Mathias Kneissl

Helpful facts

A play based on true events

Text and direction: Chiara Nassauer

1902: Mathias Kneissl awaits execution in Augsburg prison - he is already a legend. Born into a family that gets by on stealing, poaching and fencing, he himself ends up on the wrong track. When his brother shoots two gendarmes, Mathias ends up in prison as his accomplice. After his release, he tries his hand at honest work, but as a "prisoner" he is viewed with suspicion and rejected everywhere he goes. This is how he becomes the notorious "Robber Kneissl".

A lone fighter who takes on the concentrated power of the state and always manages to escape through his audacity. The rural population likes to side with the outsider who is not given a chance by society and who takes this chance by force if necessary.

How does someone become a criminal, how is he made one? Can you be "born evil"? How does society decide who becomes an evildoer and who becomes a folk hero?

Play dates:

March 15, 2024 Premiere

March 16, 17, 22, 23 and 24, 2024

Beginning at 8 pm each time

Tickets available from

Parfümerie Rebholz and at Current - Freies Theater Murnau (freies-theater-murnau.de)