Ludwig Funk

Ludwig Funk (called Selnröder Ludwig ; * around 1785 in Sellnrod , † March 1813 in Gießen ) was a German robber . He was one of the " Wetterau crooks ".

origin

"The father [...] Conrad Funk owns, or at least previously owned, his own little house and some field property in Selnrod and feeds on the fruit trade ." Ludwig was only confirmed at the age of 15 , "because he did not previously have the necessary knowledge ", And then went on to train as a bricklayer with his uncle Peter Funk . At the age of 17 he left his parents' house and made his way through first as a beggar and then as a robber. After the first and second prison sentences, he kept returning to his hometown. He was released on October 9, 1810 and arrested on November 6, 1810 with his cousin Ludwig Funk of the same name, because in the meantime a large-scale investigation had revealed new crimes of the Wetterau gang , which were also substantiated by testimony.

Robber life

Appearance

Grolmann gives the following "signalement" (description) from him:

“Age 27-28 years old, height 5 feet , 2 inches , 2 stroke : Ordinary stature but strong in build; Face shape elongated = wide; Hair brown. Eyebrows brownish = blond. Forehead tapering slightly from the eyebrows. Eyes small, grayish, elongated, somewhat deep-set. Nose more small than large, pointed in front with a small hump. Mouth small and thick; the lips, especially the upper ones, strongly raised. Chin rounded and broad. Beard brownish = blond, complexion without red, but otherwise fresh. Special signs: Somewhat strong cheeks = and jawbones - ears pierced on both sides - it is a habit to get the mouth up. "

Predator love

One of his lovers was Angelica Krämer "from a real robber = gender." a. the lover of the robber Jonas Hoos von Reptich , Werra-Departement , Kingdom of Westphalia . “She was attached to Ludwig Funk. [...] This sensible whore used to be the pimp of the notorious robber Hunds-Velten (Valentin Bröschler), who was murdered in 1807 by his comrades in a dispute over the division of a robbery at the Wannhof, Ulrichstein's office . "With Hoos she was admitted to the Stockhaus in Gießen in 1811 . In May 1814 has been to four years prison sentenced.

Another “co-sleeper” Funk was Anna Dorothea Strack, b. around 1772, called "Lumpen-Dort." She was also the lover of the robbers Johann Heinrich Oberländer and Conrad Kreis and was considered to be "very devoted to drinkers". In 1806 she was expelled from Giessen and sentenced to several months in prison from 1810 to 1812. Her brothers Jakob and Johann Strack were also criminals, her sisters Christine, Elisabeth and Margrethe also loved by robbers.

Arrests

As early as 1805 he was in the Vogelsberg with Peter Görzel, the "Heidenpeter," a. a. picked up with a rifle and brought to the Stockhaus in Giessen in May. On December 6, he received a two-year prison sentence "with twenty beatings on admission and the same number on release" on December 5, 1807.

The following winter he returned to Sellnrod, but in the spring of 1808 he was hanging around the Mardorfer Grund . In 1809 he came into contact with the Wetterau gang and committed a large number of crimes with them, including a. he was involved with ten other members of the gang in the robbery near Rechtenbach (Hüttenberg) in the summer of 1809.

He was arrested again in September 1809 with a friend, denied everything during the interrogations and received "a six-month prison sentence with 25 beatings at the beginning and end because of repeated vagabond life."

After his release he lived in Sellnrod for almost a month until he was arrested again and ultimately. Again he stubbornly denied it until he realized that all the other robbers had long since confessed.

Criminal offenses

In May 1805 he and his Kupane Peter Görzel, vulgo Heiden = Peter, Kaspar Huthmann, Johannes Lehn II and Johannes Köddinger robbed Kaspar Gemmer's shepherd's hut at the Petershainer Hof . When they were arrested in Engelrod, they had two pistols in a shepherd's house, a tercerol , powder and lead, as well as a cast horn with the letter G, which they had stolen from the shepherd Gemmer. Objects were also found that the five robbers had stolen from a break-in in Sellnrod shortly before. While Funk was brought to prison in Giessen, the others were expelled from Riedesel Land after six weeks in prison .

