Stradefooters

The Stradafüßler were a band of robbers who, from 1822 to 1827 , spread fear and terror in the border area of Styria , southern Lower Austria and today's Burgenland , then western Hungary . The term Stradafüßler means "people who hang around on the country road" , so tramps and thieves. Their leader Nikolaus Schmidhofer, called Holzknechtseppl , and a few other gang members were executed in Pinkafeld and Güns in 1827, 1828 and 1830 .

Basics

The life story of the Holzknechtsseppl and the story of his band of robbers often mixes reality and fiction . In the villages of the catchment area of ​​the robber and his gang there was a lively legend formation in the course of the 19th century, so that it is often very difficult to determine which events are historically correct.

see also: Holzknechtseppl

Organization of the band of robbers

In an interrogation, Schmidhofer confessed that he had joined the Stradafüßler in the “last days of Carnival” of 1822 . This suggests that there had been a loose association of thieves and deserters in the border area before him . The suffering of the population only really began after he became the leader of the gang.

The organization was made up of many perpetrators who more or less took a lot of guilt. Some belonged to the hard core, others were followers in the sense of stealers , accommodation providers or co- sleepers , meaning different women in the border area who had romantic relationships with some gang members. The Holzknechtseppl betrayed many of these people during his first interrogation by the Criminal Investigation Commission in Pinkafeld in 1826. Others, including some important main perpetrators, he probably had wisely not mentioned (these are indicated by different sources). For most of them he only knew the robber's name and not the official spelling:

• Gekrauster Seppl or Krauster Sepp , actually Joseph Michael Freyberger, (born January 31, 1794 in Pertlstein ; † July 7, 1827 with Strange executed in Pinkafeld), subordinate of the robber gang; Deserter; was considered particularly brutal
• Fleischhacker Hans , actually Johann Niesner, (* around 1778 in Neufang near Olomouc - † July 7th, 1827 executed with the Strange in Pinkafeld), subordinate of the robber gang, deserter, was also considered particularly brutal
• Privy Councilor or Naßl or Kollerl , actually Joseph Koller, (* February 2, 1801 in Althodis ; † July 7, 1827 with Strange, executed in Pinkafeld ), deserter
• Gold hoods or peep boxes , actually Georg Richter, (* around 1800 in Bavaria ), scouts of the gang were out with an organ organ
• Large tobacco company Lippel , actually Philipp Brandmüller, († March 1, 1830 executed with Strange in Güns), deserter
• Gypsy Jantsi
• Gypsy Seppel
• Gypsy Toni
• Goiter Paul from Neustift
• Ghatscht Hansirgl (Limping Hans-Georg)
• Schlosser , actually Johann Gangl, was considered harmless, but fell for his cronies
• Nine fingers
• Wasenmeister Hansel , murdered by Johann Niesner
• Schoolmaster von Pottendorf , actually Franz Eichleutner, sentenced to death by hanging in Eisenburg on August 1, 1827 , then pardoned to severe prison sentence
• Matthias Krodatsch, landlord and fence, sentenced to death by hanging in Eisenburg on August 1, 1827, then pardoned to severe prison sentence
• Magdalena Witzelsberger, landlady in Litzelsdorf , lover of Joseph Freyberger, sentenced to death by the sword in Eisenburg on August 1, 1827, after which she was pardoned to severe prison sentence
• Simon Laschober, landlord in Mönichkirchen
• Maria Driwenschak, mistress of Simon Laschober
• Viennese shoemaker , actually Leopold Seichter († July 27, 1828 died while imprisoned in Pinkafeld)
• Passau Seppl
• Bricklayer Toni
• Servant Wastl
• Jakom Franzel
• Little Hansel
• Gypsy Miska from Kitzladen
• Little Lippl (Philipp)
• Urban
• Schleider
• Hunter Natzel
• Bohemian Liesl
• Kralabatsch from Höflein
• Mitzel of the little Hansel
• Gwandtner
• Albertl
• little weavers
• Butterhansel
• Anna Weber, landlady of the forest inn at Unterschützen , lover of Nikolaus Schmidhofer
• Frantschitsch, administrator of sub-shooters

The robbers used their criminal energy exclusively to earn their own living. The target group of their activities were not rich merchants, but mostly the common people in the form of owners or residents of farms. The loot was usually in kind and clothing, i.e. what was needed for everyday life. There was thus no trace of Robin Hood romance anywhere, which also explains the hatred and fear that the population showed them.

