Johannes Borgener

Johann Clemens Borgener , called Polengängers Hannes (* around 1787 in Romsthal near Bad Soden-Salmünster , † March 1813 in Gießen ) was a member of the Vogelsberg robber gang . As a wandering basket maker, he was also known as dunning maker or dunning Hannes .

family

His parents were Wilhelm Borgener and Elisabetha geb. Cutter. The family wanted to emigrate to Poland, but their little money had already been used up on the outward journey, so they turned back and wandered around as beggars in the Vogelsberg area. The father died around 1800 in the open field near Schotten , "his body was delivered to the theatrum anatomicum in Giessen." The mother last stayed with relatives in the Gelnhausen area .

Johannes Borgener had the following siblings:

• Michael, called Polengängers Michel (* around 1778 allegedly Flörsbach in Hanau, † before 1819 Marienschloss prison ). Basket maker, musician, dealer in earthenware. Thief and mugger like his brother, sentenced to twenty years in prison;
• Johann Heinrich, 1813 cowherd in Usenborn ; this led a blameless life;
• Anne Marie (* 1776 Altenau im Bavarian), partner of Johann Balthasar Pfeifer, a robber sentenced to life imprisonment in 1813;
• Barbara, partner of the tinker Johann George Fischer, who was imprisoned in 1808 and 1811;
• Elisabeth, partner of Johann Leonhard Lang, an earthenware dealer; These two were sentenced to one and a half years in prison in Giessen in 1812, released from Marienschloss in November 1813 and expelled from the country.

Borgener's partner was Christine Groß, born in Wetterau , who had a son from a previous relationship, and the couple had a daughter together.

The sister Anna Marie Borgener had been arrested again and again since 1816, sentenced to penalties for begging and vagrancy and expelled from the country. Through her children from several relationships, she became the mother or grandmother of the great Borgener-Pfeiferschen crooks, also known as Polengänger, Heidanns or Weißbrodsvolk. This clan was still active in the middle of the 19th century in both Hesse and neighboring states, where the members lived exclusively from theft, fortune-telling and aggressive begging, where they appeared as a group in small villages and "threatened the fearful rural people".

Poverty and petty crime

Johannes Borgener, of whom a portrait was made in 1811, was about 1.50 meters tall and strong. He never had a permanent place of residence, never went to school, but described himself as a very good basket maker. According to his own statements in the interrogations, it was the older brother Michael who took him along to steal as a child. The parents were by no means criminal, but "vagrancy" as such was also an offense, and so Johannes and his mother were apprehended in the Vogelsberg region in 1801, imprisoned in Giessen for a few weeks and then expelled from the country.

In 1808 Johannes Borgener was imprisoned in Giessen for a few weeks because he was accused of stealing sheep. For lack of evidence, he was eventually released and expelled from the country. He left the Vogelsberg and moved to Hanau: "an orphaned, merely administered country", in which Borgener was able to develop into a "perfect robber". It was particularly important that through his partner he came into contact with the Werner and Vielmetter families, a criminal network in the Hanau area. (Christine Groß was Jakob Heinrich Vielmetter's niece , and her sister was Conrad Werner's partner.) In 1809, Johannes Borgener was first noticed in Hanau because of “nonsense with children”, from whom he took their bread with a knife held in front of him between Kilianstädten and Wachenbuchen . For this he was arrested for twenty weeks.

Serious crimes

Street robbery and murder

• April 9, 1811: Road robbery in the Büdinger Forest. The butter dealer Nagel from Waldensberg and the Bell couple from Bierstein were abused and robbed; the value of the booty was 126 guilders.
• April 17, 1811: Road robbery at the triangular stone near Hainichen, together with two members of the Werner family. The victims were two Jews, Heyum Strauss and Salomon Meyer Katz, who were mistreated. Johann Peter Altvater, who wandered with them, threw off his carrying basket with grain and fled. The booty was insignificant. On the way back, the mugger trio attacked a butter woman near the Kinzigheimer Hof and stole 40 pounds of butter, a coffee kettle and a pair of shoes from her. The heavily pregnant woman was raped by Johannes Borgener.
• Robbery near Heckenbergheim. Three butter dealers were ambushed by Borgener and the Werner brothers, one escaped, one survived with severe head injuries, and the third victim suffered several fatal head injuries. During his interrogation, Borgener stated that he had wanted to take revenge on one of the victims primarily because of an earlier insult, and that the events then escalated. Both Christine Groß and the Werner brothers gave credible assurance that Borgener proposed this robbery because he needed money and shoes; he had also taken a victim's cap.
• April 1811: Road robbery near Hirzenheim. The shepherd Zeitz had made Borgener aware that a butter dealer with a large sum of money was on his way to Hirzenheim; he himself did not want to participate in the attack because the victim knew him. So Borgener was on his own for this act. He struck down the first butter dealer on the way and took his money from him; but it was not the expected money courier.

