Mathias Kneißl

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Mathias Kneißl before his execution in early 1902

Mathias Kneißl (born May 12, 1875 in Unterweikertshofen ; † February 21, 1902 in Augsburg ; called Kneißl Hias , Räuber Kneißl or Schachenmüller-Hiasl ) was a Bavarian robber . His sphere of activity lay predominantly in the areas of the district offices (the later districts) Dachau, Aichach and Fürstenfeldbruck. His life story has been recorded in numerous books, writings, songs, films and plays.

Life

childhood

Mathias Kneißl was the oldest of five children of Matthias (or Mathias) Kneißl (1837-1892), a carpenter, Wagner and Müller, and Therese Kneißl (* 1847), née Pascolini. His maternal uncle was the local robber Johann Pascolini (1831–1871), his great-grandfather Peter Pascolini came from Frassenetto di Forni Avoltri in Friuli, Austria .

Kneißl's parents initially ran an inn in Unterweikertshofen, which Chandler Pascolini had bought for his children. The inn became a meeting place for criminals who dealt with stolen or poached goods. After the gendarmerie had checked the activities several times, Kneißl's parents decided to sell the business in 1885 in order to move to Dachau as private owners.

In 1886 the family moved to the Schachenmühle near Sulzemoos , south of the Altstetten am Steindlbach district, which the couple acquired for 9,800 marks. The grinding mill with a small sawmill and a bit of agriculture was located in a damp and shady wooded area, populated by swarms of mosquitoes in summer. As a sideline, Kneißl sen dedicated himself. the production of Wagner and carpenter work. A policeman from Odelzhausen reported a good impression for the period up to 1888. Then visitors came to the mill who resold pigs, sheep and stolen goods and so the mill became an “inn” and the police watched it because of the stolen goods that took place there .

youth

Visitors to the Schachenmühle included the dealer Johann Schlumbrecht from Stangheim, who procured ammunition, and Josef Schreck from Hepberg near Ingolstadt, who was in the service of Baron von Schaezler in Sulzemoos. It was in this environment that the young Mathias learned to shoot and was tempted to commit his first minor crimes, for which he served several shorter sentences.

In March 1891, 15-year-old Kneißl was imprisoned for three days for the first time. He was accused of having attended a dance event as a school age, because skipping school was a criminal offense. In 1884 a teacher wrote: "An extremely unwilling and disobedient boy, a prison plant." In 1889, the Sulzemoos elementary school wrote in the report: aptitudes: few, diligence: very lazy, behavior: rough and indecent. After switching to the Sunday "holiday school", which was compulsory for school leavers, and which Kneißl skipped, probably under the tolerance of his father, there were five court judgments between July 1891 and July 1892.

In 1892 the father's mill hardly made any profit and the Kneißl family fell into distress. So the couple came up with the idea of stealing the altar silver with their sons Alois and Mathias in the pilgrimage church Herrgottsruh near Friedberg . The Kneißl family was soon suspected. His father died in 1892 when the police arrested him; his death remained unexplained. His mother was at the same time for receiving stolen goods detained the captured for stealing items for three months. Six underage teenagers and children were now left to their own devices.

First raids

Now Kneißl went on raids with his brothers; Johann Schlumbrecht and Josef Schreck were there occasionally. They poached, stole fruit, chickens, a sheep and money. In 1892 he was arrested for the second time, this time for the facts of murder , aggravated robbery and poaching , because when two policemen appeared in the mill on November 2, 1892, shots were fired from Alois's gun. His younger brother Alois had shot the police station commandant Baltasar Gößwein from Odelzhausen in the abdomen while attempting to arrest him ; Alois died of tuberculosis after four years in prison . Although the now 18-year-old Mathias Kneißl was not the shooter, the Munich Regional Court sentenced him to five years imprisonment on June 23, 1893, Alois's sentence was 15 years, Schreck received 12 years and Schlumbrecht 2 years. The Schachenmühle had previously been foreclosed.

Activity as a carpenter

After his release from prison in March 1899 - he was now 24 years old - he found no homeland law in his home country and was also expelled from Munich on March 18, 1899. In the spring and summer of 1899 he therefore worked for three months as a carpenter in Nussdorf am Inn for Schreiner Christoph, an acquaintance of the family. After half a year Kneißl was dismissed by his master at constant insistence and when Gendarmerie Commandant Adam Saalfrank pointed out that Kneißl was a convict, as his colleagues refused to work with him for longer. Because of his bad repute, he could no longer find employment and his existence was threatened. Social rehabilitation was still a foreign word at the time.