The Stradafüßler carried out their raids in an area that stretched from Wildon , Mariazell to Steinamanger , Eisenstadt , Pamhagen and Pressburg . While Styria and Lower Austria were the areas in which the crimes were committed, western Hungary, i.e. today's Burgenland, served as a retreat. Here it was the bars in Ollersdorf , Unterschützen, Rotenturm and Litzelsdorf, where they felt safe. The robbers also had love affairs with some of the innkeepers. The innkeeper widow Magdalena Witzelsberger from Litzelsdorf was Joseph Freyberger's lover, while Nikolaus Schmidhofer had a love-hate relationship with Anna Weber, the landlady of the Waldwirthaus in Wartenau in Unterschützen. In order to remain undisturbed in these areas of retreat, the robbers were initially very cautious about their misdeeds and sometimes bought the favor of the inn visitors through generosity.

The crimes of the pedestrians

Bund with duplicate keys in the Pinkafeld City Museum, which was used by the gang.

As already mentioned at the beginning, in the 19th century there were lively legends about the deeds of the band of robbers. The history of the Stradafüßler has been passed on from generation to generation and is often embellished with more and more details. The brutal behavior of the robbers towards their victims, which was reflected in some very gruesome stories, also contributed to this. Especially the two sub-leaders Joseph Freyberger and Johann Niesner were feared because of their brutality and joy in torture and torture. It is no coincidence that Niesner carried the robber name Fleischhacker Hans . Although many of these legends do not stand up to comparison with the trial files, many of the stories are still in circulation almost 200 years after what actually happened.

At their first interrogation in Pinkafeld, the gang confessed to 14 thefts, 22 robberies, two church robberies, three rapes, two arson and 10 murders. This number rose to 14 murders, 54 robberies, 48 ​​thefts, 4 rapes and 3 arson during the course of the trial. The financial damage was given as 23,844 guilders, for comparison, a cow cost between 100 and 150 guilders at the time.

The vernacular also knows about many encounters with the members of the robber gang, which were harmless or ended lightly. Most of these events are of course hardly verifiable for their veracity after such a long time.

A story that has stood the test of time, and is almost certainly true, was the attack on the alley farm by Philipp and Anna Wagner in Königsberg, Aspangberg-St. Peter . The Stradafüßler wanted to steal the money from the farmer couple that they had earned by selling oxen. Since both refused to hand over the proceeds, the robbers dipped the farmer's hands in a batter that she had just made. Then they put their hands in the boiling fat. The woman survived the ordeal, but died of its consequences on December 6, 1824 at the age of 28 (death register Aspang VII / 181). A wooden marterl first reminded of this event , which was replaced by a memorial stone in 1971 after it had rotten .

A professional group that particularly attracted the robbers was the glaziers . These often went from house to house and carried their glass panes on their backs in a carrying frame ("Kraxn") in order to be able to carry out small repairs on the farmhouses. According to legend, they made the poor fellows who had fallen into their hands climb trees with their glasses and then shot them down from the summit. The impact of the glasses is said to have given the rabble of thieves, and especially the woodcutter seppl, great joy. There was such an incident with a dead glazier between Schmiedrait and Götzendorf . A local ried in this area is called Glasgraben , the name may be connected to this event. A 15-year-old glass wearer from Slovakia was caught in the same way when the lumberjack seppl and his band of robbers ravaged his native region, the Tyrnau. A third such incident is said to have occurred in Kaltenberg, Lichtenegg municipality . A Dreifaltigkeitsmarterl set up in the Reintalwald not far from the crime scene is supposed to commemorate the murdered Glaser even today.

In some traditions about the crimes of the band of robbers, deaths are also described in which the victims were tied up in anthills. For example, a girl is said to have been caught in an unknown location in Styria and a peddler in Tyrnau, the home of Nikolaus Schmidhofer.

