Hannikel born Jakob Reinhard, was an infamous robber in Württemberg

Württemberg

Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and is today a character of the Swabian-Alemannic carnival.

Early life

Hannikel was born in the area of Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

; his mother belonged to a vagrant

Vagrancy (people)

A vagrant is a person in poverty, who wanders from place to place without a home or regular employment or income.-Definition:A vagrant is "a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging;" vagrancy is the condition of such persons.-History:In...

 family and his father was a soldier in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt

Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt

The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was a member state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse between the four sons of Philip I, the last Landgrave of Hesse....

. Hannikel's grandfather was Kleine Konrad, who was executed by the breaking wheel

Breaking wheel

The breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel or simply the wheel, was a torture device used for capital punishment in the Middle Ages and early modern times for public execution by bludgeoning to death...

.
As a young man, Hannikel lived in the Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

 region of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and later in Palatinate near Pirmasens

Pirmasens

Pirmasens is a district-free city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It is famous for the manufacture of shoes. The surrounding rural district was called Pirmasens from 1818 until 1997, when it was renamed Südwestpfalz....

, making his living mainly as a peddler

Peddler

A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a canvasser, cheapjack, monger, or solicitor , is a travelling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used for travellers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages; they might also be called tinkers or gypsies...

 and thief.

Hannikel and his gang

In 1770, Hannikel moved to Württemberg and became the leader of a gang, which had around 35 members and was involved in the assaulting and robbing of wealthy Jews and parish priests. These instances of violence became increasingly brutal. The hideouts of the gang were in the Northern Black Forest

Black Forest

The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....

, close to Nagold

Nagold

Nagold is a town in southwestern Germany, bordering the northern Black Forest. It is located in the Landkreis of Calw . Nagold is known for its ruined castle, Hohennagold Castle, and for its road viaduct...

. At the time Southern Germany

Southern Germany

The term Southern Germany is used to describe a region in the south of Germany. There is no specific boundary to the region, but it usually includes all of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and the southern part of Hesse...

 was densely populated by bandits, due to the vast woodland and the fragmentation into small territories, each with its own and independent jurisdiction. The bandits could quickly cross a border after a few miles and were secure in the foreign dominion; the pursuers had to stop at the turnpike.

Arrest and death

When Hannikel brutally murdered a grenadier of the Duke of Württemberg on April 5, 1786, close to Reutlingen

Reutlingen

Reutlingen is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of April 2008, it has a population of 109,828....

, the Vogt

Vogt

A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...

 of Sulz am Neckar

Sulz am Neckar

Sulz am Neckar is a town in the district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Neckar, 22 km north of Rottweil, and 19 km southeast of Freudenstadt....

, Jacob Georg Schäffer followed in pursuit of the gang. Twenty-seven members of Hannikel's gang were arrested close to Hohenstaufen Castle

Hohenstaufen Castle

Hohenstaufen Castle is a ruin, lying above the town of Hohenstaufen, in the district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was the seat of the now-defunct House of Hohenstaufen....

, but Hannikel himself and 28 members escaped into Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

A few months later, the earl of Salis-Zizers arrested Hannikel and the rest of his gang at Untervaz

Untervaz

Untervaz is a municipality in the district of Landquart in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.-History:Untervaz is first mentioned between 768-800 as Uaze. Between 801-850 it was mentioned as Vazes and between 1210-1300 it was called Vatz inferiore....

 and transported them to Chur

Chur

Chur or Coire is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern part of the canton.-History:The name "chur" derives perhaps from the Celtic kora or koria, meaning "tribe", or from the Latin curia....

. Hannikel managed to escape from the dungeon – today called Hannikel's tower – after some days but was finally arrested by the earl at Sargans

Sargans

Sargans is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Sarganserland in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.Sargans is known for its castle, which dates from before the founding of the Swiss Confederation in 1291...

. Hannikel and his gang were then confined in Vaduz

Vaduz

Vaduz is the capital of the principality of Liechtenstein and the seat of the national parliament. The town, located along the Rhine, has about 5,100 inhabitants , most of whom are Roman Catholic. Its cathedral is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop....

, where Schäffer collected them in September and brought them to Sulz.
Hannikel and three of his gang were sentenced to death and hanged

Hanging

Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

 on July 17, 1787, in Sulz. The others were sentenced to life imprisonment

Life imprisonment

Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...

 at Hohenasperg

Hohenasperg

Hohenasperg, located in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg near Stuttgart, Germany, of which it is administratively part, is an ancient fortress and prison overlooking the town of Asperg. It was an active fortification between 1535 and 1593.-Geography:...

 and the Hohentwiel

Hohentwiel

Hohentwiel is an extinct volcano in the Hegau region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. About 20 miles from Lake Constance, it lies in the German city of Singen....

 fortress.

External links

• Carnival association Hannikel of Reutlingen
  Reutlingen
  Reutlingen is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of April 2008, it has a population of 109,828....
  
  -Ohmenhausen: http://www.nv-hannikel-ohmenhausen.de/