Matthias Klostermayr
Matthias Klostermayr , born as Matthäus Klostermayr , the Bavarian Hiasl (also the Bavarian Hiesel ), (born September 3, 1736 in Kissing , † September 6, 1771 in Dillingen on the Danube ) was a poacher and leader of a "just band of robbers " at that time Swabian-Bavarian border area.
After his poaching companion “Sternputz” was killed by a hunter, Klostermayr and his gang of up to 30 people also raided offices and other public institutions. So he extorted tax money from the bailiff in Täfertingen , which he redistributed among the population. Klostermayr was arrested on January 14, 1771 by a military force from the Swabian District under Prime Lieutenant Josef Schedel at the Post Inn in Osterzell after a firefight and later spectacularly executed in Dillingen on the Danube : strangled , then smashed , beheaded and quartered.
Matthias Klostermayr was famous and notorious even during his lifetime. For many contemporaries from the poorer classes he was a folk hero , although numerous violent crimes against the innocent were on his account. He lives on to this day in numerous anecdotes, songs and legends. Friedrich Schiller is said to have taken the Bavarian Hiasl as a model for Karl Moor in his play The Robbers .
The "Bavarian Hiasl"
"Mattheus Klostermair" (according to the baptismal register) was born on September 3, 1736 in property no. 164 in Kissing. His birth house "zum Brentan" was demolished in 1931. An old, privately owned photo shows a simple, one-story mercenary house whose original floor plan is said to have been preserved until 1921/22.
It is unclear why Klostermayr, who was baptized under the name of Matthäus, was later only called Matthias. His nickname "Hiasl" is derived from the name Matthias. Since he was 12, he had to work on the nearby Mergenthau Castle in order to contribute to the family's livelihood. At the age of 16 he lost his mother Elisabeth.
The Mergenthauer Jesuits then employed the young Klostermayr for about two and a half years as a hunting assistant and overseer. "Hiasl" lost this lucrative job because of a harmless carnival joke . He had ridiculed a Father Venantius, who accidentally shot a cat while hunting, as a "cat shooter".
After losing his job, the “Brentanhiasl” began poaching because he was also forbidden to hunt with local hunters.
Later he served the "seer farmer" Baumiller as a servant and began a relationship with his daughter Monika. From this connection a son by the name of Korbinian was born.
Klostermayr's unsteady way of life led to tensions with the “Seheranserbauer”, who certainly did not particularly like the love affair between “Hiasl” and his only daughter. Therefore, at the age of 25, the farmhand left the farm and fought his way through as a poacher. But he could not part with his home in Kissingen and especially with his lover.
The hustle and bustle of the game shooter, who was very popular with the population, soon forced the authorities to take countermeasures. In 1761 the schoolmaster and sacristan Huber applied for the recruitment of the “Hiasl” to be “around the peace and quiet of kissing”. Klostermayr, however, escaped in time by fleeing over the Lech into the "foreign" ( Swabian) Oberottmarshausen .
Here he was also nicknamed "Bairischer Hiasl", since Kissing belonged to the Electorate of Bavaria . The extensive forests on the left side of the Lech offered the poacher rich hunting grounds. Already at this time the "Hiasl" had gained some fame. The farmers in particular appreciated his help in decimating the game population, which caused considerable damage to the fields. Once even two farmers are said to have visited the game shooter as an envoy from their village and handed him 15 thalers . The Hiasl was supposed to shoot away the game in their field marrow.
Klostermayr was caught and had to spend three quarters of a year in prison in Munich . The Bavarian elector wanted to appoint him electoral hunter, although poachers were actually threatened with the death penalty . However, the poacher preferred to continue his previous free life.
The charismatic Kissinger became the leader of various gangs of poachers and robbers who allegedly distributed some of their booty to the poor. For this reason the "Hiasl" quickly became a folk hero and was even immortalized in copperplate engravings . The most famous of these depictions shows “Mathias Clostermayr” in a self-confident manner together with his “young” (from Baierberg near Mering) and the “big dog” Tyras from the Putzmühle near Steindorf. A version of this engraving served as the frontispiece of the anonymous little book on "The life and end of the notorious leader of a gang of hunters ..." (1772), which appeared only shortly after the execution .
In total, the "Hiasl" and his companions were charged with twelve violent attacks, eight breaches of the peace and nine manslaughter. The "Confederates" humiliated the authorities wherever they could. They regularly attacked hunters and officials and took their weapons. Klostermayr was always unmasked. Like him, his followers mostly came from smallholder backgrounds.
The gangs were able to stay largely undisturbed in the Swabian-Bavarian border area for several years. In the event of danger, one simply switched to another territory via one of the numerous borders. The game shooters were often cared for and warned by the population, who received a share of the hunted prey in return. Klostermayr continued to visit his hometown and his family regularly. He could feel relatively safe there.
In December 1770, however, preparations began in Dillingen for a military expedition against the "Hiasl" and his men. On January 14th, the gang was lured into a trap in the Osterzell inn. The Prince-Bishop of Augsburg Prime-Lieutenant Schedel had the inn surrounded by around 300 soldiers. The poachers' powder had been moistened beforehand. Nevertheless, it was only after four hours that the free shooters were smoked and captured.
