre estate near Ortwig, hired August, who was using the alias "Otto Schöne," as a farmhand.

While at a hostel in Müncheberg, Sternickel approached a group of young men (20-year-old Georg Kersten, his 18-year-old brother Willy, and 21-year-old Franz Schliewenz) and asked whether they could "do him a favour," to which they agreed.