According to the vernacular, the Holzknechtseppl and his cronies in Tyrnau were also responsible for the murder of Anna Wurm and her two children, Maria (15 years) and Katharina (8 years). While this incident is likely a legend, a similar criminal case is clearly historically documented. The victims were the Wegmacher family Kerschbaumer, who lived in a hut on Sattelweg in Trattenbach am Sonnwendstein . The family belonged to the Stradafüßler group and repeatedly gave shelter to the robbers. In May 1826, Nikolas Schmidhofer and Joseph Freyberger stayed with the Kerschbaumers for a few days and were provoked by the waymaker's wife, Josefa Kerschbaumer. She wanted money from them for the stay. This angered the two criminals so much that the catastrophe broke out on the night of May 11th, 1826. The Holzknecht Seppl and curled Sepp murdered parents Franz and Josefa Kerschbaumer and their daughter Maria (according to sources from 12 to 16 years old) and set fire to the family home to. There was also a fourth fatality with the foster daughter Juliane (between 3 and 10 years old, according to the source), who probably burned alive because the robbers had forgotten her, as Schmidhofer later admitted during interrogation.

In the realm of legend, the stories are probably settled in which the woodcutter seppl claimed to have already eaten seven children's hearts and he wanted to get the number of nine hearts in order to become invisible. In the various traditions, two murders of children, namely in Edlitz and in the Rax area, have been preserved. In Riedlingsdorf he is said to have spared an 8-year-old girl when he was staying at her parents' house because it was so restless all night. If it had been quiet, he told her parents the next day, he would have murdered it.

The murders of Joseph Freyberger alias Gekrauster Sepp of a certain Mathias Mihalits from Eisenstadt and of gang member Wasenmeister Hansel can be historically proven . There were also two deaths when the stradefooters escaped from their prison in Pinkafeld on May 31, 1827. The robbers murdered the corporal of the security team and the Pinkafelder screen maker Andreas Hutter. Joseph Koller, aka Privy Councilor , was responsible for one of these two . He was also found guilty of the murder of a Jew between Klingenbach and Ödenburg .

Arrest and convict the gang

Formation of the commission and first arrest

In 1826 even Kaier Franz II./I. deal with this matter, painting by Giuseppe Tominz , 1821

Batthyány Castle in Pinkafeld, now houses a vocational school

Immediately next to the Evangelical Church, the refugees shot the master sieve maker Andreas Hutter

The gang got cheekier over the years. Pastor Joseph Michael Weinhofer reported in his school report that on June 8, 1826 in Pinkafeld four sprightly guys broke through the roof into Joseph Supper's house and injured him and his wife. One day later they robbed a church in Dechantskirchen .

The plague had now reached a dimension that Emperor Franz II./I. had to deal with this matter. One problem was that four different institutions felt responsible for this case: the Archduchy of the Enns (Lower Austria), the Duchy of Styria, the Kingdom of Hungary and the military justice system, the latter because some of the criminals were deserters. In order to better coordinate the procedures of these four organizations, a special criminal organization was set up in Batthyány Castle in Pinkafeld in 1826 .

There is different information in the historical sources about the details of the establishment of this commission or the capture of the robbers. In the school chronicle of Pastor Weinhofer it is reported that this commission first met on January 23, 1827 in Batthyány Castle. On the part of Austria and Styria, the chief magistrate from Leoben, Herr von Graefe, and the Graz magistrate, Herr von Pontner, were sent. The military representative was Mr. von Petrovics and that of Hungary was the noble Mr. Ignatz von Szerdahelyi, who was entrusted with the management of the commission.

About the capture of the most important representatives of the Stradafüßler , the story has been preserved in the Pinkafelder area that on March 12, 1827 Schmidhofer, Freyberger, Niesner and 10 other gang members from Riedlingsdorfer Mähern were seen going to the forest inn in the Wartenau near Unterschützen. The soldiers alerted by the Riedlingsdorfers were then able to surround the inn and arrest the gang.

For Christoph Tepperberg, the head of the Austrian War Archives and proven expert in this matter, fiction and truth are mixed here. According to his state of research, the commission was set up as early as 1826 and the Stradafüßler were already in custody in autumn 1826, from which they managed to escape for a short time on May 30, 1827. From his point of view, this episode of the capture happened either in the autumn of 1826 or in the course of the complete reintroduction of the main perpetrators on June 13, 1827. The approval of the kk Allgemeine Hofkammer on September 30, 1827 speaks in favor of the latter date to pay out considerable sums as a reward for bringing the criminals back in.

