In a message dated 19/12/00 04:33:49 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes: << Any idea what these two names mean? I asked a German speaker who suggested Schinder Hanes was a character in a German story/play but she couldn't remember exactly. Does anyone know? >> Hi Sue Fascinating and true story I have discovered, spurred on by the fact that another posting suggested that Schinderhannes was a German Robin Hood. I live in the land of Robin Hood so you can see why I got interested! Very briefly this is what I have discovered: His name was Johannes Bückler born in Merzweiler. At an early age he started to steal sheep and was caught in Kirn. He managed to escape at night by climbing over the roof of the town hall at night. And so began the life of a robber between the years 1796 to 1802 in the area between Saarbrücken and Mainz. He was so successful that people began to believe that he was in league with the devil. In 1799 he was imprisoned in Hunsrückstadt Simmern and began to plan a much bigger band or gang of robbers and managed to escape by jumping from the prison tower and breaking a leg. He had visions of forming a a state within a state complete with his own army. In 1800 he married without the blessing of the church, a pretty singer called Julia Bläsius who became part of the robber band and wore mens clothing to disguise the fact that she was a woman. The band had a definite method of going about staging a robbery, they rammed the door of the house with a wooden beam, bound and gagged the occupants and threatened them with death if they should give them away. But all this began to pall, he always wanted to retain a vestige of respectability and after further spectacular robberies he decided that he had had enough and eventually joined the German Imperial army. However a soldier serving with him recognises him and betrays him in order to claim the reward for his capture. He was arrested in Frankfurt and taken to Mainz. On the 24th of October, 1803, he went before a special court and on the 20th of November 1803 was sentenced to death with 19 of his accomplices. His father, Bückler, was sentenced to 22 years and Julia Bläsius to 2 years. She subsequently married and died a well respected citizen in 1851. The death sentences were carried in Mainz. The guillotine was erected before the gates of that city and on 21 November, 1803, before a crowd of 40,000 spectators, Schinderhannes died. This is only a short version extracted from various sites on the internet, those of you who have a better understanding of German than I, may care to look at some of them. Tschüß Jack In the land of Robin Hood