Jasper Hanebuth was a man from the Hanover district of Gross-Buchholz who served as a mercenary in the Thirty Years' War and was arrested in Hanover in November 1652. After his arrest he confessed to 19 murders and at least 10 horse thefts. He was executed in Hanover in February 1653. His name has stayed in the city for nearly four centuries, attached to a passage under the old town and to places at the edge of the Eilenriede forest.
Hanebuth was baptized on February 8, 1607, in Gross-Buchholz, now a district of Hanover. His name is also written Hanebut. He is remembered as a horse dealer and a mercenary.
Hanebuth was of the generation that grew up inside the Thirty Years' War, which ran from 1618 to 1648. He served as a mercenary in Swedish service. Hanover's own history of the Eilenriede calls him a symbolic figure of that war: the disorder of the period let him go on for years without being caught. Dates for his army service, his regiment and the time he left it are not on record.
Hanebuth was arrested on November 14, 1652. After his arrest he confessed to 19 murders and at least 10 horse thefts. The victims were travellers near the forest. No victim is named, the individual killings are undated, and it is not on record which of the 19 were committed together and which alone. The officials before whom he confessed are not on record either.
The figure of 19 is the number he admitted. The name of the court and the wording of the sentence are not on record.
Hanebuth was executed in Hanover on February 4, 1653. One later city account gives February 8, 1653.
Three places in Hanover are connected with his name, each by local tradition.
The first is the Hanebuths Gang, a passage under the old town. By legend it is named after him and was his hideout. The passage is reported to have run from the Kreuzkirche toward the city wall on the bank of the Leine; it is blocked and has collapsed after about 25 meters.
The second is the Hanebuths Block, a spot near the former zoo entrance at the Schiffgraben, said to mark the entrance to the hideout. A lithograph of 1882 carries that name.
The third is the Hanebuthwinkel, a corner of the Eilenriede near the Steuerndieb tower, which recalls him.
The documented outline is short: the baptism in 1607, service as a mercenary, the arrest on November 14, 1652, the confession to 19 murders and at least 10 horse thefts, and the execution in February 1653. The tunnel and the hideout belong to local legend and are not tied to anything in the case record. The names of the victims, the dates of the killings, the court and the wording of the sentence are not on record. A study of his origins by Helmut Zimmermann appeared in the Hannoversche Geschichtsblaetter in 1987.
February 8, 1607: baptized in Gross-Buchholz, now part of Hanover.
1618 to 1648: Thirty Years' War, in which he served as a mercenary in Swedish service.
November 14, 1652: arrested.
1652: confesses to 19 murders and at least 10 horse thefts.
February 4, 1653: executed at Hanover (one city brochure gives February 8).