Robbers from the Mainhardt Forest
The robbers from the Mainhardter Wald were a band of robbers who were up to mischief in the Mainhardter Wald at the end of the 18th century .
prehistory
Around 1750 the Mainhardt residents rebelled against their sovereign, the Prince of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein . They refused to allow him to pay any taxes or contributions in kind. In their anger over what, in their opinion, were unbearable demands from the prince, they even filed a lawsuit at the highest court of the then German Empire in Vienna, the Reichshofrat . The power struggle between the Mainhardtern and their rulers lasted for ten years. In the end, the emperor decided in favor of the prince. The consequence of this were heavily indebted and therefore very poor subjects.
Four years after this Mainhardt rebellion was put down, the robbers from the Mainhardt Forest under the robber captain Heinrich Weiß made the region unsafe by robbery and looting on the long-distance trade routes that led through the forest.
The robbers
In the Middle Ages, two important trade routes met near Hohenegarten in the Mainhardt Forest. One came from Stuttgart and followed the course of today's B 14 via Sulzbach and Großerlach . The other came from Heilbronn via Weinsberg , Löwenstein , Finsterrot and Ammertsweiler on the route of today's B 39 . From Mainhardt both led together to Schwäbisch Hall and from there to Nuremberg and Prague .
Towards the end of the 18th century, a band of robbers formed, mainly from residents of the Mainhardt Forest. They attacked and robbed travelers and trade trains on the highways in the Mainhardt Forest and in the near and far. Its head was the Mainhardt innkeeper and Württemberg customs officer Heinrich Weiss. The gang consisted of three squads, the Ammertsweiler , the Neuhütter and the Fuchsschwänzer squad. (Foxtail is the northern part of today's Mainhardt district of Hohenstrasse.) The names of 53 of the robbers, who only addressed each other by nicknames, are still known today; The places of origin of some of the gang members are known: 13 came from Neuhütten, 4 each from Finsterrot, Fuchsschwanz and Rutzenweiler, 3 each from Ammertsweiler, Gögelhof and the area around Schwäbisch Gmünd , 2 each from Busch, Hütten and Maienfels and one each came from Eulhof, Gailsbach, Hasenhof, Hall , Hals, Hausen an der Rot, Kreuzle, Lachweiler, Mainhardt, Neuwirtshaus, Nüßlenshof, Plapphof, Storchsnest , Untersteinbach , Weihenbronn and Wiedhof.
The robbers carried out the robberies in the so-called fox manner - that is, not near their homes, but far from home, mainly on the territory of other people. To do this, they sometimes went on amazing marches. At that time, the Mainhardt Forest was territorially very fragmented. Had a part in him
- the Duchy of Württemberg with its sub-office Böhringsweiler;
- the gräflich löwensteinische territory with the places Lowenstein , glass Kaiserslautern and Sulzbach an der Murr ;
- Murrhardt's prelature ;
- the county of Limpurg taverns , which owned Hütten;
- the imperial city of Hall , which belonged to Bubenorbis;
- the Hohenlohe house (Waldenburg-Bartenstein line), to which Mainhardt belonged;
- and the knightly barons of Gemmingen who resided in Maienfels.
Sometimes farmers, landlords or widows were even robbed without the use of violence or threats. Known acts of violence by the robbers were:
- 1760 attack on Tüngental
- 1768 stagecoach attack near Cröffelbach
- 1768 murder of a man near Munster near Gaildorf
- 1768 Murder of two butchers in the Sulzbach district of Bartenbach
- 1768 Murder of the Rielingshäuser Schultheißen Wildermuth between Oppenweiler and Aspach
- 1768 Murder of a butcher in the Großerlach district of Hohenbrach
- 1771 attack on a man at the rest of the houses land tower near Untermünkheim
- 1772 attack on the Germersheim country coach
Detection and Punishment
In 1772, the arrested Martin Haas vom Gögelhof betrayed the gang under torture. A total of 68 people were charged with theft, postal and street robbery and murder. Of the convicts, 16 were beheaded with the sword in Pfedelbach in 1773 , their bodies braided on wheels and their heads put on stakes. Seven death sentences were pronounced and carried out in Maienfels. Seven of the robbers did not survive the interrogation.
Culture
An amateur play group from the Mainhardter Wald performed the robbers from summer 2004-2014, i.e. 11 years, at the original Ammertsweiler-Gögelhof location as a so-called station theater on seven stages. Since 2015 there have been around 97 actors on stage and around 40 helpers behind the stage who have performed the play Uprising in the Mainhardt Forest from rebels to robbers, a prehistory of the Mainhardt robbers at the same place and also as a station theater in front of a sold out and enthusiastic audience. The coveted tickets are available from the Mainhardt Christmas Market or on the Internet at www.laienschauspiel-mainhardt.de and at several ticket sales points.
In Großhöchberg and Spiegelberg , the robber theme is also taken up theatrically.
literature
- Egil Pastor: The robbers from the Mainhardt Forest. An 18th century crime story . Haller Tagblatt publishing house, Schwäbisch Hall 1986
- Carl Schönleber: Heimatbuch Weinsberger Tal Mainhardter Wald . Hohenlohesche Buchhandlung Ferdinand Rau, Öhringen 1931, reprint 1986, ISBN 3-87354-143-2
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rebels and robbers in the Mainhardt Forest ( memento of the original from November 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on schwaebischhall.de
- ↑ on mainhardt.de ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Pfedelbach 1037-1987. From past and present . Edited by the community of Pfedelbach. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1987, ISBN 3-921429-30-7 , ISBN 3-7995-7630-4 ( Research from Württemberg-Franconia . Volume 30)
- ↑ Egil Pastor: The robbers from the Mainhardter Forest. An 18th century crime story . Haller Tagblatt publishing house, Schwäbisch Hall 1986
- ↑ The robbers from the Mainhardter Forest