Raids and pursuits from autumn 1899 to March 1901

The shelled Auermacher property near Egenhofen shortly after the arrest of Kneißl, 1901
The seriously injured Mathias Kneißl (middle) after his arrest with two nurses, 1901
Mathias Kneißl after his arrest in a sick bed, 1901

Without work, Kneißl broke in again with the accomplice Hausleitner. He was wanted by the police and offered a bounty of 400 marks. On a bicycle he roamed the landscape between Altomünster and Nannhofen, armed with daggers, rifles and revolvers. After his accomplice was caught and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in Straubing, he continued his raids by bicycle alone, mainly visiting remote farms. He now also had a triplet rifle captured in Sauerlach . At that time, Kneißl was planning to emigrate to the United States with the money he had captured , together with his cousin and lover Mathilde Danner.

After Kneißl had stolen Pfandbriefe worth 2,500 Marks in a robbery, he was looked for on a wanted note.

During an attempted arrest on the late evening of November 30, 1900 in Irchenbrunn near Altomünster there was an exchange of fire in which the two gendarmes were injured so badly that they later died. Kneißl had now been on the run for three months, but has so far avoided arrest. According to legend, he is said to have once let himself be driven out of a property surrounded by the police in an Odelfass. The unusual fall and the escape of the Kneißl found expression in the foreign press and increased the awareness of the robber.

An examining magistrate from Augsburg then offered an unusually high reward of 1,000 marks on his head. The sum was probably chosen so high because the law enforcement authorities have not yet been able to arrest the robber and the searches were unsuccessful. This disproportionately high sum at the time aroused public opinion, as large sections of the rural population lived in poverty. This circumstance, but also the apparent unsuccessful police search, probably led to solidarity among the population and to the transfiguration of the robber. In the world of the late 19th century, the aversion to the state and authorities was deeply rooted. The population of that time treated Kneißl with respect because he resisted arbitrariness, need and oppression.

Three months later, on March 4, 1901, Kneißl was betrayed by his own cousin, his former lover, and arrested by 70 police officers in the Auermacher estate in Geisenhofen near Aufkirchen from 9 a.m. onwards. On March 5, after a one-day, quasi-military siege, 150 men shot at the house in which the unarmed Kneißl had hidden in the roof.

The police procedure was similar to the execution of an "enemy of the state". Three quarters of an hour after the start of the bombardment, the first police officers stormed into the house with a loud "hurray". After a while, Kneißl was discovered, he suffered a bullet in the head, two shots in the right upper arm, a graze on the right wrist and a life-threatening injury to the abdomen. Kneißl had now hit five shots. Even so, the police shot him from three paces away. When he was overwhelmed, the police throttled and beat him. The vernacular spoke of the Kneißl battle of Geisenhofen .

Despite these injuries, he survived the mail train journey to Munich, where he was able to undergo emergency surgery. After that he sat in a wheelchair for months.

The fact that Kneißl was able to evade police access for so long was due to the fact that farmers repeatedly offered him refuge and hiding place. Kneißl often bribed the farmers with black game.

Trial and Execution

From November 14th to 19th, 1901, the trial against him took place at the Augsburg jury court. Kneißl had to answer for two murders , attempted manslaughter as well as serious robbery and extortion by robbery . At the trial, which was followed with great attention by the public, he is reported to have said: “I cannot suffer an injustice. I can't bend down, I'd rather perish myself. "

Kneißl admitted all the crimes he was charged with, but denied any intention to kill the two police officers he had shot. Kneißl's defense attorney was Walter von Pannwitz, a lawyer from Munich. The jury found him guilty of murder, willful assault with fatal outcome, extortion and robbery.

At the request of the public prosecutor, the court sentenced him to death for murder and 15 years in prison and for the loss of his civil rights for the other offenses .

Kneißl is famous for the alleged quote "Dia Woch fangt scho guat o!" When the verdict was announced. With that, he commented, according to legend, on a Monday the release of the prison director that his mercy petition by the Prince Regent Luitpold was rejected and he was executed - actually learned Kneißl of his imminent execution but on Wednesday, 19 February. The chairman, Oberlandesgerichtrat Anton Rebholz, asked the Prince Regent Luitpold in a letter not to have the death sentence imposed on Kneißl enforced, which Luitpold abruptly refused. On February 21, 1902, shortly after 7 a.m., Kneißl was executed in the courtyard of the Augsburg Regional Court Prison on Karmelitergasse with an 80-pound guillotine . Before that, he had ordered six glasses of beer as a hangman's meal . His executioner was Franz Xaver Reichhart .