In addition to carried out or intended street robbery in five cases, he was convicted of burglary and theft in 17 other cases. This included:

• the attempted theft of a brewing kettle in Ober-Widdersheim in 1809. Ludwig Funk and his cronies Hessen-Heinrich, Peter Görzel vulgo Heiden-Peter, Conrad Anschuh from Rodheim , Schoden-Heinrich and Johann Justus Dietz vulgo Lumpen Jost from Asslar wanted to steal a brew kettle , but failed because of a watchful dog and the thickness of the wall, which they had to break through.
• The slump in Village Güll to the St. John's in 1809 with Conrad Anschuh, the rags Jost and Gentiles-Peter, in which the robbers looted a wash boiler and laundry.
• the break-in in Lehnheim in July 1809. There they poisoned the farm dog, broke a compartment from the house wall and stole a copper kettle along with laundry and meat from the kitchen. They sold the stolen goods in Rüddingshausen .
• The most spectacular was the great street robbery near Kleinrechtebach in June 1809, in which the victims were severely mistreated by the eleven robbers involved. The value of the booty was 2,500 guilders. It was shared in a thief's hostel near Munzenberg .
• In the autumn of 1809, Funk and his cronies Conrad Anschuh, Heiden-Peter, Bruchschneiders Hannes, tin caster Hannes and "Heiden Andreas (Gypsy Andreas Sendomor)" wanted to carry out a road robbery near Neustadt, but they failed. The plan for this came from the "black boy."
• Shortly before his final arrest, in 1810, together with Hessen-Martin and Schoden-Heinrich, he attacked a Jew near Hainchen .

Trial and Execution

On June 4, 1812, his files in four volumes were submitted to the court court for further decision. "On March 24, 1813, Ludwig Funk and his cronies Johann Adam Frank, Johann Georg Gottschalk, Conrad Anschuh , Johann Justus Dietz, the Heidenpeter and Johannes Borgener were sentenced to death by the sword and executed in Giessen."

Individual evidence

1. ↑ CPT Schwencken, records of the crooks = and vagabonds = rabble, as well as of individual professional thieves, in the countries between the Rhine and the Elbe, together with a precise description of their person. From a Kurhessischer Criminal = officials, Cassel 1822, p. 556.
2. ↑ see here and in the following Friedrich Ludwig Adolph Grolman , History of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals connected with them. In addition to personal description of many thieves and robbers scattered throughout the German dialect; With a copper plaque, which shows the faithful portraits of 16 main criminals. Giessen 1813, p. 340.
3. ↑ overall Friedrich Ludwig Adolph Grolman , Acten-like history, p. 340 ff.
4. ↑ CPT Schwencken, p. 287 f u. P. 484 ff.
5. ↑ Friedrich Ludwig Adolph Grolman: Actual history of the Vogelsberg and Wetterau robber gangs and several criminals associated with them. In addition to personal description of many thieves and robbers scattered throughout the German dialect ; With a copper plaque, which shows the faithful portraits of 16 main criminals. Giessen 1813, p. 365 f.
6. ↑ Grolman, History of the Acts, pp. 297 f.
7. ↑ Carl Friedrich Brill, Acting news from the rabble in the Maingegenden, the Odenwald and the neighboring countries, especially with regard to the members of the same under investigation in Darmstadt, Part 1, p. 95, No. 15. Grolman, Acting history, p 279.
8. ↑ Grolman, Acting History, p. 279.
9. ^ Carl Friedrich Brill, Acts of the rabble of robs in the Maingegenden, the Odenwald and the neighboring countries, especially with regard to the members of the same group under investigation in Darmstadt, Part 2, p. 336.
10. ^ Friedrich Grolman, p. 563.