After a trial lasting several months in Dillingen, the "Bavarian Hiasl" was sentenced to death and executed on September 6, 1771 on the city's Danube bridge. Allegedly, after the sentence was read, the condemned was wrapped in fresh cowhide and dragged from the town hall to the place of execution. Once there, he is said to have made confession , drank another glass of wine and then stepped calmly onto the scaffold .
First Klostermayr was strangled with a rope , then the body was smashed on a “wheel breaking machine” . Finally the executioner cut off Klostermayr's head and divided the body into four . The head was stuck on the Dillinger gallows , the body parts were publicly exhibited in Dillingen, Füssen , Oberdorf (today Marktoberdorf) and Schwabmünchen .
That same day, two members of the gang were judged by the sword. Johann Adam Locherer, known as "the Blue" from Rain, died at the age of 25. Johann Georg Brandmaier, "the Rothe" from Steindorf, at the age of 20.
Andreas Mayr, the youthful servant and companion (“boy”) of the “Hiasl” who was also accused, was able to escape from prison and cross the Alps to safety. Four other members of the gang are said to have escaped with him. The contemporary profile only names three other escapes: Joseph Porth, the “Amberger Seppl”; Urban Lechenhör, called "der Allgäuer" and Joseph Ortlieb, the "Sattler".
The common people mourned the folk hero shortly afterwards in numerous folk songs and plays:
Feyrt, Swabia, have a joyous festival
And thank God!
The Hiasl, this forest plague
is finally death
there will be wild
animals multiply and springa cross-wise,
and the farmers, de wern ruefa -
go Hiasl, get up!
(based on: Bernd E. Ergert : The Hunt in Bavaria )
The crime scenes and crimes
Today's Swabia was torn into numerous small dominions in the 18th century. In addition to the Augsburg bishopric , the Augsburg cathedral chapter , the prince abbey of Kempten and numerous other monasteries and monasteries were wealthy here. Other areas belonged to the nobility, such as Count Fugger , Waldburg-Zeil or Stadion. The imperial cities of Ulm and Augsburg and the House of Austria also played their part in the territorial “patchwork carpet”.
This small area offered the Hiasl Gang ideal protection and the best conditions. Every four to six weeks one would move to a different territory, while the authorities were originally only allowed to follow the trail of the game shooters to the respective border. Much more dangerous was the stay in the electoral Bavarian area, where the gang's persecutors were able to pursue long distances. For this reason, the free shooters were almost exclusively on the western side of the Lech.
Of the 50 offenses that the “Confederates” were accused of in the Dillinger trial, only two took place in the Bavarian region ( Wildenroth hunting district , today Fürstenfeldbruck district ). Eleven took place in what is now the Ostallgäu district , and ten in the Augsburg district . There were seven attacks in Central Swabia and Württemberg, one in the Lower Allgäu, six in Dillingen an der Donau, six in Günzburg and two attacks by Klostermayr and his people in the Augsburg city area.
The southernmost crime scene was near Altusried north of Kempten , the northernmost near Lauingen on the Danube . In the west the gang ventured to the gates of Ulm ( Oberelchingen ), in the east to Wildenroth in the Electorate of Bavaria. All offenses occurred between 1766 and 1771.
The arrest of the Hiaslbande was prepared by an agreement of the princes and estates of the Swabian district to curb the poaching insurgency on June 22, 1769. The landlords agreed to mutual administrative assistance and even allowed the immediate execution of the death penalty by hanging . The authorities could now more easily pursue the free shooters across the borders, especially since the favoring of the game shooters and the taking of the hunted booty were placed under severe punishment. Around the gangs of Klostermayr and other game shooters, a real network of stencils and partners had formed.
The gang's nine murders and manslaughters mostly resulted from clashes with the hunters and soldiers of the respective manors . According to the court records, Klostermayr in particular does not seem to have been squeamish with his opponents and to have mistreated and tortured some bailiffs or hunters with the butt of a rifle.
The "ball-proof" Hiasl
Due to the territorial fragmentation of Swabia, the Hiasl succeeded again and again in escaping his numerous pursuers. The population, which was still very superstitious at the time, therefore attributed a number of legends to their hero and to some other free marksmen. They were considered "bulletproof", maybe even in league with the devil . The superstition of “ Passau art ” originates from the time of the early Thirty Years' War , which Hiasl is also said to have used. To do this, you had to swallow notes written with magic spells from Passau executioner Kaspar Neithard or student Christian Elsenreiter and were then supposedly invulnerable.
Klostermayr seems to have enjoyed and supported these legends about himself. So he supposedly presented the astonished peasants with canned balls that he wanted to have caught with his bare hand.
Aftermath
The legend of the game shooter and Bavarian Robin Hood began during the lifetime of the "Hiasl" . For the poorer classes he was a folk hero and benefactor. Princes and higher clergy saw him as a criminal, because in the feudal system only the landlords had the privilege of hunting . The small farmers and mercenaries often had to serve as hunting assistants and drivers free of charge (hunting fron ) and even have a hunting dog ready.
