Brigant

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A Brigand (of Italian brigare "fight, fight") is a robber , a wicked man , or a person who in the course of armed conflict the civilian population by looting , raping and pillaging terrorized. In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , the Neapolitan rebels after 1815 and the Bourbon rebels after 1861 were called briganti during the Risorgimento .

Brigands in southern Italy

Carmine Crocco (1830–1905), legendary leader of the briganti
The Brigantessa Michelina De Cesare (1841–1868)

In Italy, especially in southern Italy , u. a. In Campania , Calabria , Apulia , Abruzzo and Basilicata , the impassable mountainous terrain of ancient Lucania , the memory of the brigands is cherished until today. After the brigands mainly attacked carriages traveling through, the brigantaggio , the brigands' system , grew into a political movement from the second half of the 19th century. Politically motivated brigands had already existed in the time of the Roman Republic . Even at the time of the French Revolution , there were brigand groups who intended to use force to export the revolution to Italy.

Many gangs of brigands on the eve of Italian unification were recruited from impoverished farmers and day laborers as an anarchic protest movement against the wealthy landowners. In the course of the Italian unity movement of the Risorgimento , the Briganti around the legendary Carmine Crocco joined the movement and supported the irregulars Giuseppe Garibaldi . Disappointed by promises such as democratization and comprehensive land reform that they saw not being kept, the brigands retreated into the woods after King Victor Emmanuel II came to power and from there terrorized the landowners and the authorities in particular. Crocco, called “re dei re” (king of kings) in the people, commanded 43 gangs at times, with several thousand mostly mounted members. The circulating stories about the boldly dressed gang members and their lover, called Brigantesse , transformed the bandits into folk heroes like Robin Hood . Crocco, later imprisoned for almost forty years until his death in 1905, wrote his memoirs in prison, which are still popular in Basilicata today. Many of the brigands who escaped arrest later emigrated to the United States. Numerous songs, stories, popular books, scientific treatises and relevant Internet sites deal with the subject of the Briganti in Italy to this day ; In Italian usage, the briganti classified as politically motivated are clearly distinguished from the banditi regarded as simple robbers .

The political myth also lives on to this day: every year in Brindisi Montagna , an open-air theater takes place in a festival where hundreds of amateur actors relive the story of the brigands. In the historical theme park Grancia , scenes from the life of the Briganti are re-enacted. The famous actor Michele Placido ("Alone against the Mafia") lends his voice to the figure of Crocco .

Krapfenbäck Simale Simon Kramer (1785–1809)

Well-known brigands

Movies

  • The Black Brigant is an Italian pirate film (original title: Il segreto dello sparviero nero ) from 1961 with Lex Barker and Livio Lorenzon .
  • Briganten (Original title: Brigands, Chapitre VII ) is a Georgian-French feature film about mafia, thieves and corruption in modern Georgia by Otar Iosseliani from 1996, awarded the jury prize at the Venice Film Festival .
  • 1999: Li chiamarono… briganti! , Pasquale Squitieri - the film tells the story of what happened after the Italian unification in 1861 and was censored as soon as it was released. The film is still very difficult to obtain.
  • 1933: The Devil's Brother , with Stan Laurel (Stanlio), Oliver Hardy (Ollivero), Dennis King (Fra Diavolo / Marquis de San Marco)
  • 1942: Fra Diavolo , directed by Luigi Zampa
  • 1962: La Leggenda di Fra Diavolo , with Tony Russel (Fra Diavolo), Haya Harareet (Fiamma), Mario Adorf (Nardone)
  • 1963: Fall for Fra Diavolo ( I tramboni de Fra Diavolo ), with Ugo Tognazzi (Sergente Visicato), Raimondo Vianello (Tenente Salimei), Francisco Rabal (Fra Diavolo)

literature

  • Franco Cagnetta: Banditi di Orgosolo (= La Diversità Culturale. Vol. 1). Guaraldi, Firenze 1975 (newer: (= Bibliotheca Sarda. Vol. 84). Ilisso, Nuoro, 2002, ISBN 88-87825-46-7 . (Originally field research 1950–1954: Franco Cagnetta: Inchiesta su Orgosolo. In: Nuovi argomenti . No. 10, 1954. ZDB -ID 412355-4 In German:. .. bandits of Orgosolo Portrait of a Sardinian village .. Econ, Dusseldorf 1964; new edition, reprint of the first edition with an epilogue by Manlio Brigaglia Cooperative publishing, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-88442-012-7 ).
  • Francesco Barra: Cronache del Brigantaggio Meridionale, 1806-1815 (= Collezione Meridionale. Vol. 6, ZDB -ID 232635-8 ). Società editrice meridionale, Salerno 1981.
  • Timoteo Galanti: Dagli sciaboloni ai piccioni. Il brigantaggio politico nella Marca pontificia ascolana dal 1798 al 1865. Sant'Atto di Teramo, Edigrafital, 1990.
  • Aldo De Jaco: Briganti e piemontesi. All origini della questione meridionale. Rocco Curto Editore, Napoli 1998.
  • Aldo De Jaco: Dopo Teano. Storie d'amore e di briganti (= Mezzogiorno e Cultura Moderna. Vol. 32, ZDB -ID 416214-6 ). Lacaita, Manduria 2001.
  • Aldo De Jaco / Peter O. Chotjewitz: The brigands. From the life of southern Italian rebels. Wagenbach, Berlin 1976.
  • Giovanni Saitto: La Capitanata fra briganti e piemontesi. I primi difficili anni dell'unita (= Percorsi nella Storia. Vol. 1). Edizioni del Poggio, Poggio Imperiale 2001.
  • Francesco Maria Agnoli: Brigantaggio dossier. Viaggio tra i ribelli al borghesismo e alla modernità. Controcorrente, Napoli 2003, ISBN 88-89015-00-4 .
  • Borges José: Don Josè Borges, generale catalano e guerrigliero borbonico. Diario di guerra. , Edited by Valentino Romano. Adda, Bari 2003.
  • Giuseppe Bourelly: Il Brigantaggio dal 1860 al 1865 nelle zone militari di Melfi e Lacedonia (= Biblioteca Federiciana. Vol. 4). Osanna, Venosa (PZ) 2004, ISBN 88-8167-003-8 .
  • Borjes Josè: Con Dio e per il Re. Diario di guerra del generale legittimista in missione impossibile per salvare il Regno delle Due Sicile. Introduzione di Francesco Mario Agnoli. Controcorrente, Napoli 2005, ISBN 88-89015-33-0 .
  • Salvatore Scarpino: La guerra “cafona”. Il brigantaggio meridionale contro la Stato unitario (= Tascabili Boroli. Vol. 6). Boroli Editore, Milano 2005, ISBN 88-7493-059-3 .

Web links

Commons : Brigands in Italy  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Brigant  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations