I recently looked into the family history of the infamous robber Schinderhannes after a report that his skeleton was identified. Since then, I've retrieved a few books about the robbers from the library of our "family museum" and read most of
Schinderhannes und seine Bande
by Uwe Anhäuser
Rhein-Mosel-Verlag 2003
which throws around a lot of information in terms of names and quotes from the judicial procedures, but isn't very clearly structured. Although I haven't spotted any obvious connection with the names of the robbers (listed eg here), it occurred to me that a few of the victims and witnesses mentioned in the book could potentially be connected to my ancestry in the Hunsrück area (the ancestors of the Imig and the Kauer clans), so I went through the CV and the list of the crimes at the back of the book and wrote out the names (with place of residence) I could find. There's not much point in having a chronological order, as the whole crime spree was limited to just a few years, so I'll list victims and witnesses in alphabetical order here. NB the list of crimes is often missing first names, whereas the CV is only covering selected victims, and the spelling of names may differ between the two sources. I skipped a few where the information was too thin to be useful or victims were not from the area of interest.
André, NN, brigadier from Sobernheim (we have Andrae people as well, hailing from Gebroth, but our last male Andrae ancestor died 1765)
Andres, Franz, butcher at Kirn (must be related to the butchers family from which the founders of the local brewery emerged)
Bär, Jakob, Merxheim
Benedikt, Salomon, in Erbes-Büdesheim
Bernhard, Valentin, Waldgrehweiler
Frei, Anne Marie, hosted the robbers in Hahnenbach (where my relatives only arrived after Schinderhannes's death)
Frenger, NN, widow, Offenbach (Glan)
Geschwind, NN, Hundsbach
Gottschlick, Herz, Nahbollenbach
Horbach, NN, miller at ... Kanton Grumbach
Joel, Elias, Obermoschel
Köhler, Johann, Niederwörresbach
Kunz, Friedrich, Merxheim (we have Kunz / Kuntz people in that area too, eg Sargenroth, but much earlier, and this is a very common name, witness the idiomatic expression Hinz und Kunz, meaning just about everybody)
Levy, Samuel, Steinhardter Hof, robbed, then died of his injuries
Loeb, Mendel, murdered in 1801
Löb, Seckel, Staudernheim
Mathias, Wilhelm, butcher
Meyer, Herz, Ulmet (Glan)
Mohr, Christian, Schörner Hof (we do have lots of Mohr people in the area, but earlier, see here)
Moses, Isaak, Laufersweiler
Müller, Friedrich Gerhard, Raumbach
Nagel, NN, Bärenbach (the Schinder with whom Hannes served as apprentice and got his nickname)
Philippi, Heinrich (we have some Philippi ancestors from Heinzenbach in the Kirchberg area, the last in the line, Regina Chatherina Philippi was born in Simmern in 1782 and died there in 1851, so would have known of Schinderhannes as a contemporary)
Rauschenberger, Niklas, vagrant
Riegel, Peter, murdered in 1800 by Peter Stibitz, whose name is immortalised in the verb stibitzen, for "to steal"
Scherer, Johann Georg, Kirn, allegedly tried to get Schinderhannes poisoned
Schmitt, Johann, Spall
Sender, Isac, Weierbach
Schowalter, Jakob, Montforter Hof
Schweig, Niklas, Hirschstein
Schweizer, NN, Rehborn
Seligmann, Simon, murdered in 1798
Stumm cloth manufacturer at Birkenfeld
Stumm, Friedrich Philipp, Asbacherhütte (steel works on the river Fischbach)
Wiener, Wolf, Hottenbach
Zerfass, Johann Adam
Zerfas, Anne Marie, widow at Heinzenberg
Zürcher, Heinrich, Lettweiler
No comments:
Post a Comment