The "Hiasl" was considered an excellent free shooter. Many a weather vane around and in Kissing has a bullet hole that is said to go back to an art shot by Klostermayr.
The "Hiasl" is still today the model for many poachers and other revolutionaries . During the Enlightenment , Klostermayr was an ideal symbol of resistance against the absolutist arrogance of the nobility and clergy. The myth of the "Hiasl" spread quickly over the entire "Bavarian" language area and beyond. Some of his deeds were combined with those of other revolutionaries. The "arch villain from Lechau" became "Wildschütz Franzl " in Tyrol , "Black Martin" in Moravia and "Buam" in Vienna . The scenes of his heroic deeds were also relocated to the respective area, for example to the Radstätter Alm in Tyrol.
The distribution of the numerous Hiasl stories extends from Nuremberg to Trient , from Eger to Lake Neusiedl , from Graz to Bozen . He became a Bavarian hero, whose memory is still eagerly honored today. Many inns are named after the "Hiasl", traditional associations honor his memory.
His fame is particularly evident in numerous folk songs, plays and literary presentations. Already in 1763 the most famous "Hiasl-Lied" Bayerischer Hiasl was written , which is still sung today:
I am the Bavarian Hiasl,
koa Jaga hod de Schneid,
the mia mei Feder and Gamsbart
from Hiatl obakheit! [...]
(based on: Raab: Life, Love, Struggle and the End of the Bavarian Hiasl , Prachtitz, 1933, popular around 1771)
The Bavarian folk music troupe “ Biermösl Blosn ” presents a modern version of the “Hiasl song” on their CD “Wo samma?” In collaboration with the “Toten Hosen”.
Another, less well-known folk song reads:
The Hiasl that leads into
the elector loses into the
power of koane carving
free it is the Schitz
And free san the deer
and free is the stalking
and free is there Schitz
makes it koane carving ...
(based on: Bernd Ergert: The Hunt in Bavaria )
In 2006 the "Hiasl Adventure World" was opened at Gut Mergenthau near Kissing, which focuses on the life of the game shooter and robber captain. In addition to various original pieces on display, Klostermayr's life is shown in a number of dioramas and diagrams.
literature
- Toni Drexler: There are the robbers in the forest: Kneißl, Hiasl & Co.; Robber romance and reality [exhibition in the Jexhof farm museum, February 22 - October 31, 2002]. Schöngeising, 2002. ISBN 3-932368-07-X
- Bernd Ergert: Hunting in Bavaria - From the past to the present . (Rosenheim rarities). Rosenheim, 1984. ISBN 3-475-52451-1
- Walter Hansen: That was the Bavarian Hiasl: Germany's most famous poacher and robber captain . Pfaffenhofen, 1978
- Life and end of the notorious leader of a game shooting gang, Mathias Klostermayrs, or the so-called Bavarian Hiesel drawn from court documents ... Augsburg, Frankfurt, Leipzig, 1772 (Reprint Leipzig, Heidelberg 1988. ISBN 3-7832-0189-6 )
- Waldemar Nowey: The Bavarian Hiasl as a local history, folk and literary figure: A signal of its time - a sign of our homeland? Kissing parish, 1986
- Johann Nepomuk Nöggler: The Bavarian Hiesel. True undistorted story of Matthäus Klostermaier . with a preface by the author about his source studies. Fleischhauer and Spohn, Reutlingen 1867 ( Google Books excerpt - reprinted in: Hansen, Das war der Bayerische Hiasl).
- Herbert Plate: Take what doesn't belong to anyone - poachers and rebels: The Bavarian Hiesel . Stuttgart (et al.) 1989, ISBN 3-7779-0432-5
- Hans Jürgen Rieckenberg: Klostermayer, Matthias, Bayerischer Hiasl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 125 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Hans Schelle: The Bavarian Hiasl. Life picture of a folk hero (Rosenheim rarities). Rosenheim 1991, ISBN 3-475-52701-4
- Ludwig Tieck: Mathias Klostermayr, or, Der Bayersche Hiesel. Edited by Heiner Boehncke and Hans Sarkowicz. (Insel Taschenbuch 3077.) Frankfurt: Insel, 2005. ISBN 978-3-936997-33-0
- The Bavarian Hiesel. Acting in 3 acts, adapted for children's theater. Neu-Ruppin, published by Oehmigke & Riemschneider. Publishing bookstore and lithographic establishment., 12 °. 24 pp. Obr., Undated (around 1860).
Web links
- Literature by and about Matthias Klostermayr in the catalog of the German National Library
- Winfried Friday: Poaching. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria . January 21, 2013 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Hugo Hayn: The Bavarian Hiesel . Jena 1905
- ↑ Hiasl. In: Bavarian dictionary. Retrieved December 11, 2020 .
- ↑ The monument hiasl only needs a zinc skin , in: Friedberger Allgemeine September 3, 1986
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Klostermayr, Matthias |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Klostermayr, Matthäus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German leader of a band of robbers |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 3, 1736 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kissing |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 6, 1771 |
| Place of death | Dillingen on the Danube |