The process was closely followed by the population and the well-known saying came about: “In Geisenhofen hams zuagricht, in Munich hergricht and in Augsburg.” Also in short: “zuagricht, hergricht, higricht”, the popular saying commented on the action of the authorities.

reception

Among contemporaries

Kneißl was revered as a folk hero during his lifetime ; numerous legends surround the robber. The people, especially the small farmers , saw their predatory life as a revolt against the authorities. Large sections of the population mocked the state power on mocking postcards, in mock poems and in plays. This resulted in ridiculous poems and songs. A multi-verse Kneißl song contains the verses:

"I am discharged from prison, I was a fresh
boy again , I have aa again g'arbat, d'Leit let me koa Ruah,
since Moasta will be zwunga, I have to give me my testimony,
and I have to slip back into a vagabond life. "

present

Kneißl Hias is still a household name in recent times and his life is the basis for several artistic adaptations: Reinhard Hauff directed the film Mathias Kneißl in 1970 with Hans Brenner in the title role. Georg Ringsgwandl wrote a Kneißl ballad. In 1980, Oliver Herbrich presented his cinema version of the Kneißl to the cinema audience as a folk hero with no chance at the Hof Film Festival. At the Munich Volkstheater the story of Mathias Kneissl, directed version of was Christian Stückl until May 2007 to see.

The film with the title Räuber Kneißl by the Bavarian director Marcus H. Rosenmüller about the life of Mathias Kneißl premiered on June 24, 2008 at the 26th Munich Film Festival and was released on August 21, 2008 in German cinemas. The leading role was played by Maximilian Brückner , who also played Mathias Kneißl at the Munich Volkstheater from 2004 to 2007. His brother Florian, who also played the role of Kneißl's brother Alois at the Munich Volkstheater, also plays him in the film.

The legends about Kneißl arose not least against the background of the stories about Matthias Klostermayr , the Bavarian Hiasl . The journalist Ulrike Frick described Kneißl as “rebels and folk heroes” as well as “Voralpen- Robin-Hood ”.

In the community of Maisach, a few kilometers from Kneißl's birthplace, the Maisach brewery brews a Räuber-Kneißl beer . There is a Räuber-Kneißl-Museum in the brewery's Bräustüberl .

Since 1991 a classic car rally ("Räuber-Kneißl-Classics") has been named after him. She found z. B. 2014 and 2016.

In 2018 it became known that the WestAllianz “Tourism and Local Recreation” working group wanted to create a Räuber-Kneißl-Weg, which should connect the communities of Karlsfeld , Bergkirchen , Maisach , Gröbenzell , Pfaffenhofen ad Glonn , Odelzhausen and Sulzemoos . The 110-kilometer Räuber-Kneißl-Radweg was opened in May 2020.

literature

  • Manfred Böckl : Mathias Kneißl, the robbery of the Schachermühle . ISBN 3-89251-258-2 (4th edition 1998).
  • Toni Drexler: There are the robbers in the forest: Kneissl, Hiasl & Co.; Robber romance and reality . Jexhof Farm Museum, Schöngeising 2002, ISBN 3-932368-07-X .
  • Michael Farin : Police report Munich 1799–1999 . 2001, ISBN 3-933510-25-2 .
  • Hugo Friedländer : Interesting criminal trials of cultural and historical importance, presentation of strange criminal cases from the present and the recent past. Based on my own experiences (note: Friedländer was a court reporter), Chapter 7 (pp. 198–228): The trial of the robber chief Kneißl , Berlin 1911.
  • Martin A. Klaus : The robber Kneißl, or, life, death and exaltation of the Schachermüller-Hiasl . Münchenverlag 2000, ISBN 3-86615-695-2 / 3-93403-614-7.
  • Wilhelm L. Kristl: The sad and proud life of Mathias Kneißl . 2002, ISBN 3-935877-51-X .
  • Marlene Reidel : The robber Kneißl . ISBN 3-7846-0176-6 .
  • Marlene Reidel, Wilhelm L. Kristl: The robber Kneißl. : 44 woodcuts, the song and a chronicle of the real events by Wilhelm Lukas Kristl . CH Beck 2010, ISBN 978-3406607363 .
  • Oliver Herbrich: Mathias Kneißl / Theo Berger. Reluctant folk heroes. Screenplay (Fiction - Non-Fiction Film Edition, 2018) ISBN 978-3-00-059239-3 .
  • Christian Jansen: Mathias Kneissl, the dreaded robber and bandit of the Bavarian highlands or the secrets of the Sulzemoos Schachermühle , HG Münchmeyer, Dresden (1901/02) (ban 1916 and pulped)

