Paul Töfflinger was a royal Prussian forester. He was shot in 1914 by a poacher. An article from the Ruhr Nachrichten of 1975 describes the events: May 30, 1914: Pentecost In the forester's lodge of Paul Töfflinger in Kirchhellen-Grafenwald, his wife and eight children were looking forward to the evening together with their father, who in the early evening in the "Hohe Heide" district with the Thyssen director a roebuck, because that was one of his tasks - But even that evening, the unthinkable happened: Paul Töfflinger was shot by a poacher from the ambush in the district "Hohe Heide". With "Waidmannsheil" Töfflinger said goodbye to 19 clock from Thyssen Director to a small area by the adjacent Burenbrock. But until then - about 200 m further - he did not come, because Töfflinger met two men who carried a rifle. He knew one of them as a passionate poacher. Töfflinger called her to stop and throw away the rifles. The poacher he knew obeyed this request; the other jumped back into the forest. Töfflinger arrested one. Under cover of the forest the other poacher had followed the two unnoticed and aimed at the forester. From a distance of about 150 m, the bullet hit Töfflinger in the back, which was dead immediately. A man from the Burenbrock heard the shot. He saw that two men wanted to pull the dead ranger Töfflinger into the forest. Upon his appearance, however, they left the shot-forester in the ditch and fled. The man ran to a neighbor and brought help. On a push cart, the neighbor brought his dead friend to his house and informed the family. On 31 May 1914, the suspect poacher was arrested and sent to prison. Here he hanged himself with his suspenders. The other poacher took off to England. The police were able to arrest him here, but before World War I broke out and he was interned until the end of the war. In 1919 he came to Germany, was immediately arrested by the police. In the trial he blamed the dead poacher and had to be acquitted. He was shot dead on a wall in Oberhausen during the Spartacist era. With the sympathy, as she had never experienced Kirchhellen, Töfflinger was buried in the cemetery in Grafenwald. Among the mourners was the Thyssen family.
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