Breakout from prison on 30./31. May 1827

The Pinkafelder pillory , where Nikolaus Schmidhofer had to spend three days

The date of the breakout from prison, which was housed in the Mathias-Obergmeiner-Haus rented especially for this purpose, is historically certain. The guard consisted of soldiers from the Radivojev Infantry Line Regiment . As the negotiations dragged on, the main culprits who were arrested, Schmidhofer, Freyberger, Niesner and 14 others, were able to bribe a soldier from the sentry. They promised him the sum of 700 guilders if he would send them two pocket knives, which he did. For two weeks they saw with their pocket knives on the chain rings with which their feet were tied. In order not to betray themselves by the noises of the saw, they prayed the rosary out loud. On the night of May 30th to May 31st, 1827 between midnight and 1 a.m., seven prisoners finally managed to escape. They shot the corporal of the sentry on watch and there was a second victim in the Kirchengasse right next to the Evangelical Church. The master screen maker Andreas Hutter from Pinkafel stood intrepid in their way and paid with his life for it. Several other soldiers and a second civilian were also injured. The storm bell rang the pinka fields from sleep.

The fear of the citizens was so great that Pinkafeld and the surrounding communities of Willersdorf , Oberschützen, Grafenschachen , Aschau, Kroisegg and Riedlingsdorf turned to the emperor with a petition and applied for martial law. Although Emperor Franz II / I. was very angry about the violation of the arrest of the Stradafüßler , he forbade the civil treatment, i.e. the immediate execution, of the escaped in the event of a possible capture.

On June 1, the head of the investigative commission, Ignatz von Szerdahelyi, issued a profile describing the outbreak of the Stradafeet and the atrocities that took place. The authorities of the towns and villages were ordered to have forests, larger trees and ravines, but above all lonely houses, guarded by six sprightly men for the next 14 days. A bounty of 50 ducats was offered for every fugitive robber , while severe penalties were promised for any support for the fugitives. The profile also contained a personal description of four main perpetrators:

Nikolaus Schmidhofer alias Holzknechtseppl was described in the profile as a tall, stocky man with a round, well-colored face and a broad forehead. According to this document, he had light brown eyes and dark brown eyelashes, beautifully formed, narrow eyebrows and an elongated, pointed nose with a small mouth. He had a round chin and healthy white teeth. His dark brown hair and his beard were cut short and according to the profile he was missing the first link on his left hand.

Georg Richter alias Goldhaube was described as having a large, strong stature and a somewhat broad, fully freckled face. He had short red hair, gray eyes, a medium nose and strong cheekbones. Joseph Freyberger alias Krauster Sepp was described as having a large, stocky stature. He had black hair and black eyebrows and a black beard. The eyes were gray and the nose pointed. Joseph Koller alias Naßl alias privy councilor was described as stocky with an elongated pale face. The pointy nose was a bit "protruding" and the gray eyes were set deep. The profile also showed that Richter, Freyberger and Koller were deserters. Interestingly, Johann Niesner, the butcher Hans , was not mentioned in this document.

The profile, the pressure from the emperor and probably the reward promised soon had an effect. The gang was recaptured within 14 days. Whether this, as Christoph Tepperberg suspects, took place thanks to the Riedlingsdorfer mower or whether Schmidhofer, as another traditional version tells, was betrayed by a woman because of the bounty, can no longer be clearly clarified.

Conviction and execution of the main perpetrators

Signature of Pastor Michael Weinhofer.

Conviction and execution of Joseph Koller, Johann Niesner and Joseph Freyberger on July 7, 1827

Since Joseph Koller, Johann Niesner and Joseph Freyberger were deserters, they were brought to a military court in Güns and sentenced to death by hanging.

Joseph Koller, alias Privy Councilor , was charged with deserting four times, eight thefts and two robberies with a total damage of 901 guilders, as well as the murder of a Jew between Ödenburg and Klingenbach and the murder of the corporal on watch when he broke out of prison in Pinkafeld.

Johann Niesner, alias Fleischhacker Hans , was accused of three desertions, 12 robberies and 6 thefts with a total loss of 558 guilders. He was also held responsible for two murders. According to the court in Eisenstadt, he had killed a certain Mathias Mihalits and his companion Wasenmeister Hansel on his conscience.

Joseph Freyberger alias Krauste Sepp was accused of two desertions, three arson, 18 robberies and theft in a castle in Styria. Also two murders that are not described in detail.

