Magdalena Schönauer

Magdalena Schönauer (born May 16, 1778 in Ursprung , Roßbach as Magdalena Kastner ; † August 19, 1828 in Braunau am Inn ) was an Austrian arsonist . She was also known under the name Magdalena Grundwürmel , the family name of her first deceased husband; she was also called Schimmelreiter Lena or Ortner Baslin .

Life

Magdalena Schönauer was born on May 16, 1778 in the village of Ursprung on the Upper Austrian border with Bavaria, part of the municipality of Roßbach, as the daughter of the day laborer Georg Kastner. She was only given a minimal knowledge of school before her mother took her out of school at the age of nine and sent her to work with foreign families. Even later, the illiterate woman always worked as a day laborer and often changed jobs. As the Schimmelreiter Lena, she moved from farmer to farmer as a cattle girl , but never stayed in one place for long and was mostly not longer than three months with an employer. At the beginning of 1808 she began her work as a cattle maid at the Hanselbauerngut of Joseph Hartinger in the village of Baumgarten, which belongs to the Upper Austrian Aspach . Even then, she swore revenge on two local farmers after they accused her of laziness. On the night of October 13, 1808, she first appeared as an arsonist when she set fire to the farm of Joseph Lengauer, commonly known as Zacherl, one of the two farmers to whom she had sworn revenge. Subsequently, within six weeks, she set six different farms, including that of her employer, on fire. In June 1810 she married the day laborer Johann Grundwürmel, who came from a family of vagabonds , and from then on appeared as Magdalena Grundwürmel.

After the marriage, she felt released from her compulsive life as a maid and was able to concentrate on her existence as a beggar and arsonist. Since begging did not bring her much in and she did not want to do regular work anymore, she started arson in order to commit thefts in the confusion that this caused. From 1812, but above all from April 1814, it started at least 34 fires in the Innviertel and especially in the areas around Aspach, Geinberg , Altheim , Mining, etc., in which 47 farmhouses were destroyed and numerous people were killed. The resulting material damage, which occurred at a time when there was no fire insurance in this area , amounted to around 200,000 florins. After the death of her husband, she married a mentally handicapped smallholder in the village of Amberg on May 10, 1826 at Mining and from then on she was called Magdalena Schönauer. In the course of her life she gave birth to seven children, all of whom died shortly after birth. At the beginning of September 1827 she was convicted of arson in the town of Amberg, whereupon she subsequently confessed to the previous crimes and was sentenced to death by hanging on March 31, 1828 for arson and theft . During her detention, she showed remorse and admonished those who visited her to lead a decent lifestyle. On August 19, 1828, she was executed in Braunau am Inn.

As the “fire witch of the Innviertel” she was known in the population even decades after her death. One for a profile -scale oil painting with the image Schnönauers was then in Braunau local history museum .

literature

• F. Hillbrand grill:  Schönauer, Magdalena. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 11, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-7001-2803-7 , p. 45 f. (Direct links on p. 45 , p. 46 ).
• Karl Friedrich August Müller: Der Bayerische Landbote: 1828. , Munich 1828, pp. 1000-1001
• Branauer Heimatkalender 1927 , pp. 97–100
• Innviertler Volksblatt , December 1, 1927
• New waiting room at the Inn , November 20, 1940
• Rieder Volkszeitung , February 1, 1973
• Konrad Meindl : History of the City of Braunau am Inn 1 , 1882, p. 222
• K. Schüdl: Diary 1794–1831
• Manuscript from the Braunau am Inn municipal office
• Communications from the Braunau am Inn municipal office