Severin von Jaroszynski

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Severin von Jaroszynski

Severin von Jaroszynski (* December 20, 1789, p. 20 ; † August 30, 1827 in Vienna ) was a Polish nobleman who was executed for robbery and murder of Johann Conrad Blank .

Life

youth

Severin von Jaroszynski came from the wealthy Jaroszynski family . He was born on one of his parents' estates in Podolia , which became part of the Podolia Governorate within the Russian Empire after the partition of Poland in 1793 and 1795 .

He lived in his parents' house until he was thirteen, then for about five years in a Warsaw boarding school and when he was about 18 he came to Vienna, where the renowned Pleban educational institution took him in for another four and a half years. He received his lessons in his room from Professors Conrad Blank (mathematics) and Johann Schindler (painting), among others . The linguistically gifted Jaroszynski also learned French and Italian. P. 20

Career

Severin returned home when he was around 23 years old, where his father died soon after. Severin and his brother received a good supply with some of the parental goods. He married two years after his father's death. Jaroszynski was the father of three children. He has held the post of county marshal of Mohilov in Poland. Jaroszynski was a knight of the Order of Anne and the Order of Malta . P. 20

crisis

Despite apparently good financial resources and a political career, Jaroszynski must have lived far beyond his means. He had high debts of over a million Polish guilders, which his brother had undertaken to repay. According to a report by the Podolean lieutenant governor to the Tsarevich on June 8, 1827, his debt was at least 290,000 rubles. A considerable sum was also missing from the official treasury, which he had to manage as District Marshal of Mohilov. P. 20

Jaroszynski soon lived apart from his wife and family.

Escape to Vienna

In June 1826 he came back to Vienna, supposedly to visit the baths in Baden near Vienna. In fact, he continued his lavish life, took on a false title of count and gained admission to Viennese society with expensive invitations. His business card had the designation "Le Comte Sévérin Jaroszynsky, Marechal de Mohilev", etc . He was able to impress the ladies with invented military titles, medals allegedly received from the Tsar himself, and his urbane demeanor, while contemporaries such as the theater man Ferdinand Raimund viewed him skeptically (quote: ... I didn't tell you that the cream puff comes from a long way off , but it is not far ... ) P. 86/87

After the cash he had brought with him had been used up within a few months and his hopes for high winnings were not fulfilled, Jaroszynski found himself in dire financial embarrassment due to debts and pledges. He tried to circumvent requests from his government for official accounts by pleading illness after his vacation had expired. Finally, the Grand Duke Constantine , who resided in Warsaw, forced him to return home via the Russian embassy in Vienna. P. 20

In this, in his view, hopeless situation, Jaroszynski decided to solve his problems with a capital crime.

Victim Johann Conrad Blank

Murder of Blank

Jaroszynski remembered Professor Conrad Blank who had taught him mathematics twelve years earlier. He assumed that he had gold and silver values, but on page 24 he learned from his first contact that Blank had made provisions for his age with bank shares and bonds and deposited them with a friend to be on the safe side.

He took advantage of the almost 70-year-old's trust and asked him for help. Allegedly he wanted to acquire such securities and feared that he would be cheated. Jaroszynski asked to be able to look at various originals to be on the safe side. The unsuspecting Blank showed him only a few smaller values ​​at the first meeting, which prevented Jaroszynski, who was already determined to murder, from the act. When Blank showed his former student more valuable documents on February 13, 1827 from his depository with eight five percent bonds with a face value of 6100 guilders, the latter drew a kitchen knife and murdered him with several blows and stabs. He took the securities and immediately converted them into cash. For the securities he received about 5,400 guilders, of which he settled part of his debts, bought a ring and financed his farewell banquet. P. 26

Death sentence

Education, judgment and execution

When the otherwise always reliable Blank did not show up for a lecture, his apartment was opened and his battered corpse was found. Although the investigative authority suspected a robbery, initially had no evidence of missing valuables. Then a list of the securities blanks appeared, but again one looked in vain.

Nonetheless, the papers that Jaroszynski had anonymously traded in were quickly tracked down and he was arrested four days later on February 16 during his big farewell party. Coincidentally, on the same occasion, the representatives of the Russian embassy who ultimately wanted to persuade Jaroszynski to return home were present.

Jaroszynski denied the act, but told a fellow inmate while in custody that he might have been seen by a woman during his visits to Blank. The woman, who was soon found to be the newspaper deliverer, spoke of a man who appeared scary to her, dressed in a striking blue coat, whom she recognized when confronted.

After a sensational closed trial was death sentence on 30 August of the public at the execution site "New Viennese gallows" on Wienerberg by the train completed. The number of onlookers who watched the event on the streets and at the place of execution was estimated at more than 200,000, not counting those who could watch the sad procession from the window. P. 39 This number from the novel “Therese Krones” by Adolf Bäuerle is not otherwise mentioned in contemporary reports.

Therese Krones

society

Out of his countless women acquaintances, the popular Viennese actress Therese Krones deserves special mention, whose lifestyle was also seen by the public as wasteful. The murder case threw the unsuspecting 25-year-old mistress Jaroszynskis from her brilliant career. She disappeared from social life in Vienna and wanted to go to a monastery. Ferdinand Raimund managed to get her back to the theater after several months of pleading.

Karl Haffner processed the sensational criminal case literarily in his work on Johann Nestroy and Wenzel Scholz .

reporting

During the execution , the examining magistrate said that the case "ran through almost all of Europe, although it was disfigured in the most shameless way . " P. 39

The Jaroszynski case continues to preoccupy literature today. The coverage of the crime itself, the investigation, the conviction and Jaroszynski's public execution with huge sympathy are considered to be a prime example of sensational journalism with no truthful reproduction of facts in favor of excessive indignation that attracts the public. The hallmarks are the prominence of details from the private life of well-known people - here the popular and at the same time envied actress Krones - as well as the mythization of a mysterious world alien to ordinary citizens - here the theater. P. 18

It should also be mentioned that Carl Haffner processed the material in the 1850s and 1860s not only in a novel, but also in a dramatic genre picture with song and dance (a kind of folk operetta, so to speak).

In 2009, the ORF produced a documentary radio play about the case long ago, which was reconstructed by the author Andreas Kloner with the help of interrogation protocols and newspaper articles.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i see literature Michael Kirchschlager: The girl murderer Hugo Schenk: Austria's great criminal cases
  2. ↑ own information in his later interrogation
  3. ↑ a b see literature Gerhard Robert Walter von Coeckelberghe-Dützele: Curiositäten- und Memorabilien-Lexicon von Wien
  4. ↑ see Literature General Repertory
  5. ↑ a b see literature Carl Haffner: Scholz and Nestroy: Roman from the artist's life
  6. ↑ see web link Austrian observer about the crime against Johann Conrad Blank
  7. ↑ a b see web link Konrad Blank in Franz Joseph Weizenegger and M. Merkle: Vorarlberg, from the papers of the priest Franz Joseph Weizenegger, who died in Bregemz
  8. ↑ see literature Barbara Tumfart: Mangled by a nefarious bandit. The Jaroszynski criminal case in Vienna in reality and fiction
  9. ↑ see literature Carl Haffner
  10. ↑ ORF: The very last meal ( memento of the original from July 29, 2013 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. , accessed August 27, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hoerspieleipps.net
personal data
SURNAME Jaroszynski, Severin von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish nobleman, impostor and murderer
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Podolia
DATE OF DEATH August 30, 1827
Place of death Vienna