After the verdict was announced, the three murderers were transferred back to Pinkafeld, where the execution was to take place on July 7, 1827. Pastor Weinhofer had the task of delivering the last food to the death row inmates on July 6th. He did this on a very large scale by solemnly marching with the school youth from the church to the prison, praying and singing, where he was expected by a large crowd and immediately used the opportunity to admonish the population. The execution took place the next day, a Saturday. No less than 8,000 spectators attended this spectacle on the Pinkafelder court mountain.

According to the Weinhofer Chronicle, Joseph Koller was the first to be hanged. He died ruefully and begged those present for forgiveness. Johann Niesner was the second in line and when the hangman put the rope around his neck, twice pleaded with God for mercy. Joseph Freyberger was hanged third. He did not say a word and became senseless when the executioner also put the rope on him. Freyberger had only come to terms with his fate in the last two days before the execution, had found his peace with God and publicly asked for forgiveness. When he was sentenced in Güns, he had raged and insulted the court so that he had to be punished with 17 strokes of the stick.

Weinhofer also took this opportunity to speak in front of such a large crowd to remind the population to stay on the right path.

Conviction of other gang members in Eisenburg (Vasvar) on August 1, 1827

The next verdict against members of the gang was passed by the Eisenburg County Court on August 1, 1827. Here, too, some of the perpetrators were sentenced to death, but Emperor Franz converted these death sentences into severe prison sentences.

Originally Franz Eichleutner, headmaster from Pottendorf, and Matthias Krodatsch, landlord and fence, were sentenced to death by hanging. The landlady of Litzelsdorf Magdalena Witzelsberger, Joseph Freyberger's lover, was sentenced to death by the sword. Her execution was also converted into a prison sentence by the emperor's act of grace. Simon Laschober received three years 'arrest and 30 lashes every six months, his lover Maria Driwenschak received six months' arrest and 40 lashes.

Leopold Seichter, a shoemaker from Vienna, another gang member died of dropsy of the breast in prison on July 27, 1827 before his sentence was pronounced.

Execution of Nikolaus Schmidhofer in Pinkafeld on November 20, 1828

The leader of the gang, Nikolaus Schmidhofer alias Holzknechtseppl , spent more than 16 months in prison until his execution on November 20, 1828. He was charged with participating in 14 murders, of which he himself committed 5, 3 arson, 54 robbery or involvement in such, 48 theft or participation in such, 2 acts of public violence, 4 rapes and flammable arson. The damage he and his cronies had caused was estimated at 23,824 guilders.

The Weinhofer Chronicle also reports a remarkable change in the culprit. During the time of his imprisonment, probably also because of the influence of Pastor Weinhofer, he changed from Saul to Paul. This is also expressed in a farewell letter that he, whether dictated or written personally, can no longer be determined, addressed to his two sisters on November 17, 1828. He described in it that he originally wanted to evade military service and then got more and more on the wrong track. In this letter Schmidhofer compared his wrong path with that of a fire that was only a small spark at the beginning and then went up in an all-consuming flame. He saw himself as a chilling example and worried about the development of his sisters' children. Schmidhofer also asked for forgiveness and hoped for God's grace. The letter was signed by your dying brother Nikolaus Schmithofer Holzknecht Sepl . The letter itself survived the centuries in an adventurous way.

Pastor Weinhofer also reported that Nikolaus Schmidhofer had fine white linen linen made for him with the money he had given him and kept praying when he stood in the pillory in Pinkafeld for three days. He received the holy sacraments and calmly looked forward to his execution. On November 20, 1828, a Thursday, up to 20,000 people gathered on the hill of justice to watch the spectacle of the execution of the wood servant seppl. Before Schmidhofer was taken to the execution site, he knelt in front of the crucifix and prayed for the authorities and the people he murdered or who he had caused harm. As Weinhofer wrote in the school chronicle, he died without a sweat and even as he went up to the gallows asked all those present for forgiveness and reminded them to take a warning from him. The whole ceremony had a great effect on the crowd.

The next day, Pastor Weinhofer gave a stand speech in which he reported once again about the misdeeds of the woodcutter but also about its positive change at the end of his life.

Execution of Philipp Brandmüller in Güns on March 1, 1830

The persecution of the Stradafüßler gang came to an end with the execution of the deserter Philipp Brandmüller, alias Großer Tabakträger Lippl, on March 1st, 1830 in Güns.

