Johann Wilhelm Pauli (freedom fighter)

Johann Wilhelm Pauli (born May 9, 1793 in Bettenhagen ; † February 15, 1813 in Waldbröl ) called Paul von Bettenhagen was a freedom fighter in the so-called Knüppelrussen uprising , also called "Speckrussen-" or "Speckkosakenaufstand" in Oberberg .

Life

Pauli was the son of Johann Georg Pauli called "Räuberpaul" and Elisabetha Irsfeld, learned the trade of a line weaver , but also worked as a miner in the ore mines of Silberhardt, today the municipality of Windeck (Sieg) .

After Napoleon I's failed campaign in Russia, resistance arose at the beginning of 1813 as a result of new recruits in the Grand Duchy of Berg, which was under French rule .

Other unwilling recruits gathered around Pauli, who on January 24, 1813, plundered the house of the salt and tobacco retailer Schmeiß in Waldbröl in opposition to the French-imposed salt and tobacco monopoly; then they moved in the direction of Siegen to storm the sub-prefecture there. They were beaten and captured by a company of gendarmes on February 2, 1813 . Pauli was sentenced to death , and on February 15, 1813 in front of the Evangelical Church in Waldbröl shot .

Aftermath

In the sources and the later assessment it is controversial whether Pauli and his people were freedom fighters or criminal looters. After the figure of "Paul von Bettenhagen" had been recalled by the historical novels of the writer Klas Ewert Everwyn, who had grown up in Waldbröl for a time, and had become more popular in the southern part of Oberberg, the plan arose to assign a place in Waldbröl after him to name. However, this ultimately failed due to the ambiguous assessment of his person. In Pauli's home village Bettenhagen, however, there is a simple stone with a memorial plaque, which was financed and erected by the village community.

literature

Non-fiction

• Gottfried Corbach: History of Waldbröl . Scriba-Verlag, Cologne 1973, ISBN 3-921232-03-1 , pp. 94-97.

Fiction

• Klas Ewert Everwyn : For foreign emperors and no fatherland . Verlag Bücken Sulzer, Overath 2005, ISBN 3-936405-23-9 .
• Klas Ewert Everwyn: I can die anywhere. The miserable life of the stick Russian Johann Wilhelm Pauli and his heroic death in Waldbröl in 1813 . Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-7609-7020-6 .
• Klas Evert Everwyn: The Robber Paul . Arena-Verlag, Würzburg 1991, ISBN 3-401-04367-6 .
• Klas Ewert Everwyn: Once a robber, always a robber. The life of the Bergisch rebel Johann Georg Pauli, called Räuber-Paul . Verlag Bücken Sulzer, Overath 2004, ISBN 3-936405-15-8 .

Web links

• The play "A certain Paul von Bettenhagen" in Windecker Ländchen