robber

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A robber is a person who commits or has committed robbery . In legal parlance, the robber, unlike the thief , uses force or threatens it.

history

There have been robbers at all times. Grave thieves, so-called grave robbers , were already known in Egypt in Pharaonic times , and human robbers are known from Roman times with the legendary robbery of the Sabine women . The New Testament speaks of the good Samaritan who helped a person who fell among the robbers. Barrabas, released instead of Jesus for the Passover festival , was also a robber.

There were also pirates or pirates since ancient times, who were fought by the Greek and Roman fleets even then. The most famous German pirate was Klaus Störtebeker . On the other hand, pirates legalized by states, so-called privateers like Francis Drake , were used to improve state finances.

Until the late Middle Ages, robbers were often organized in bands of robbers, possibly also on horses (and possibly also with [their own, stolen] armor and even castles ) - the latter, in its entirety (later, however, rather without [obvious] armor or even just still in the figurative sense) also called "robber baronism". These often represented authoritarian communities that still existed in the 17th and into the 18th century. Such a band of robbers usually consisted of a robber chief and his followers who were linked by an oath to death. The members of the band of robbers were previously mostly lepers , outcasts or deserters and outlaws . Often times these robbers were desperate and saw no other way out to survive.

This structure of the robber gangs changed over time. Later, the term band of robbers can be understood more as a loose community that came together for an action, such as a street robbery, and then dissolved again. In the 19th century only this type of band of robbers was usually found. The leader was usually the one who particularly distinguished himself through his actions or his skills or who knew best or had explored (explored) the place or person to be robbed.

In Germany, especially after the Seven Years' War and during the Revolutionary Wars, there was an increased occurrence of bands of robbers. The permanent social and economic crisis as a result of these wars uprooted many people and caused them to join a band of robbers. Organized crime increased around 1800, particularly in the Spessart , but also in large areas of central and southern Germany and in the Rhine area. Even today, not only in poorer countries, there are bands of robbers and pirate attacks, such as in East Africa ( Somalia ) and in Southeast Asia ( Strait of Malacca ).

Until the 19th century there were numerous special terms for the classification of robbers and thieves, most of which came from the criminal milieu. So were Jomakener robbers who raided the villages at harvest time, safeblower thieves who silently entered the houses at night, Stänkerer casual thieves, robbers, in residential areas. Strate sweepers (also street sweepers ) were street robbers, and serfer (also rezoirsärfner ) were called thieves / robbers who committed their crimes in connection with arson.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, stagecoach robberies and spectacular bank robbers in the press and audiovisual media became known. These include criminals such as the bank-robbing Dalton brothers , John Dillinger or the robber couple Bonnie and Clyde . The legendary mail robbery in England in 1963 is also included.

In Germany, the box office robbers caused a stir. In southern Germany, Johannes Bückler , the "Schinderhannes" from the Hunsrück in the late 18th century, was the model for Bernhard Kimmel and his Kimmel gang named after him, who carried out raids and break-ins in the Palatinate Forest from 1957 to 1961 .

Handbag theft is almost commonplace in many large cities in the wake of procurement crime.

Known robbers

Well-known robbers and robber gangs were:

The Augenroller the old department store in Koblenz is said Johann Lutter Kobern represent

Robbers in Art and Literature

At the end of the 18th century, a rapidly expanding genre of the entertainment novel , the so-called robber novel, emerged . Interest was aroused on the one hand by the newly awakened preoccupation with the Middle Ages, on the other hand by the dramas by Goethe ( Götz von Berlichingen , the figure of a robber knight ) and Schiller ( The Robbers ). The robber novels of that time emphasized the image of the great fellow and ideal of the noble criminal laid out in Schiller's Karl Moor and let their robbers and robber gangs act against the law , but for justice . Particularly noteworthy here are Heinrich Zschokke's novel Abällino, the great bandit (1793) and Christian August Vulpius ' book Rinaldo Rinaldini, the robber captain (1798). It is characteristic of the “noble robber” that he robs the rich and gives gifts to the poor.

Above all, the robbers as literary figures include:

There is evidence that at least the Spessart robbers mentioned by Hauff existed and, above all , robbed traders on the so-called Eselsweg and Birkenhainer Straße , who transported salt and other goods, and demanded a ransom for the merchants.

In the 20th century, the robber romance was often played down again for children and in some works also relativized pedagogically.

Films:

Idioms

Colloquially, a number of idioms are used, e.g. B.

  • Here it looks like a robber's den = it's very messy here
  • Don't tell robber pistols = don't tell (untrue, exaggerated) stories
  • To wear robber civilian clothes = to be dressed inappropriately for the situation

In political life, Augustine compares states without the rule of law with bands of robbers: Remota itaque iustitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia? Quia et latrocinia quid sunt nisi parva regna? ( De Civitate Dei , Liber IV, 4); Analogous translation "Take away the rule of law, what are states if not large robber gangs? For what are robber gangs but small states?"

In biology , a predator is also an animal that makes itself a victim of another , see above definition of terms, predator-prey relationship , predator .

literature

  • Heiner Boehncke, Hans Sarkowicz (Hrsg.): The German robber gangs . Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen, undated, ISBN 3-86070-767-1 .
  • 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, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1988, ISBN 3-518-28307-3 .
  • Thomas Grünewald: robbers, rebels, rivals, avengers. Studies on "latrones" in the Roman Empire . Steiner, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-515-07489-9 .
  • Uwe Danker : The story of the robbers and crooks . Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2001, ISBN 3-538-07118-7 .
  • Elke Lackner: The robber in European literature: fictionalization, fictionalization and literarization of a popular figure in the 18th and 19th centuries . Dissertation, University of Graz 2012 ( full text )
  • Werner Riess: Apuleius and the robbers. A contribution to historical crime research . Steiner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3-515-07826-9 (Heidelberg Ancient History Contributions and Epigraphic Studies, Volume 35).
  • History issue September 9/08, Title: Robbers, Knights, Gallows Birds - Robin Hood - Beyond the Law from Schinderhannes to Jesse James . Nuremberg 2008, ISSN  1617-9412
  • Heinz J. Galle: Räuber , in: Heinrich Pleticha, Siegried Augustin: Lexicon of adventure and travel literature from Africa to Winnetou , Edition Erdmann, Stuttgart, Vienna, Bern 1999, ISBN 3 522 60002 9
  • Thomas D. Meier : Robbers. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . December 16, 2011 .
  • Norbert Finzsch : Robbers and gendarmes in the Rhineland: The gang system in the four Rhenish departments before and during the time of the French administration (1794-1814) . In: Francia: Research on Western European History. 1987; 15: p. 453-471.

Web links

Wiktionary: robbers  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ on horses → mounted , hence also called robber knights ; see also under knight and Wiktionary: de: beritten as well as cavalry
  2. ^ Robber barons - Duden , 2018
  3. ^ Robber barons - DWDS , 2018
  4. ↑ From the history of the robber gangs on the two banks of the Main, in the Spessart and in the Odenwalde , page 202.
  5. ↑ Christian Rochlitz: The essence and doings of crooks and fraudsters together with details of measures to protect against robbery, theft and fraud, and a dictionary of thief language . CFSchmidt, Leipzig 1846