Johannes Karasek

Johannes Karasek , called Prager Hansel or Bohemian Hansel (born September 10, 1764 in Smichow , † September 14, 1809 in Dresden ), was the leader of a band of robbers.

Several spellings of the name are in official use. The Electoral Saxon files speak of Johannes Karraseck , the Czech versions are Karrasek and Karaseck as well as Karasek .

After the trained carpenter and butcher deserted from the Austrian army, he joined the gang of the robber captain Palme. Especially the Bohemian exclaves in Upper Lusatia offered her good hiding places for raids to the wealthy in southern Upper Lusatia and the Bohemian Netherlands .

After Palme's death, Karasek became the gang leader in 1797. On September 27, 1795, he married Magdalena Greibich (or Kreibich), daughter of the court clerk in the Bohemian Neuwalde in the Hofkirche Dresden , and on January 2, 1797, the daughter Veronika was born. Karasek made it a condition that his place of residence, Leutersdorf, be spared from the raids. This went well for a long time and no one suspected. When Karasek decided in 1800 to rob the Oberleutersdorf I estate , that was the end of the gang. Loot lost on the way quickly led to the Greibich or Kreibich tavern, and Karasek, whose elegant demeanor and eloquence had been above suspicion until then, was identified as the head of the gang.

Castle water tower and Fronfeste of the Ortenburg in Bautzen

Karasek was tried in Leutersdorf. In the period from 1800 to 1803 Karasek was imprisoned in the castle dungeon at the former castle water tower of the Ortenburg in Bautzen . The death sentence was later made by the Saxon Elector Friedrich August III. Commuted to life imprisonment, which he spent in the Dresden Fortress until his death . But even after Karasek's arrest, the raids did not stop. This time it was the gang of Wenzel Kummer , called the Bohemian Wenzel , who operated from Neuschirgiswalde in the Schirgiswalde exclave and were dug up in 1803. The Greibichschenke was finally demolished in 1804 to prevent further use as a robber's nest. Karasek went down in history as the notorious robber captain who defied the authorities and in his time unsettled northern Bohemia and southern Upper Lusatia, while the legend idealized him as a "folk hero" who took the rich and gave to the poor. History and legend about his person can hardly be separated today. So the memory of him has been preserved by the people of Upper Lusatia to this day.

Karasek Museum

In Seifhennersdorf the Karasek-Museum remembers him. The "Karasek Theater Group", an amateur theater ensemble that has existed in the small town of Neusalza-Spremberg since 1991, under the direction of the former teacher couple Hartmut and Renate Hofmann, both honorary citizens of the town, is also dedicated to Karasek. Their theatrical performances, which are based in particular on literary models by the local poet Oskar Schwär (1890–1968), made the Neusalza-Spremberg "Karasek actors" popular in Upper Lusatia and thus became an essential cultural component of the region.

In the Saxon sandstone karst, a tunnel-shaped cave in the Diebsgrund (Bielatal area) is registered as the Karasek cave (cave register Saxony No. LB-59). The exploration of these was carried out by the Dresden cave research group in 2001. The thief chamber , a former cave at the geographical center of Saxony in Tharandter forest is with him and the robber Lips Tulian associated.

literature

• Lutz Mohr : Karasek and Neusalza-Spremberg . In: Official journal of the administrative association for the city of Neusalza-Spremberg with the district Friedersdorf and the communities Dürrhennersdorf and Schönbach. 16/2011/11, pp. 5-6.
• Lutz Mohr: Leafed through history. The Neusalza shoemaker slandered by Karasek. In: Oberlausitzer Familien-Kalenderbuch for 2015, 23rd year, Spitzkunnersdorf: Oberlausitzer Verlag Frank Nürnberger 2014, pp. 60-61
• Frank Nürnberger a. a .: The last misdeeds of the robber captain Karaseck and other stories of robbers in Upper Lusatia . Spitzkunnersdorf: Oberlausitzer Verlag Frank Nürnberger 1998
• Dietmar Sehn: Robber Captain Karaseck . In: Urania Universum, Volume 26, Leipzig / Jena: Urania-Verlag 1990, pp. 209-214.
• E. (Ernst) Rönsch: Johannes Karasek, the well-known and feared robber captain of Upper Lusatia . A folk tale from the end of the 18th century. According to historical sources and oral traditions of the old Lausitzer (E. Rönsch). Spitzkunnersdorf: Oberlausitzer Verlag Frank Nürnberger 1999.

Web links

• Literature by and about Johannes Karasek in the catalog of the German National Library
• Karasek Museum and Karasek Revier Seifhennersdorf
• Robber captain Karasek married in the Hofkirche Dresden