Klara Wendel

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The almost 50-year-old Klara Wendel in the portrait of Carl Durheim .

Klara Wendel , often Clara (born March 1, 1804 in Hergiswil ; † October 29, 1884 in the St. Urban monastery , Pfaffnau municipality ) was a Swiss homeless person who, in the course of the large-scale intercantonal “ crook and cellar trade ” (1824–1827 ) has been stylized beyond Switzerland as a «robber queen» and «female brigant ».

During the trials, her confessions and denunciations added up to 20 murders, 14 arson attacks and 1,588 thefts. The confessions and accusations of relatives and acquaintances arose under psychological and physical pressure from the investigating authorities and were later largely withdrawn. The process not only attracted a lot of attention in the European media, Wendel's statements also led to an unprecedented hunt for travelers and non-residents in Switzerland.

Live and act

Origin and family

The Klara Wendels family originally came from the Aargau Eggenwil near Bremgarten on the paternal side . As a result of her marriage to the homeless Margaretha Büeler, the community had revoked Klara Wendel's grandfather Jakob ( Sidig-Jakob ) from citizenship . Her mother's family, Katharina Dreyer, came from Alsace . Klara Wendel's father, Niklaus, was a basket maker like his father .

As a non-sedentary homeless, Klara Wendel moved with her clan - including her older siblings Johann (* 1795) and Barbara (* 1798) and younger brother Hanseli (* 1807) - mainly in the canton of Lucerne and in other cantons of central Switzerland , in Aargau and in the canton of Solothurn .

«Crook and cellar trade»

The “crook and cellar trade” in the mid-1820s is considered to be “the greatest sensational process of the restoration period ”. The process started with the arrest of Klara Wendel in Einsiedeln in June 1824 for receiving stolen goods . In the course of the interrogations in Schwyz , Glarus , Lucerne and Zurich , she developed a narrative and story structure, the structure and continuation of which is reminiscent of the stories from 1001 Nights . The confessions and denunciations were made through the use of physical and psychological pressure: the interrogators constantly pressed further statements from her and her fellow inmates with cane blows, chain and lying punishments, food deprivation and the threat of child removal.

The authorities soon formed a "dangerous band of robbers " around Klara Wendel and her brother Johann ( Krusihans ), whose existence the trial brought to light and shocked the public. In this context, the Swiss cantons decided at the Richterswil Conference to intensify the persecution of the alleged "crooks" and to strengthen the corresponding intercantonal cooperation. As part of this hunt, many other homeless people were arrested and taken prisoner in Lucerne.

Zürcher Wellenberg Tower , from December 1825 to April 1826 place of interrogation on the "cellar trial"

With the denunciation and the confession of the murder of Lucerne mayor Franz Xaver Keller, the process turned into a state affair. Keller drowned in 1816 - Klara was twelve years old at the time - under circumstances that were not completely clarified in the Reuss . For political reasons, however, the confessions came the interrogation judges located: As the client was Klara Wendel aristocratic - conservative and church-friendly Lucerne government councils Leodegar Corragioni d'Orelli (1758-1830) and Joseph Pfyffer of Heidegg (1759-1834) - and thus political opponents the incumbent Lucerne mayor Josef Karl Amrhyn (1777–1848), who in turn was the father of the Lucerne interrogator Josef Franz Karl Amrhyn (1800–1849).

After the trial was relocated to Zurich, the new interrogators - for the “basement trial” Heinrich Escher (1789–1870) and for the “crook trial” Jakob Emanuel Roschi (1778–1848) - found glaring deficiencies in the previous process. The prisoners soon revoked their confessions, including Klara Wendel. As part of the "basement trial", the Lucerne government councilors and the imprisoned "crooks" were acquitted.

Klara Wendel's sentence was twelve years in prison, and she had to wear a collar with a shameful beak. After that she should be banned from the Swiss Confederation or, if in the meantime a citizen's right was brokered for her, she should no longer be allowed to leave this municipality.

After imprisonment

In 1837 Klara Wendel was released from the rest of the sentence due to a lack of space in the Lucerne prisons. In the following years she did not have a permanent residence and was admitted several times to the Lucerne Sentianstalt , a poor and support institution at the foot of the Gütsch .

In 1841, then living in Littau , Klara Wendel was pregnant out of wedlock and wanted to marry the child's father, Joseph Fischer. The marriage did not materialize, however, because the home community of Fischers did not want to accept a homeless person. Although the couple tried to maintain their relationship, the municipality of Littau and the city of Lucerne resisted as best they could. When her daughter Anna Maria was three years old, she was taken away from her parents and the mother interned again in the Sentianstalt.

As part of the federal forced naturalization of the homeless and the corresponding investigations in Bern , Klara Wendel was also taken prisoner there. Your portrait of the pioneer photographer Carl Durheim from 1852/1853 is preserved in the Swiss Federal Archives .

From 1862 Klara Wendel lived in Malters until she was admitted to the psychiatric clinic in St. Urban Monastery in 1883. She died there the following year.

Artistic reception

Théâtre des Variétés in Paris (1829). Watercolor by Christophe Civeton

Fiction

theatre

  • Emmanuel Théaulo, Francis d'Allarde and Armand Dartois: Clara Wendel, ou La Demoiselle brigand. Comédie-vaudeville en two actes. First performed at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris on January 25, 1827 ( digitized from Google Books)
  • Th. Hell: Clara Wendel . Posse in two acts, 1831.

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The terrific record and chronicle of remarkable and interesting events Volume 1. 1849, pp. 239-240. ( Digitized from Google Books )
  2. ^ Baur: Telling in front of court , p. 405.
  3. ↑ Baur: Telling in front of the court , p. 231.
  4. ^ Baur: Telling in front of the court , p. 28.
  5. ↑ Baur: Telling in front of the court , pp. 27 and 32.
  6. ^ Baur: Telling in front of the court , p. 402.
  7. ↑ Meier / Wolfensberger: A home and yet none , p. 397
  8. ↑ a b c Gregor Egloff: Wendel, Klara. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  9. ↑ Huonker: Fahrendes Volk , p. 41.
  10. ^ Baur: Telling in front of the court , pp. 410-420
  11. ↑ Meier / Wolfensberger: A home and yet none , p. 397.
  12. ↑ Latest world events of the year 1837, No. 199 of December 13, 1837, p. 794.
  13. ↑ Seventy-sixth New Year's Gazette of the Zürcherische Hülfsgesellschaft for the philanthropic youth of our hometown 1876. (PDF; 2.29 MB) Hülfsgesellschaft Zürich (Ed.), P. 12 , accessed on December 17, 2014 .
  14. ^ Baur: Telling in front of the court , pp. 422–424.
  15. ↑ The portrait of Klara Wendel in the online access of the Swiss Federal Archives, accessed on March 18, 2020.
  16. ↑ Bohemia, or entertainment papers for educated stands . No. 102 (1831), theater report from 23rd and 23rd August. ( Digitized from Google Books)
personal data
SURNAME Wendel, Klara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clara, silk Clara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss homeless and "robber queen"
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Hergiswil
DATE OF DEATH October 29, 1884
Place of death Pfaffnau