Hannikel

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Hannikel, 1786/87

Jakob Reinhard (* 1742 near Darmstadt ; † July 17, 1787 in Sulz am Neckar ), known as Hannikel in popular parlance and in robber circles , was one of the most feared robbers in Württemberg .

Life

Hannikel came from a family of vagabonds on his mother's side , his father was probably a tambour in a Landgräflich Hessen-Darmstadt regiment. His grandfather was the notorious "Little Konrad", who had already been executed by the wheel . At first Hannikel lived in northern Alsace and the Palatinate, mainly as a peddler or from minor thefts and raids near Pirmasens . At the beginning of the 1870s, Hannikel moved to Württemberg and became the leader of a gang that at times consisted of up to 35 members and usually attacked wealthy Jews and Protestant pastors. Some of the robberies were very violent. The gang's hiding places were in the northern Black Forest near Ebershardt , Nagold and Altensteig .

The extensive forest areas and the territorial fragmentation made southwest Germany a Dorado for robber gangs. They were able to flee "abroad" quickly and the persecutors were forced to turn around at the borders.

Hannikels raids spread fear and horror, but in some places he was also shown secret sympathy because of the skill with which he repeatedly escaped his captors, for example in French uniforms. This was u. a. the basis for the legends that entwined with Hannikel and led to the figure of "Hannikel" being found in the Swabian-Alemannic carnival.

The gruesome murder of a ducal-Württemberg grenadier on April 5, 1786 near Reutlingen was the occasion for a large-scale hunt for Hannikel and his gang, led by Sulzer Oberamtmann Jacob Georg Schäffer . 27 gang members were caught in the Hohenstaufen area. Hannikel himself and 28 other gang members were able to flee to Switzerland and were arrested in the summer by Count Rudolf von Salis-Zizers in the ruins of Neuburg near Untervaz and taken to Chur . After a short time, Hannikel managed to escape from the dungeon, later known as the Hannikel Tower, only to be arrested again a little later by the Count on the Sarganser Alp . This time Hannikel was arrested in Vaduz and was picked up personally by Schäffer in September with 28 members and taken to Sulz am Neckar .

Death and consequences for the other gang members

The Oberamtmann Schäffer led the process in which u. a. Hanß from Constance appeared as a witness for the prosecution. Hannikel and three other gang members were sentenced to death by hanging and executed on July 17, 1787 in Sulz. The rest of the gang received long or lifelong prison sentences, which they either served in the Ludwigsburg penitentiary ( Hohenasperg ?) Or on the Hohentwiel . Hannikels brother Johannes Jacobi, called Geuder, and his son Johann Carl Reinhard, called Bastardi, came to the Hohentwiel. Seven previously arrested gang members had been sitting there since September 1786. Since they had already attempted to escape in the spring of 1787, the prisoners were subjected to hard work and bullets. By 1790 three of the prisoners died, u. a. on December 30, 1788 Hannikels son. Two members of the gang had also been transferred to the Hohentwiel. In spring 1794 five of the prisoners were released into imperial military service.

literature

  • Hermann Arnold: Hannikels' band of robbers. In the Palatinate homeland. 8th vol., No. 3, 1957, ISSN  0031-6679 , pp. 101-103.
  • Adolf Collenberg: Hannikel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • OE Winstedt: Hannikel . In: Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. 3. Ser., 16, 1937, ISSN  0017-6087 , pp. 154-173.
  • Christian Friedrich Wittich: Hannikel, or the band of robbers and murderers, which were arrested in Sulz am Nekar and justified there on July 17th, 1787. A real gypsy novel pulled entirely from the criminal files. Jacob Friderich Heerbrandt, Tübingen, undated [1787], online .
  • Christian Friedrich Wittich: Hannikel. In: Heiner Boehncke, Hans Sarkowicz (Hrsg.): The German robber gangs. Approved special edition. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1999, ISBN 3-86070-767-1 , p. 109ff.
  • Lukas Hartmann : Robber life . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2012

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulli Rothfuss: Schäffer, robber catcher. The first modern criminalist in Württemberg , Silberburg-Verlag (1977), ISBN 3-87407-257-6
  2. ↑ Heiner Boehncke and Hans Sarkowicz (eds.): The German robber gangs . Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen, undated, p. 106
  3. ↑ Erich Viehöfer: The horror of his time and the admiration of all Jauner and Gypsies - Jakob Reinhard, called Hannikel , in: Schurke oder Held? Historical robbers and robber gangs , Thorbecke Verlag (1995), ISBN 3-923132-47-6
  4. ↑ Casimir Bumiller: Hohentwiel. The story of a castle between everyday fortress life and great politics . Konstanz 1990, p. 175ff., ISBN 3-7977-0208-6
  5. ↑ Diogenes

Web links

Commons : Hannikel  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Hannikel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reinhard, Jakob (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German robbers in Württemberg
DATE OF BIRTH 1742
PLACE OF BIRTH near Darmstadt
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1787
Place of death Sulz am Neckar