Anna Göldi

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Anna Göldi (also Göldin female form; * 24. October 1734 in Sennwald , now in the canton of St. Gallen , † June 13 . Jul / 24. June  1782 greg. In Glarus ) was one of the last women in Europe Witchcraft were accused and executed. It was the last legal witch execution and aroused outrage across Europe.

Life

Göldi came from a poor background and worked as a maid. She has been shown to have two children. The first died shortly after birth. Anna Göldi was then convicted and punished for child murder . The second child came from her employer Zwicky in Mollis. The child conceived out of wedlock was born in Strasbourg and was placed in someone else's care. Nothing more is known about the fate of this child. In professional circles it is controversial whether there was still a third child, as the entry in the baptismal register raises doubts.

Anna Göldi later worked as a maid for the Glarus doctor, councilor, judge and councilor Johann Jakob Tschudi . Tschudi came from one of the richest and most influential families in the Protestant canton of Glarus .

Here she is said to have conjured pins into the milk of a Tschudis daughter several times. In addition, according to statements by members of the Tschudi family, the daughter is said to have spat nails several times. Because of the enchantment of the Tschudi daughter, Anna Göldi was accused and charged with witchcraft. The background for the indictment is more likely to be related to an affair with her employer Tschudi. In addition, Anna Göldi was well known to the Tschudi family's brother-in-law, Ruedi Steinmüller. He was wealthy and probably got into an inheritance dispute with the Tschudi family. He was also accused and imprisoned as an accomplice.

In the subsequent trial, Göldi admitted under torture that he was using the devil's powers. Steinmüller was also supposed to testify under torture. However, he hanged himself on the night of May 11th to May 12th, 1782. His suicide was regarded as an admission of guilt and his property was confiscated.

Description of the execution (Landesarchiv Kanton Glarus)

The Evangelical Council of Glarus sentenced Anna Göldi to death by the sword on June 6, 1782. The sentence was carried out on June 13th. Since Anna Göldi was not from Glarus ( Sennwald belonged to the Sax-Forstegg lordship , a Zurich bailiff), she was considered a foreign person. The jurisdiction was actually with a common court, which was composed equally of Catholic and Reformed persons. The judgment was therefore not lawful.

Despite press censorship in Switzerland and Germany, the witch trial caused an uproar and was described by August Ludwig von Schlözer as a judicial murder . The journalist Heinrich Ludwig Lehmann published the case, Wilhelm Ludwig Wekhrlin also criticized the conviction. The court clerk, Johann Melchior Kubli , released the top secret files. This could only be proven in 2007 based on Lehmann's diary entries that Walter Hauser brought to light during his research into the judicial murder of Anna Göldi . Since the process was kept confidential , Kubli would also have threatened the death penalty if he was found to be an informant. He had already stood up for Anna Göldi during the trial.

The terms " witch " and " witchcraft " were avoided in the judgment . Göldi was convicted as a poisoner. Her case was not the last of its kind in Europe; In 1811, Barbara Zdunk was executed under similar circumstances on the pretext of arson. Whether she was executed for witchcraft is very unlikely, as witchcraft was not a criminal offense in Prussia at the time. The last known executions for witchcraft in Europe took place in Posen (then in Prussia) in 1793 .

Work-up

After evaluating previously unknown sources, the publicist Walter Hauser came to the conclusion in 2007 that Anna Göldi probably had a relationship with her employer. Because convicted adulterers were considered incapable of holding a political office, Tschudi decided to get rid of Anna Göldi and initiated the witch trial. In particular, Hauser found that the court that sentenced Anna Göldi to death had no jurisdiction. The term judicial murder was coined for the first time in this context .

reception

Modeled after portrait of Anna Göldi by Patrick Lo Giudice . The picture in the Anna Göldi Museum in the hanging tower in Glarus / Ennenda is based on the title character of the film Anna Göldin - Last Witch from 1991.

The writer Kaspar Freuler published the novel Anna Göldi in 1945 . The last witch in Switzerland , who saw several editions with a total of over 30,000 copies and became Freuler's most famous work. In 1948 he also published a play of the same name based on the novel.

