What follows is a 1:24 scale model of the Hinterkaifeck farm, where the entire Gruber-Gabriel family, and their maid Maria Baumgartner, were murdered between March 31 and April 4, 1922. The case remains unsolved.
For the past several years, I’ve been studying and writing about the Hinterkaifeck case. In order to better understand the scene, I consulted floorplan sketches made by police and witnesses, the Gruber family’s probate records, and the few surviving photos of the farmhouse. However, flat images and lists have limits; they can’t give a sense of scale, of space, or tell you much about how people might move through a structure. And so, the scale model was born. I’ve found it incredibly useful in understanding not only the life of the Hinterkaifeck farm, but also its inhabitants and their daily realities.
The scale model comes from an assignment I give my art students. They’re expected to do research on a historical mystery, and recreate the scene in either 1:12 or 1:24 scale. This is based on Frances Glessner Lee’s forensic artworks/investigative tools: the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.
