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Matthias Klostermayr | the Bavarian Hiasl (1736-1771)
Matthias Klostermayr, known as the Bavarian Hiasl, was a poacher and a robber chief revered by the people in the Swabian-Bavarian border region and is regarded as the presumed role model of Schiller's Karl Moor. Klostermayer was criminalised after his poacher companion "Sternputz" was killed by a hunter. He lost a job as a farmer's servant because he had flirted with the farmer's daughter and got her pregnant; he is said to have remained faithful to her even after his dismissal. Afterwards, Klostermayr became a poacher valued by the farmers, who knew how to decimate game in a well-dosed manner in order to minimise damage to the fields. After a prison sentence, the Elector of Bavaria wanted to employ him as an electoral hunter, but Hiasl preferred the free life, according to legend. He gathered about 3 dozen mates around him and robbed official offices and the like in order to distribute the captured tax money among the poor. After a trial lasting several months, he was executed at the age of 35 on 6 September 1771, and in a proper manner: first strangled, then braided on a wheel, decapitated and finally quartered. (iwi)