In 1982 Eveline Hasler published the factual novel Anna Göldin, Last Witch . In 1991 Gertrud Pinkus shot the biopic Anna Göldin - Last Witch with Cornelia Kempers in the title role. On the occasion of the 225th anniversary of Anna Göldi's death, the Anna Göldi Museum was opened in Mollis on September 22, 2007 . This exhibition ended in 2014. Initiated by the Anna Göldi Foundation, a new Anna Göldi Museum was opened in the Hänggiturm, a historic building, in Ennenda / Glarus on August 20, 2017 .

On June 13, 2014, a memorial to Anna Göldi was erected in Glarus . A light shines into the darkness from two round windows in the attic of the courthouse. At the bottom a plaque reminds of the witch trial in Glarus with instructions in the best Glarus German: "Dett obe schiint es Liecht". The memorial was designed by the Basel artist couple Hurter-Urech.

rehabilitation

In March 2007, both the Cantonal Government of Glarus and the Reformed Church Council refused to rehabilitate Anna Göldi on the occasion of the 225th anniversary of her death, because the people of Glarus knew that she had already been rehabilitated. The lawyer and author Walter Hauser submitted the application for rehabilitation. Hauser gave the reason for this in his non-fiction book Justizmord an Anna Göldi .

On November 7, 2007, the Glarus District Administrator transferred a motion to the Government Council with the order to rehabilitate Anna Göldi. On June 10, 2008, the government council decided to exonerate Anna Göldi from the crime of “poisoning” 226 years after her execution. At the same time, the government proposed to parliament to designate the June 1782 trial as a judicial murder .

On August 27, 2008, the Glarus District Administrator unanimously approved the government's decision without discussion. He also acknowledged that the judgment passed at the time came about in an illegal process and that Anna Göldi was the victim of judicial murder.

document

Wanted poster, Zürcher Zeitung dated February 9, 1782

In the Zürcher Zeitung on February 9, 1782 a profile was published by the canton of Glarus as an advertisement, with which Anna Göldi was searched:

«Praiseworthy status of Glarus, Protestant religion, offers to pay one hundred Kronenthaler reward to those who discover the described Anna Göldin and who will bring in Justitz; with which all high and higher authorities and officials who have been acted upon are also requested to provide all possible assistance to arrest this person; In addition, such a man has committed an immense deed against an innocent eight-year-old child by means of secret and almost incomprehensible provision of a multitude of guffen [pins] and other tools.
Anna Göldin, from the municipality of Sennwald, belonging to the Landvogthey high Sax and Forstek, Zurich area, about 40 years old, fat and large body stature, perfect and red-pale face, black hair and eyebrows, has gray somewhat unhealthy eyes, which mostly look reddish, looking at her is dejected, and speaks her Sennwälder pronunciation, wears a fashion-colored jacket, a blue and a dashed lap, underneath a blue loop or Schnäbeli figure, a damask gray chopin, white castorin stockings, a black cap, underneath a white hat , and carries a black silk bed.
Date 25th Jenner St. v. 1782.
Kanzley Glarus Protestant Religion. "

