Nikol List

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The arrested robber captain Nicol List, based on an old engraving
"NICKEL LIST, how he behaved as Mr. JOHANN RUDOLPH von der MOSEL." Stich, early 18th century.

Nikol List , also Nicol or Nickel List (baptized December 4, 1654 in Waldenburg (Saxony) ; † May 23, 1699 in Celle ), was a robber chief at the end of the 17th century who, with his gang , was mainly responsible for the cathedral inside and outside Saxony. and committed church robbery and murder.

Life

Nikol List was born in 1654 in poor circumstances in Waldenburg, Saxony, as the son of the day laborer Hans List, and was baptized there on December 4th of the same year. He grew up in the Hartenstein area , where his father worked. He himself developed into a groom and horse connoisseur in his youth. After his marriage in 1679 to Maria Scherf, who was born in Thierfeld and who died in 1683 after the birth of their daughter Anna Marie, he settled in Beutha . From 1681 he can be proven as a cuirassier in the Saxon military service, in which he made it to the corporal. After returning from the battle against the Turks for the Hungarian town of Ofen , List was discharged from military service, which was only to be granted to him as an “honest farewell” against the surrender of two horses and the payment of 30 thalers. So in 1687 he left the garrison in Langenau without authorization and bought a building site in Beutha for a new residential building. He ran an inn and a distillery as well as a horse trade for a living. He married Margarethe Göde, who came from Burg (near Magdeburg) , and had five children with her. From 1691 List operated the Gasthof Grüne Tanne in the neighboring town of Raum as a tenant , but had to end this lease after 17 months due to various complaints.

During this time, there were several indications of a criminal past in the Hartenstein office . a. for horse theft . There is evidence that he was involved in a break-in in the estate of Frau von Tettau in Mechelgrün in 1692 . His share of the booty alone is said to have been 1200 thalers. The dispute over the division of the booty subsequently led to an argument with his cronies, in which List his share was squeezed. An accomplice, the "Wachtmeister" called Eckardt, was killed in 1695 in List's barn.

As the leader of a group of soldiers, List was instrumental in the break-in of Braunsdorf Castle in the Principality of Saxony-Zeitz in 1694 . While criminal proceedings were being carried out against his cronies, List initially remained unmolested. With four accomplices, he broke into the judge Hilbert's in Kleinrückerswalde in 1696 , and they took considerable booty. Research quickly found his trail. When he was in the St. John's Night was arrested in Beutha, he shot to elude arrest, two involved in the arrest Country aldermen from Hartenstein (Saxony) and escaped. On November 9, 1697, he was ostracized in an inquisition trial for two murders ; his house in Beutha had already been razed in 1696.

List was on the run for years (including stays in Wittenberg, Fulda, Leipzig and Halle) and, as captain of his band of robbers, made large stretches of land, mainly northern Germany, unsafe. List gave himself the name Freiherr von Mosel and moved around with a small court . On the night of March 6, 1698, he and his cronies landed the greatest church robbery of all time. With a duplicate key, he gained access to the Michaeliskirche in Lüneburg , which contained the legendary treasure of the "Golden Plate" , which citizens, dukes and monks had collected piece by piece over centuries. Ten pounds of pure gold and silver, pearls and precious stones adorned the main altar of the church. List and his gang broke out large parts of the precious treasure and thus destroyed the total work of art . At first the criminals were able to escape. On July 27, 1698, the robber gang around List committed a burglary in Hof . Three of the robbers, including List, were captured in Greiz and delivered to Hof on August 23, 1698. On October 16, 1698, a member of the gang named Horn was executed in Hof. List was extradited to Celle on October 18, 1698 and executed there. The third robber caught in Hof is said to have been released. On May 23, 1699, List's arms and legs were first crushed with eight blows, then he was beheaded and finally burned.

Nikol List and also the co-convicted Christian Müller thus suffered the worse shape of the bike on May 23rd , with which he stayed alive for a relatively long time. Heinrich Büntings Newe, volstendige Braunschweigische and Lüneburgische Chronica from the year 1722 confirms: "Nicol List was in place of the wheel with iron clubs from below, punished from life to death, the head stuck on the post!"

List was involved in 40 thefts, nine times in serious church robberies and in two murders. His fate was the robbery of the Lüneburg golden plaque .

