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KOHLHASE, HANS

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 887 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

KOHLHASE, HANS , a See also:German See also:historical figure about whose See also:personality some controversy exists. He is chiefly known as the See also:hero of Heinrich von See also:Kleist's novel, See also:Michael Kohlhaas. He was a See also:merchant, and not, as some have supposed, a horsedealer, and he lived at Kolln in See also:Brandenburg. In See also:October 1532, so the See also:story runs, whilst proceeding to the See also:fair at See also:Leipzig, he was attacked and his horses were taken from him by the servants of a Saxon nobleman, one See also:Gunter von Zaschwitz. In consequence of the delay the merchant suffered some loss of business at the fair and on his return he refused to pay the small sum which Zaschwitz demanded as a See also:condition of returning the horses. Instead Kohlhase asked for a substantial amount of See also:money as See also:compensation for his loss, and failing to secure this he invoked the aid of his See also:sovereign, the elector of Brandenburg. Finding however that it was impossible to recover his horses, he paid Zaschwitz the sum required for them, but reserved to himself the right to take further See also:action. Then unable to obtain redress in the courts of See also:law, the merchant, in a Fehdebrief threw down a See also:challenge, not only to his aggressor, but to the whole of See also:Saxony. Acts of lawlessness were soon attributed to him, and after an See also:attempt to See also:settle the See also:feud had failed, the elector of Saxony, See also:John See also:Frederick I., set a See also:price upon the See also:head of the angry merchant. Kohlhase now sought revenge in See also:earnest. Gathering around him a See also:band of criminals and of desperadoes he spread terror throughout the whole of Saxony; travellers were robbed, villages were burned and towns were plundered. For some See also:time the authorities were practically powerless to stop these outrages, but in See also:March 1540 Kohlhase and his See also:principal See also:associate, Georg Ivtagelschmidt, were seized, and on the 22nd of the See also:month they were broken on the See also:wheel in See also:Berlin.

The See also:

life and See also:fate of Kohlhase are dealt with in several dramas. See Burkhardt, Der historische Hans Kohlhase and H. von Kleists Michael Kohlhaas (Leipzig, 1864).

End of Article: KOHLHASE, HANS

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