Schmidt began masturbating at the age of eight or nine, gradually developing more specific and definitively sexual practices such as self-covering in feces, defecating into bras and wearing soiled underwear backwards.
[1] As a teenager, Schmidt neglected school work, social events and other activities to find time to collect more clothes.
[5][6][7] In 1985, Schmidt applied for a ten-year tenure in the Volkspolizei in Potsdam, reaching the rank of Unteroffizier, and switched from train supervisor to police duty in the 20th unit of Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft.
[5] In late April 1989, the precinct terminated Schmidt alongside three other officers for hosting a private neo-Nazi meeting that celebrated Adolf Hitler's 100th birthday.
[8] Schmidt frequently showed up drunk to jobs, stole items from workplaces, got into physical fights with colleagues and once willfully damaged the apartment of a girlfriend and her family while intoxicated.
A large shoe print, size 49 EU, was found at the scene, with the sole imprint identified as that of a NVA-issue boot, worn by soldiers and certain VoPo officers.
Schmidt tied up and gagged Petrowskaja with two pieces of underwear before killing Stanislaw by crushing the baby's skull against a tree stump.
Schmidt had attempted to beat Weber to death with a wooden pole, but the victim was found by construction workers and survived with heavy injuries.
[13] In July 1991, Schmidt was illegally camping in a forest near Schmerzke, publicly masturbating near a tent while wearing a bra over a shirt.
[5][13] Mike Klein was initially denied the 20,000 DM reward for finding Schmidt, as police claimed that tips from other civilian sources would have led to the arrest anyway.
Chief prosecutor Marianna Böhm called Klein and Siegel "bounty hunters", dismissing their actions as purely financially motivated and disruptive to the police investigation.
[1] On 1 December 1992, Schmidt was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment at Brandenburg-Görden Prison, followed by indefinite detention in a psychiatric hospital[3] in Brandenburg an der Havel.
[10][17] Forensic psychiatrist Wilfried Rasch [de] had argued in favor of a punishment with involuntary commitment after diagnosing Schmidt as having a "sexual-pathological development [...] with paraphilic, coprophilic, transvestite, and sadistic elements", resulting in diminished responsibility.
Gerhard Mauz criticized press coverage for dehumanizing Schmidt as "a spawn of Hell", finding the response excessive, even for the magnitude of the crimes, as this affected related persons such as Schmidt's fiancée, who had an abortion before the trial due "public pressure" following an open campaign entitled "Abort the child of the Pink Giant" by a Springer newspaper.
Press footage from 1997 showed Schmidt had received access to women's clothing and make-up and was allowed to decorate the cell with plushed animals and magazine cut-outs.
Further privileges for day trips into Brandenburg an der Havel were briefly granted following "first steps forwards" during therapy, but revoked after media published CCTV images of Schmidt buying pornographic magazines at a gas station.