See also

literature

  • Eveline Hasler : Anna Göldin, last witch. Benziger, Zurich et al. 1982, ISBN 3-545-36356-2 (several editions).
  • Walter Hauser : The witch trial against Anna Göldi in the judgment of contemporaries. In: Wolfgang Behringer, Sönke Lorenz (†) and Dieter R. Bauer (eds.): Late witch trials. The handling of the Enlightenment with the irrational (= witch research. Vol. 14). Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-89534-904-1 , pp. 123–126.
  • Walter Hauser: The judicial murder of Anna Göldi. New research on the last witch trial in Europe. Limmat, Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-85791-525-3 (extended new edition as: Anna Göldi - Execution and Rehabilitation. With a contribution by Kathrin Utz Tremp . Ibid 2013, ISBN 978-3-85791-714-1 ).
  • Elisabeth Korrodi-Aebli: On the trail of the “last witch”. Anna Göldi - The Case - The Press Reports. Presentation of the Göldi trade and its journalistic processing in the 18th century. Zurich 1996, (Zurich, university, licensed thesis, 1996).
  • Heinrich Ludewig Lehmann: Friendly and confidential letters concerning the so-called very notorious witch trade in Glarus. First issue. Johann Caspar Füeßly, Zurich 1783, ( digitized ).
  • Heinrich Ludewig Lehmann: Friendly and confidential letters concerning the so-called very notorious witch trade in Glarus. Second booklet. Johann Caspar Füeßly, 1783, ( digitized version ).
  • Nicole Lieberherr: Johann Melchior Kubli. 1750-1835. Biography. How the advocate in the witch trade around Anna Göldi reached the top of the Swiss police force and saved eastern Switzerland from war. Baeschlin, Glarus 2010, ISBN 978-3-85546-223-0 .
  • Silvio Margadant: The family records of Heinrich Ludewig Lehmann (1754–1828). In: Yearbook of Hist. Society of Graubünden. 2007.
  • Gaudenz Meili : Anna Goeldi or The Story of the Last Witch. Screenplay for a [unrealized] feature film, retold by Walter Matthias Diggelmann based on historical documents (1976). Zurich Central Library, 2012, 109 BI ( Swissbib and Worldcat library catalog ).
  • Johannes Scherr : The Witch of Glarus. Historical essays. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1953.
  • August Ludwig von Schlözer: Repeated JustizMord in der Schweiz, 1782. In: AL Schlözer's Stats-Ads. Volume 2, Issue 7, 1783, ZDB -ID 513959-4 , pp. 273-277
  • Anton-Heinz Schmidt: The witch is talking again in Glarus. Attempts to rehabilitate Anna Göldi on the 225th anniversary of her death. Self-published, Aigen-Voglhub 2008.
  • Kathrin Utz Tremp : Anna Göldi, last witch - The files of the trial (1781–1782). In: Approaches to Anna Göldi (= yearbook of the Historical Association of the Canton of Glarus. Issue 99). Küng Druck AG, Näfels 2019, pp. 38–81.

Web links

Commons : Anna Göldi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Behringer : Witches. Faith, persecution, marketing (= Beck series. 2082 CH Beck knowledge ). Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-41882-1 , p. 36 and p. 86
  2. ↑ According to Kathrin Utz Tremp , the execution took place on June 24, 1782 according to the Gregorian calendar that is valid today . Cf. Kathrin Utz Tremp : Anna Göldi, last witch - The files of the trial (1781–1782). In: Approaches to Anna Göldi (= yearbook of the Historical Association of the Canton of Glarus. Issue 99). Küng Druck AG, Näfels 2019, p. 40.
  3. ↑ Hugo Haelschner : System of the Prussian criminal law. Volume 2: The crimes against the rights of the private individual. Adolph Marcus, Bonn 1868.
  4. ↑ Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra, Brian P. Levack, Roy Porter : Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (= The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Vol. 5). Athlone Press, London 1999, ISBN 0-485-89005-4 .
  5. ↑ Kaspar Freuler: Anna Göldi. The story of the last witch. Gutenberg Book Guild, Zurich 1945. New edition: Bäschlin, Glarus 2008, ISBN 978-3-85546-185-1 .
  6. ↑ Kaspar Freuler: Anna Göldi. Acting based on the novel. Volksverlag, Elgg 1948, DNB 573377502 .
  7. ↑ Glarus inaugurates Anna Göldi memorial - A light for the last witch , NZZ-Online from June 13, 2014
  8. ↑ Clear the way for the rehabilitation of the “last witch” , NZZ-Online from November 7, 2007 .
  9. ↑ Anna Göldi is being rehabilitated , NZZ-Online from June 10, 2008 .
  10. ↑ Justice for Anna Göldi - 226 years too late , Tagesanzeiger-Online of August 27, 2008 .
  11. ↑ Jürgen Dunsch: The last “witch” in Europe wasn't , FAZ-Online from August 28, 2008 .
  12. ↑ Printed by Hauser: The judicial murder of Anna Göldi. 2007, p. 61, and Hasler: Anna Göldin, last witch. 1982, p. 166. See Elsbeth Pulver (Red.): Zwischenzeilen. Women writers from German-speaking Switzerland (= Swiss Cultural Foundation Pro Helvetia. Pro Helvetia Dossier. Literature series. 4). Zytglogge, Bern (ie Gümligen) 1985, ISBN 3-7296-0218-7 , p. 81 ( digitized version and full text in the German text archive ).


personal data
SURNAME Göldi, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Göldin, Anna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss justice victim
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1734
PLACE OF BIRTH Sennwald , Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH June 24, 1782
Place of death Glarus , Canton of Glarus, Switzerland