KOHLHASE, HANS

This article appears in Volume V15, Page 887 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: KHA-KRI

KOHLHASE, HANS , a German historical figure about whose personality some controversy exists. He is chiefly known as the hero of Heinrich von Kleist's novel, Michael Kohlhaas. He was a merchant, and not, as some have supposed, a horsedealer, and he lived at Kolln in Brandenburg. In October 1532, so the story runs, whilst proceeding to the

fair

FAIR

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, he was attacked and his horses were taken from him by the servants of a Saxon nobleman, one

Gunter

GUNTER, EDMUND (1581-1626)

von Zaschwitz. In consequence of the delay the merchant suffered some loss of business at the

fair

FAIR

and on his return he refused to pay the small sum which Zaschwitz demanded as a

condition

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

of returning the horses. Instead Kohlhase asked for a substantial amount of money as compensation for his loss, and failing to secure this he invoked the aid of his 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 action. Then unable to obtain redress
in the courts of law, the merchant, in a Fehdebrief threw down a challenge, not only to his aggressor, but to the whole of Saxony. Acts of lawlessness were soon attributed to him, and after an attempt to settle the

feud

FEUD

had failed, the elector of Saxony, John Frederick I., set a price upon the head of the angry merchant. Kohlhase now sought revenge in

earnest

EARNEST (probably a corruption of the obsolete arles or erles, adapted from Lat. equivalent arrha, due to a confusion with the adjective " earnest," serious, O. Eng. eornust, cognate with Ger. ernst)

. Gathering around him a 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 time the authorities were practically powerless to stop these outrages, but in

March

1540 Kohlhase and his

principal

PRINCIPAL

associate, Georg Ivtagelschmidt, were seized, and on the 22nd of the month they were broken on the wheel in Berlin.
The life and fate of Kohlhase are dealt with in several dramas. See Burkhardt, Der historische Hans Kohlhase and H. von Kleists Michael Kohlhaas (

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, 1864).

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