Thefts and church robberies

Johannes Borgener had a whole series of thefts and church robberies more or less reliably proven. He also worked with Holzlips and other criminals. During the break-ins in Catholic chapels, metal (bell, organ pipes, altar equipment) was targeted. At the same time, the church interior was deliberately desecrated and devastated. Borgener stood out in particular. According to his own statements, he didn't care much about religion and really only knew that he was not a Jew.

Police investigation

Rather vague suspicions led Johannes Borgener to be included in the list of crooks created in 1810 at the instigation of Baron von Stein in Gießen.

Here is the wording of the profile issued in Burg-Gemünden : “Polengängers Johannes, a brother of the previous Michel. This guy is 20–22 years old, walks around Vogelsberg and Wetterau, at times made a donkey and made baskets, is of medium stature, has black-brown hair, blue eyes, a round pitted face and a sponge on top To bake; but whether on the right or on the left is unknown; has a big nose, wears white woolen underwear, short linen trousers, shoes with buckles and a round hat. His person [= partner] is from the Wetterau, around 26 years old, tall, has black hair, a round pale face, and a girl of almost 3 years. "

This led to a better exchange of information between the police authorities of neighboring countries, especially with the people of Hanau. More and more incriminating things became known about Borgener, whereupon he was arrested and taken to Giessen prison on September 1, 1811. The interrogation began the next day; the main inspection was completed on December 5, 1811. On August 8, 1812, the files were handed over to the grand ducal court for decision.

Borgener was mostly in a good mood, unconcerned about the future and tried to make the detention as pleasant as possible.

execution

On March 24, 1813, Johannes Borgener was sentenced to execution with the sword, along with Johann Adam Frank, the Black Boy , Conrad Anschuh , Johann Justus Dietz , Ludwig Funk and the Heidenpeter.

Case file

• HStAM inventory 98 c no. 4232: Locking of several vagabonds, including Johann Clemens Borgener, known as Polengängers Hannes (1811-1812) .

literature

• Heiner Boehncke, Hans Sarkowicz: Hesse's large robber gangs. Frankfurt / Main 1995
• Friedrich Ludwig Adolf von Grolman: Actual history of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals associated with them. Giessen 1813.
• Katrin Lange: Society and crime: robber gangs in the 18th and early 19th centuries . Frankfurt / Main et al. 1984.
• Reinhold Neeb: Robbers, crooks and vagabonds: crime in old Upper Hesse . Giessen 1987.
• Karl P. Schwencken: Records in the form of reports from the rascals and vagabond rabble, as well as from individual professional thieves, in the countries between the Rhine and the Elbe, together with a detailed description of their person. Kassel 1822.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedrich Ludwig Adolf von Grolman: Actual history of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals associated with them . S. 130 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} General German justice, camera and police mama . No. 15 , 1819, p. 60 .
3. ↑ Friedrich Ludwig Adolf von Grolman: Actual history of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals associated with them . S. 131 .
4. ↑ Karl P. Schwencken: Information in files from the crook and vagabond rabble, as well as from individual professional thieves, in the countries between the Rhine and the Elbe, together with a detailed description of their person . S. 307 .
5. ↑ General Police Gazette . Dresden September 7, 1851, p. 233 .
6. ↑ Borgener, Johannes gen. Pohlengänger, Hannes / portrait, left-facing, half-length portrait, left profile. In: HStAD inventory R 4 No. 4217. Retrieved on January 13, 2019 . 
7. ↑ The history of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals associated with them . S. 423 .
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Friedrich Ludwig Adolf von Grolman: Acting history of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals associated with them . S. 395 .
9. ↑ Friedrich Ludwig Adolf von Grolman: Actual history of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals associated with them . S. 397-398 .
10. ↑ Friedrich Ludwig Adolf von Grolman: Actual history of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals associated with them . S. 398-405 .
11. ↑ Friedrich Ludwig Adolf von Grolman: Actual history of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals associated with them . S. 422 .
12. ↑ Directory of the robbers and thieves identified by the investigations employed by the Homberg zu Burg-Gemünden office and currently pending at the criminal court in Giessen. In: HStAD inventory E 3 A No. 598.1810 , accessed on January 13, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Friedrich Ludwig Adolf von Grolman: Actual history of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals associated with them . S. 563 .