media

  • Otto Göttler and Sepp Raith: Rebellion leads to loss of head. The songs from the program about the life and death of Mathias Kneißl . 2004, audio CD (LC 07975)
  • Film adaptation of Mathias Kneißl by Reinhard Hauff in 1970, with Hans Brenner , Gustl Bayrhammer , Eva Mattes and Ruth Drexel
  • Film adaptation of the proud and sad life of Mathias Kneißl by Oliver Herbrich in 1979/80
  • Georg Ringsgwandl , title Kneißl , album Staffabruck , 1993
  • Biographical film adaptation Räuber Kneißl (2008) by Marcus H. Rosenmüller
  • Animated short film Drei Knödel für Kneissl from the University of Film and Television Potsdam-Babelsberg & FR-Entertainment (2010)
  • Radio play Mutter Kneißl Bayerischer Rundfunk 1976, 98 minutes stereo by Fritz Meingast. Director Wolf Euba. With Elfie Pertramer and Hans Brenner
  • Musical: Räuber Kneissl-Revival - The Musical , Hofspielhaus, Munich, 2020

Web links

Wikisource: Robber Captain Kneißl before the jury court  - sources and full texts
Commons : Mathias Kneißl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Anton Mayr: The robber Kneißl. First published in 1982 in the Brucker Echo (accessed December 5, 2016).
  2. ↑ Toni Drexler: In the forest there are the robbers: Kneissl, Hiasl & Co .; Robber romance and reality . Jexhof Farm Museum, Schöngeising 2002, ISBN 3-932368-07-X , p. 95 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Municipality of Sulzemoos: The robber Kneißl. Retrieved January 12, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Augsburger Allgemeine: Where the robber Kneißl grew up. Retrieved January 12, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h Onetz editorial staff: Six glasses of beer before the execution. February 22, 2002, accessed January 12, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e Jochen Lehbrink: Robber Kneißl: Romantic hero or cold-blooded murderer? In: https://www.merkur.de/ . Mercury, February 21, 2006, accessed January 13, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Hans Kratzer: Bavaria's most popular murderer. Retrieved January 12, 2020 .
  8. ^ Robber captain Kneißl before the jury. In: Hugo Friedländer : Interesting criminal trials of cultural historical importance - presentation of strange criminal cases from the present and the recent past. Hermann Barsdorf Verlag, 1911–1921 (accessed December 5, 2016).
  9. ↑ Dirk Walter: Beloved double murderer: How the Upper Bavarians hid the robber Kneissl Münchner Merkur from November 2, 2016 (accessed on July 28, 2019)
  10. ^ Hugo Friedländer: Robber Captain Kneißl before the jury court - Wikisource. Retrieved January 12, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Toni Drexler: In the forest there are the robbers: Kneissl, Hiasl & Co .; Robber romance and reality . Jexhof Farm Museum, Schöngeising 2002, ISBN 3-932368-07-X , p. 98 .
  12. ↑ Cf. Matthias Blazek: Executioners in Prussia and in the German Empire 1866–1945. ibidem, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8382-0107-8 , p. 91.
  13. ↑ https://www.literaturportal-bayern.de/themen?task=lpbtheme.default&id=608
  14. ^ "Mathias Kneißl" , information about the film on filmportal.de (accessed on September 2, 2014).
  15. ↑ “The proud and sad life of Mathias Kneißl” , film website (accessed on March 22, 2019).
  16. ↑ "Der Räuber Kneißl" , information on the play on efi-de.com from November 8, 2009 (accessed on September 2, 2014).
  17. ^ Western from Bavaria: With a gloomy halo. In: Münchner Merkur . August 21, 2008, p. 18.
  18. ↑ Maisach Brewery under new management , on sueddeutsche.de, accessed on January 12, 2020
  19. ↑ On the trail of the cult criminal , on sueddeutsche.de, accessed on January 12, 2020
  20. ↑ Oldtimer rally in Gröbenzell: The pictures , on merkur.de, accessed on January 12, 2020
  21. ↑ Municipality of Pfaffenhofen ad Glonn: Current status of the Räuber-Kneißl-Weg - Municipality of Pfaffenhofen ad Glonn . Pfaffenhofen ad Glonn, accessed on January 12, 2020 .
  22. ↑ A bike tour with a story for the whole family , on räuber-kneissl-radweg.de, accessed on May 24, 2020
  23. ↑ Räuber-Kneißl-Radweg is open . In: Münchner Merkur . May 19, 2020 ( merkur.de [accessed May 24, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Kneißl, Mathias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kneißl, Hias; Robber Kneißl; Schachenmüller-Hiasl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian robber
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Unterweikertshofen
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1902
Place of death augsburg