Sigismund Hosmann, who was Lists pastor and several accomplices in Celle prison from January 1699, published from his memory under the title Excellent Denck-Mahl Der Götlichen Government: Evidenced by the ancient and most famous antique of the monastery of S. Michaëlis in Lüneburg / the Güldenen Taffel standing in the high altar there / and other treasures / How the righteous God Dero robbers wonderfully discovered [...] Everything from those of Hochgeseldeter Fürstl. Communicate Government to IX. Voluminibus Actorum The Great Inquisition, and other certain news / according to the historical course of the whole process, collected together. a description of List's life and deeds. In more recent research, Hosmann is attested that he had no reliable knowledge of List's past life before 1694 and that he had filled the biography with literature at his own discretion. In addition, the texts contain numerous inaccuracies that can result from hearing or printing errors (e.g. Ramsdorf instead of Raum) and incorrect location information.

Nikol-List-Steine ​​in Beutha

The Nikol-List-Steine ​​in the cemetery wall of Beutha

In 1696 his house in Beutha was razed to the ground and a pillar of shame was erected there in Dorfstrasse 58b . A stone cross with inscriptions was placed in memory of each of the two Hartenstein citizens who were shot in 1696.

The meter-sized, three-surface slate column of shame and the two sandstone memorial stones of the two Hartenstein citizens with their life data are on the inside of the cemetery wall in Beutha. All six stones are weathered and the inscriptions are barely legible. The text was received from Pastor Johann Christian Neubert in Beutha.

The big stone in the middle, the column of shame, bears the inscription:

Front page: "This is the place where the world-famous thief, church robber and murderer Nicol List lived, who on Midsummer Night 1696 shot his own landowner Christoph Kneufflern and another citizen, Gottfried Eckarden, miserably and then fled . On the orders of the Gracious Lordship, List's house, which stood here, was torn down and denied the fugitive murderer. "
Back page: “Now that Nicol List was put on trial on November 5th for the two murders committed here at Hartenstein, he was arrested for other crimes at Greiz and taken from there to Hof, but here next to see if he was already there a sharp death sentence was pronounced, but as a co-robber of the precious gold tablet at Lüneburg first brought to Celle, where he received his reward on May 23, 1699 because of known many important booty, 9 church robberies and these murderous acts shattered from below with 8 blows, he was still alive, his head cut off with the ax, nailed to the post, but the dead body burned to powder on a pyre. "

The inscription on the stone cross on the right reads on one side:

"Christoph Kneuffler, land and judicial officer in Hartenstein, was shot by Nicol Listen on Midsummer Night 1696 with a bullet split into a square and was honestly buried in Hartenstein the following Sunday."

on the other hand: "This honest man was 50 years and 27 weeks old and left a sad widow and four children, three sons and one daughter."

On one side of the stone cross on the left:

"Gottfried Eckhardt, citizen and court trader in Hartenstein, was shot by Nicol Listen with two metal bullets on Midsummer Night 1696 and was honestly buried in Hartenstein the following Sunday."

on the other hand: "This man was 34 years and 34 weeks old and left a poor, sad widow and 3 little unbred children, 2 sons and 1 daughter."

Fiction

In addition to older records of the crimes of this robber, there was also a historical-romantic one under the title Life and crooks of Nickel List and his band of robbers (Penig [Leich in Leipzig] 1802). List's life has often been described and performed as a crime tragedy on the puppet stage. As literary historians have found out, Friedrich Schiller used parts of List's life and the course of the trial in his work “ The Robbers ”.

