I am the Boarisch Hiasl, I don't mind a bullet, that's why I'm afraid of a hunter, even if it's the devil.
Today, more than 250 years after his death, it can no longer be conclusively clarified whether Matthias Klostermayr was actually in league with the devil, as the saying goes, or whether he was simply incredibly adept at evading the penal authorities become.
What is certain, however, is that as a successful poacher he was very hated by the aristocratic authorities, but was for a long time highly respected by the common people as a "Boarischer Hiasl". But how did it come to this?
Having failed as a hunting assistant due to disputes with his superiors, he had to fend for himself at a young age. He did this with the craft he had learned: hunting.
The “Boarischer Hiasl” and his gang roamed poaching through what is now Swabia – and soon became a folk hero. In the eternal dispute over hunting rights, he sided with the common people, who, due to the laws of the time, had no way of protecting the laboriously cultivated fields against game. All complaints about crop damage were ignored by the authorities; The only thing that mattered to them was that there was enough prey for the nobility's court hunts.
But fame soon went to the young man's head. The gang's actions became increasingly wild and aggressive, and at some point there was the first fatality. With this, support among the population also began to wane.
It is said to have been an innkeeper's daughter who betrayed the “Hiasl” to the authorities. When he was arrested, it took 300 soldiers to get him out of the inn where he had barricaded himself with his cronies after a fight lasting several hours. For the Bavarian Elector he was an unscrupulous criminal who ultimately paid with his death...