Résumé

The story of the Stradafüßler represents the most important criminal case in the region of the triangle of Styria, Lower Austria and Burgenland. The gang terrorized the residents for five years and murdered at least 14 people. Numerous material goods were stolen or destroyed and fear was omnipresent in people's everyday lives. These circumstances even made it necessary for the emperor to actively participate in the event twice. All this has meant that the story of the Holzknecht Seppl , the Fleischhacker Hans , the curly Sepp and the other evildoers still part of the national good of the region.

Trivia

Stories about the band of robbers and their leader have been the subject of theater productions and dissertations :

• The theater group Serapionstheater designed the play “Die Stradafüßler” in 1973 (based on an episode from the Pinkafelder chronicle by Joseph Michael Weinhofer).
• The Musical & Stage - Dance Company Burgenland designed a youth musical in two acts in 2009, with the story of the Holzknechtseppl being discussed in the second act .
• Johannes Pratl dedicated a few pages to the history of the woodcutter in his dissertation on Pastor Joseph Michael Weinhofer.
• The Gunstverein told the story of the Stradafüßler and their leaders with texts by Nikolaus Link as part of the quarter festival by a narrator, pieces of music and scenes in summer 2019 in inns in the Bucklige Welt and the surrounding area under the name: "The Robber Passion".

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Christoph Tepperberg: Der Holzknechtseppl from Festschrift 680 Jahre Marktgemeinde Riedlingsdorf page 20 , Riedlingsdorf 2011, publisher Marktgemeinde Riedlingsdorf
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 928 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
3. ^ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 929 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
4. ^ ^{A b} Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 930 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
5. ^ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 943 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
6. ^ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 948 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber chief from Edlitz - our home community page 950 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Christoph Tepperberg: Der Holzknechtseppl from Festschrift 680 Jahre Marktgemeinde Riedlingsdorf page 21 , Riedlingsdorf 2011, publisher Marktgemeinde Riedlingsdorf
9. ↑ Christoph Tepperberg: Der Holzknechtseppl from Festschrift 680 Jahre Marktgemeinde Riedlingsdorf page 21 and 22 , Riedlingsdorf 2011, publisher Marktgemeinde Riedlingsdorf
10. ^ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community, page 934 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
11. ^ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 931 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
12. ^ ^{A b c} Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community, page 937 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
13. ^ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 938 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
14. ^ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 939 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
15. ^ ^{A b c} Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 942 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
16. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Joseph Michael Weinhofer: School protocol 1825-1829 ( Weinhofer Chronicle ) , accessed on January 24, 2014
17. ↑ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 944 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
18. ↑ ^{a b} Christoph Tepperberg: Der Holzknechtseppl from Festschrift 680 Jahre Marktgemeinde Riedlingsdorf page 23 , Riedlingsdorf 2011, publisher Marktgemeinde Riedlingsdorf
19. ↑ ^{a b} Christoph Tepperberg: Der Holzknechtseppl from Festschrift 680 Jahre Marktgemeinde Riedlingsdorf page 22 , Riedlingsdorf 2011, publisher Marktgemeinde Riedlingsdorf
20. ^ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 946 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
21. ^ ^{A b} Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community page 947 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
22. ^ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community, pages 948 to 950 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
23. ↑ Johann Anton Laschober: From the life of a robber captain from Edlitz - our home community, pages 950 to 954 , Edlitz 1992, publisher Marktgemeinde Edlitz
24. ↑ Joseph Michael Weinhofer: Stand speech when Nikolaus Schmiedhofer, commonly known as Holzknecht-Seppel, was executed with the Strange on November 20, 1828 , accessed on January 24, 2014
25. ↑ Der Standard: What visionaries discover in paradise , website accessed on January 25, 2014
26. ↑ Musical & Stage - Dance Company: Sagical Burgenland - Hexenwaldl ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2014 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. , Website accessed on January 25, 2014 
27. ↑ Mag.Johannes Pratl: Joseph Michael Weinhofer (1778-1859), A Pioneer of Catholic Renewal in German-speaking West Hungary , dissertation, University of Vienna , January 2011, website accessed on January 25, 2014
28. ↑ Homepage of the Räuberpassion: https: //www.räuberpassion.at Website accessed on May 31, 2019