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30-483: The locality was created in the course of the draining of the Donaumooses begun at 1790, in the year 1795 it became a colony of Karl Freiherr v. Eckart and was named after Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria . The place was until 1840 seat of an aristocracy yard Mark (and/or a Patrimonialgerichts). 1804 had five times more than originally planned, already over 300 inhabitants. The living conditions were in particular in

60-508: A bridge over the Danube in Ingolstadt , afraid the police would shoot him otherwise. Berger, in his later life in prison, suffered from a rare form of blood cancer . By 1989, his weight had dropped to 60 kg and he suffered from speech impediments because of long periods of isolation. He was released from prison in 1985 because of his illness, but Berger and accomplices Otto Hinterlechner were

90-470: A lowering of the level of the land. On average, one to two centimetres of height are lost annually. The dried-out peat becomes very fine and is prone to wind erosion. Additionally, in the early days, peat was used as a fossil fuel and mined in the Donaumoos . All this has resulted in a number of problems. The Donaumoos is now three metres lower than it was in 1790. Of the 180 square kilometres (69 sq mi) of

120-565: A police helicopter. When Berger's wife died in 2001, he was allowed to attend the funeral but was escorted by three police officers and was not allowed to spend time with his family. In his later days in jail, Berger felt that he was sentenced to death in jail, despite the death penalty having been abolished in Germany in 1949. Hubert Dietl, a high-ranking official in the Bavarian justice department, once declared that Berger should die in jail since he

150-484: A result, in the 19th century there established three Protestant parishes in Karlshuld, Ludwigsmoos and Untermaxfeld, some of the very few existing in rural southern Bavaria before 1945. Apart from non-Catholics, the Bavarian government also recruited convicts to settle in the area. The Moos was also home to one of Bavaria's most notorious criminals, Theo Berger (1941–2003), who was able to muster considerable support in

180-406: A tourist attraction. However, after his shots at a police officer in 1969, Berger did lose a lot of support in the region. His admirers saw in him somebody that took from the rich and never actually killed anyone. Berger was often purposely playing cat-and-mouse with the police. He would call up the local police station and inform them that he had just stolen a car, was going to refuel it and then

210-540: Is an old fen on the southern side of the Danube , southwest of Ingolstadt , Bavaria , in the Neuburg-Schrobenhausen district. The fen, drained from 1790 onwards, has now dropped 3 metres (9.8 ft) in surface level because of the drainage and associated environmental effects. The Donaumoos was once the largest area of fenland in Southern Germany . It is one of two former fens named Donaumoos ,

240-474: The Regierungsbezirk Upper Bavaria , the district Neuburg-Schrobenhausen, the communities of Königsmoos , Karlshuld , Karlskron and Pöttmes as well as the local water departments as its members. A development plan was passed in 2000 with the aim of achieving a number of goals by 2030. Part of the plan is to preserve the Donaumoos as a habitat for people as well as flora and fauna. Of

270-584: The Sueddeutsche Zeitung , as he never killed anybody and even murderers in Germany tend to be released after much shorter sentences. Berger was buried at the Alten Friedhof in Neuburg an der Donau. While in prison in 1991, Berger married a teacher from Karlshuld . She made four unsuccessful appeals to have Berger pardoned, and she died in 2001. Berger had five children with three different women; two of

300-556: The Bayerische Hiasl . Berger was born in 1941 in Ludwigsmoos, a small village near Schrobenhausen in what is now the district of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen . He was the son of a farmer. He was the second of nine sons. One of his brothers was later shot by the police. Berger was described as of a rebellious nature in school, hitting back at the local village priest when he tried to discipline him. Shortly after turning 18, Berger

330-621: The Danube fens. The new settlers were given numerous advantages, like subsidies, freedom from military service, tax-and rent-free use of the land for 10 years. Economic difficulties in the mid-1850s however forced the Mennonites to abandon their colony again and eventually emigrate to the United States . Other Protestants - Lutherans and some reformed - settled in the Donaumoos to stay, however. As

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360-471: The beginning, very hard, and improved in the course of the decades only little. 1824 were created a little later again a closed spinning mill, 1898 developed the moorland laboratory. 1888 gave it already 1,227 inhabitants. The place kept courses of a distressed area, until the Second World War when, like in many places, a fundamental upswing began. Today Karlshuld is a prosperous municipality, which won in

390-581: The courtyard of the Straubing jail. He eventually handed in his guns to the Bavarian justice department in the hope of being allowed to receive medical treatment outside of jail; he was refused. He made his fourth escape in September 1983, when he escaped through a toilet window as part of a group of inmates who visited the Straubing Zoo. His escape lasted for only eleven days; he was arrested without resisting on

420-528: The fen, 60 have disappeared altogether. The dewatering canals have to constantly be lowered because of the drop of the surface level. However, where the canals join the Danube, this process has its limitations. Drainage from the Donaumoos to the river has slowed down and, after heavy rains, large areas of the Moos are flooded. In 1991, the Donaumoos Zweckverband was formed, a public organisation which has

450-488: The hate with which he was prosecuted by the police made him fire at the officers. He returned to his home area, the Donaumoos , after this escape despite this being the most searched place by the police. Berger's life, by his own admission, was always moving between the Moos and prison. Berger was cleverly able to evade the police and earned secret admiration and support for this. The home of his family in Ludwigsmoos became

