Why German parents kept their son at home for 30 years

German police have rescued a 43-year-old man who was reportedly held in isolation by his parents for 30 years in a village near the Bavarian town of Bayreuth.

Neighbours rarely saw the man since he stopped attending school at the age of 13.

The man has not been identified because of strict German privacy laws.


According to the police, the man looked neglected but not underfed. The police stressed that they may not press charges, BBC reported.

The man’s mother told the local media that “he didn’t want to go out”, and she had only wanted to protect him.

“We still don’t know exactly for how long the man has had no contact with the outside world and … whether or not he was allowed to leave the property at all,” a police spokesman told German media. “But we can say he was held in isolation.”

The police went to rescue the man after receiving a tip-off last month.

“We do not know exactly since when the man lived there without regular contact with the outside world, nor do we know what the situation really looked like, for example, whether or not he had the opportunity to leave the premises,” BBC quoted police spokesman Juergen Stadter to have said.

According to the evidence held by the police, the man had been able to move freely through the house, and had not been chained.

He was even unwilling to come with the emergency services when they came to collect him.

“He obviously felt well protected there,” said Mr Stadter.

The man’s 76-year-old mother told local journalists that she and her husband had never their son in. “He just didn’t want to go out” after being bullied at secondary school. The mother insisted that they had just wanted to protect him.

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