Mathias Kneißl

Mathias Kneißl, also known as Robber Kneissl was a German outlaw, poacher and popular antihero in Bavarian folklore, especially in the district of Dachau when the Kingdom of Bavaria was part of the German Empire. He is most well known for his face-offs with local policemen, who were already widely considered to be corrupt and who were further disliked for being Franconians who could not speak the local Upper Bavarian dialect. Kneißl became a local folk hero after repeatedly escaping and humiliating the police. According to German forensic scientist Mark Benecke, Kneißl never saw himself as a Robin Hood figure and was, in reality, "just a man who went astray with no way of getting back."