480-576: The initiative of Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria , the fen was systematically drained. 473 kilometres of canals were built to drain the Donaumoos and, alongside the straight canals, villages were formed. Living conditions in the Moos were however difficult and new settlers for the region were hard to find. To compensate for the later problem, the Bavarian government relaxed its long-standing policy of not allowing non-Catholics to live in Bavaria . In 1802, it permitted 120 Mennonite families to settle in

510-451: The last years also as residence - not least due to the proximity to Ingolstadt - at attractiveness. In the years 1970 to 1985 took place the incorporations of the municipality parts Grasheim, Kochheim, Nazibühl and Neuschwetzingen. This Neuburg-Schrobenhausen location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Old Bavarian Donaumoos The Old Bavarian Donaumoos ( German : Altbayerisches Donaumoos )

540-585: The main suspects in a bank robbery in March 1986. The two were eventually confronted by the police and arrested after a shootout with the police. While Berger could not be convicted of this bank robbery, the fact that shots were fired at the police resulted in him being charged with attempt of murder. He was sentenced to another 12 years in prison despite not having fired a shot from his gun. Hinterlechner, who originally stated that Berger told him to fire, later withdrew this statement. A psychological assessment of Berger at

570-480: The original character of the Moos , the peat fen, little is left. The remaining parts in the south and west of the Donaumoos , where the peat is still up to four metres thick, is to be protected and resupplied with water. Agricultural use of this area will not be possible anymore after this. 48°40′N 11°13′E  /  48.667°N 11.217°E  / 48.667; 11.217 Theo Berger Theo Maximilian Berger (25 January 1941 – 20 November 2003)

600-574: The other being the Swabian Donaumoos ( German : Schwäbisches Donaumoos ), also predominantly located in Bavaria, between Ulm and Gundelfingen . Of the Bavarian fens, the Moose , 95 percent have been dried out, a trend the Bavarian government wishes to reverse by re-flooding some of the former fens. The Donaumoos was formed after the last glacial period , which ended approximately 10,000 years ago, in

630-471: The region during his four escape attempts from prison. Berger, who was the subject of a 1986 documentary, Der Al Capone vom Donaumoos (English: The Al Capone of the Donaumoos ), was sent to a collective 137 years in jail and died in the Straubing prison in 2003. The draining of the Donaumoos caused some drastic environmental side effects. The dewatering of the peat causes mineralization and thereby

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660-521: The subject of a theatre play in Neuburg an der Donau titled Bruchstücke (English: Shards ). In his time, Berger received a number of nicknames, among them Al Capone vom Donaumoos , König der Ausbrecher (English: King of the jail breakers ) or Der schöne Theo (English: The beautiful Theo ). He was at times compared to some of the other legendary Bavarian criminals and robbers, the Räuber Kneißl and

690-409: The time found that he suffered from excessive masculinity , a lack of scruple when it came to aggression and a complete absence of fear for retribution by others. On top of his 12-year sentence, it was decided that Berger should remain in preventive detention for the rest of his life. In 1989, when his father died, Berger was allowed to attend the funeral, but he was guarded by 20 police officers and

720-433: The wet lowlands on the southern side of the Danube ( German : Donau ). Over a period of time, peat was formed in the Donaumoos through the incomplete decomposing of plant materials. The peat formed at a rate of one millimetre per annum, to eventually reach a thickness of up to 10 metres in the Donaumoos . Up until 1790, the 180 square kilometres of the Donaumoos fen were mostly inaccessible. From 1790 onwards, under

750-407: Was a danger to the public. Berger never publicly showed regret for his crimes, but an inmate in his final years stated that Berger had changed and was much calmer and unlikely to be threat to anybody anymore. After 39 years in jail, Berger committed suicide by hanging himself in Straubing prison on 20 November 2003. The appropriateness of Berger's 36 years in jail was questioned in his obituary by

780-474: Was a notorious Bavarian criminal, best known for his numerous escapes from prison. Despite escaping four times, Berger spent 39 years in jail and eventually committed suicide there. Berger had been sentenced to a collective 137 years in jail. In 1986, he became the subject of a documentary titled Der Al Capone vom Donaumoos (English: The Bavarian Al Capone ) and later wrote his memoirs, which were smuggled out of Straubing prison. In 2006, he also became

810-516: Was innocent, lacking a drivers' licence to carry out his job and finding his wages confiscated to pay for his illegitimate children. In 1965, Berger escaped from the local police station in Schrobenhausen after having been arrested for a fight by jumping out of a window on the first floor, stealing a bicycle and cycling to Ludwigsmoos, where friends cut off his handcuffs. In 1968, Berger was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bank robbery, which he

840-560: Was ready to be chased. After each escape, Berger was caught eventually and his court cases, held in Augsburg , became pilgrimages for the local population from the Donaumoos . By his own admission in his memoirs, Berger was always able to receive keys for his cell in Straubing and a gun when he wanted. He even once toyed with the idea of passing a gun to the Red Army Faction terrorists Knut Folkerts and Bernd Rößner after seeing them in

870-406: Was sentenced to three years in jail for minor offences, in the belief that it would break him. Berger's punishment, in retrospect, was seen as far too harsh for his early crimes and resulted in him developing a hatred for the authorities. After his release he was re-arrested within four months, this time for car theft. Later attempts to start a non-criminal life failed, being accused of theft when he

900-467: Was to spend in the high-security jail at Straubing. He quickly came to realise that Straubing was not as secure as its reputation, as he himself was able to carry a hacksaw in his suitcase on arrival. He used this hacksaw for his first escape, when on transfer in Munich . He was confronted by the police in March 1969 and arrested after firing and injuring a police officer. Berger later claimed in his memoirs that

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