Hannikel

Hannikel (c. 1742 – July 17, 1787), born Jakob Reinhard, was a robber in Württemberg, Germany, and is today a character of the Swabian-Alemannic carnival.

[1] Hannikel was born in the area of Darmstadt; his mother belonged to a vagrant family and his father was a soldier in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt.

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.

At the time Southern Germany was densely populated by bandits, due to the vast woodland and the fragmentation into small territories, each with its own and independent jurisdiction.

[3] When Hannikel brutally murdered a grenadier of the Duke of Württemberg on April 5, 1786, close to Reutlingen, the Vogt of Sulz am Neckar, Jacob Georg Schäffer followed in pursuit of the gang.