literature

  • Gerd Freitag: On the trail of the robber Nicol List (1654–1699). In: Sächsische Heimatblätter . 62 (2016), Issue 1, pp. 66-73, ISSN  0486-8234 .
  • Matthias Blazek : Nickel List. In: Ders .: Witch Trials - Gallows Mountains - Executions - Criminal Justice in the Principality of Lüneburg and in the Kingdom of Hanover. Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-89821-587-3 , p. 137 ff.
  • Ralf Busch : The execution of Nickel List and some gang members in Celle in 1699. In: Celler Chronik 17th ed. By the Museumsverein Celle, Celle 2010.
  • Uwe Danker: Gangs of robbers in the Old Kingdom around 1700. A contribution to the history of rule and crime in the early modern period (= Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft. Volume 707). Volume 1, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-518-28307-3 , pp. 20-32.
  • Julius Eduard Hitzig, Willibald Alexis: Nickel List and his journeymen. In: The new Pitaval: a collection of the most interesting crime stories of all countries from old and new times. Volume 3, Brockhaus, Leipzig 1843, pp. 274–387, online at Google Books .
  • Shepherd:  List, Nicolas . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, pp. 774-778.
  • S [igismund] H [osmann]: Splendid Denck-Mahl der Divine Government: Proven on the time-old and most famous antiquity of the monastery of S. Michaëlis in Lüneburg / the Güldenen Taffel in the high altar there / and other treasures / again just God Dero robbers gantz wonderfully discovered [...] Everything from those of Hochgeseldeter Fürstl. Communicate Government to IX. Voluminibus Actorum The Great Inquisition, and other certain news / according to the historical course of the whole process, collected together. Hoffmann, Celle et al. 1700 [and more often]. (Digitized version)
  • Hans von Hülsen: Nickel List, the chronicle of a robber. Reclam, Leipzig 1925.
  • Annette Kura: Saxony's murderers, robbers, Paschers and game shooters in the Ore Mountains and Upper Lusatia . Altis-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-910195-08-3 .
  • Joachim Lehrmann : Gangs of robbers between Harz and Weser - Braunschweig, Hanover, Hildesheim ...: a historical review. Lehrmann, Lehrte 2004, ISBN 3-9803642-4-0 , pp. 86-146.
  • Frank Reinhold: Nickel List was captured 300 years ago. From the history of the “Neue Schenke”. In: Heimatbote 1998. Vol. 44, 1998, issue 6, p. 10.
  • Rudolf Schramm: Nickel List - Church robbers and bandits. About his robbery and his capture in Greiz Land in 1698. In: Greizer Heimatkalender 1958. Greiz 1958, p. 65.
  • Julius Seybt : Nickel List and his journeymen: a crook's life from old times. In: Night Pages of Society. Leipzig 1848, pp. 147-190.
  • The Hofer Old Town Chronicle. In: 52nd report of the North Upper Franconian Association for Nature, History and Regional Studies . Hof 2005.
  • Regina Röhner : The black nickel. Nicolaus List. In: A hundred Saxon minds. Chemnitzer Verlag, Chemnitz 2002, ISBN 3-928678-77-9 , p. 122 f.
  • Gottfried Tobisch: The story of the terrible robber captain Nicol List. In: Sachsenring Journal. The culture and home magazine of the Glauchau, Hohenstein-Ernstthal and Stollberg region. Volume 2, No. 1, Sachsenring Verlag, Oelsnitz 1993, p. 21 f.
  • Bernd Stephan: Money or Life! Gangs of robbers between Harz, Upper Lusatia and the Ore Mountains . Bussert & Stadeler publishing house, Jena / Quedlinburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-942115-06-3 .
Fiction processing
  • Siegfried Weinhold: The black nickel - the predatory fate of Nicol List. Chemnitzer Verlag, Chemnitz 1994, ISBN 3-928678-12-4 .
  • Gottlieb Bertrand : The terrible adventurer Nickel List, called by the Moselle. Schröder, Braunschweig 1806.
  • Johann Gottfried Hagemeister, Ludwig Tieck and others: Nickel List. Volumes 1–2 of: Deeds and subtleties of renowned power and knack geniuses. Publisher Himburg, Berlin 1790, OCLC 257589810 .

Web links

Commons : Nikol List  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Gerd Freitag: On the trail of the robber Nicol List (1654–1699). In: Sächsische Heimatblätter . 62, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 66–73, ISSN  0486-8234 .
  2. ↑ Matthias Blazek: Mostly murderers and poisoners were whacked / bodies set up in Feldmark as a deterrent - the practice of crushing limbs with iron clubs was still used in this country until 1828. In: Sachsenspiegel. Sheets for history and homeland maintenance. Supplement to the Cellesche Zeitung. No. 10/2010. In: Cellesche Zeitung . March 6, 2010.
  3. ↑ The Nice Freiburgische Receßherrschaften addition to the Ephorien Annaberg, Marienberg and Frauenstein. In: Saxony's Church Gallery. Dresden 1845, p. 23 (digitized version)
  4. ↑ The arrangement of the stones no longer corresponds to the information in the Saxon Church Gallery.
personal data
SURNAME List, Nikol
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mosel, Nikol Freiherr von; List, Nicol; List, nickel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Robber captain
DATE OF BIRTH baptized December 4, 1654
PLACE OF BIRTH Waldenburg (Saxony)
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1699
Place of death Celle