Brigandage

A Brigand (from the Italian brigare " fight, fight ") is a robber, an outlaw or a person who terrorizes the course of hostilities the civilian population by looting, raping and pillaging. In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Bourbon rebels were called briganti in the period of the Risorgimento after 1815 the Neapolitan and after 1861.

Brigands in Southern Italy

In Italy, especially in southern Italy, including Campania, Calabria, Puglia, Abruzzo and Basilicata, the rugged mountain terrain of ancient Lucania, the memory is maintained to the Brigantes until today. After the first brigands attacked mainly by traveling carriages, the Brigandage, the Brigantenwesen grew out since the second half of the 19th century into a political movement. Politically motivated brigands had, however, already existed in the time of the Roman Republic. Even at the time of the French Revolution there were brigands groups who planned a violent revolution export to Italy.

Many brigand bands on the eve of Italian unification were recruited from impoverished farmers and day laborers as anarchic protest movement against the rich landowners. As part of the Italian unification movement of the Risorgimento, the Briganti closed around the legendary Carmine Crocco in the movement and supported the guerrillas Giuseppe Garibaldi. Disappointed by their view broken promises such as democratization and comprehensive land reform, the brigands moved to the seizure of power by King Victor Emmanuel II back in the woods and terrorized from there, especially the landowners and the government. Called Crocco, popularly "re dei re" ( King of Kings ), commanded temporarily 43 gangs with thousands of mostly mounted members. The circulating stories about the daring clad band members and their loved ones, Brigantesse called, transfigured the bandits folk heroes like Robin Hood. Crocco, later almost forty years until his death in 1905 in prison, wrote his still in Basilicata like to read memoirs in prison. Many brigands who could escape arrest, migrated later to the United States. Numerous songs, stories, popular books, scientific papers and relevant Internet sites deal in Italy to this day with the theme of Briganti; in the Italian language that are classified as politically motivated Briganti be clearly distinguished from the Banditi considered as simple robbers.

Also, the political myth to survive: How to find Brindisi Montagna place every year in an open-air theater festival, which can be hundreds of amateur actors relive the history of the brigands again. In historical theme park Grancia scenes from the life of Briganti are readjusted. The figure of the Crocco borrows the famous actor Michele Placido ( " The Octopus " ) his voice.

Known brigands

  • Carmine Crocco, known as "re dei re" ( King of Kings ), famous Italian brigand from Basilicata
  • Fra Diavolo (1760-1806), Italian brigand, hero of the eponymous opera by Daniel -François- Esprit Auber and Eugène Scribe
  • Simon Kramer, called Krapfenbäck Simerle
  • Maria Oliverio, called Ciccilla
  • Stefano Pelloni, called Il Passatore
  • Giuseppe Musolino, called Peppe Musulinu or u rre dill'Asprumunti ( King of Aspromonte )

Movies

  • The Black Brigand is an Italian pirate movie ( original title: Il segreto dello sparviero nero ) from 1961 with Lex Barker and Livio Lorenzon.
  • Brigands ( Original title: Brigands, Chapitre VII ) is a Georgian- French film about mafia, thieves and corruption in modern Georgia Otar Iosseliani 1996, awarded the Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
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