Anna Landmann

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Anna Landmann († January 10, 1597 in Hornburg ) was a woman who was accused of witchcraft in 1596 . After torture and on the basis of an expert opinion from the Helmstedt Faculty of Law , she was found guilty of sorcery and eventually burned. She was the last woman to fall victim to the witch hunt in Hornburg .

Life

Anna Landmann came from Osterode am Fallstein and was the wife of Hans Kragen. At that time Osterode belonged to the Hornburg office, which was subordinate to the Halberstadt diocese. Contrary to the regulations, she accommodated several so-called “unworthy” people in her home, including a woman who had just given birth to a child. The villagers referred to these people as "rabble" who appropriated food from foreign gardens or from the surrounding farms. They are also said to have used open flames or started fires. Since several residents had complained about it, Landmann was taken into custody in December 1596. Further allegations were made against her. Among other things, she is said to have seduced children and made them dependent on the devil by sanctifying or blessing them. (Under Hollen or Holden are pathogenic beetle-like ghost beings to be understood, which arise through woo with the devil) They also gave Heinrich Masendorf's wife so many lice that she could not save herself from it, even if she changed her clothes every hour.

The responsible bailiff Heinrich Brandes asked the law faculty of the University of Helmstedt whether he should determine the truth through “the sharp question” (use of torture), since Landmann was suspected of being a sorceress. He was given permission to conduct the "painfully sharp questioning". Thereupon she was both interrogated in kindness and tortured, until she finally confessed to having a devil's chair, which she visited in her house and from which she had hell . This was followed by an inquiry to Duke Heinrich Julius zu Braunschweig Lüneburg , the responsible bishop, about how to proceed. This instructed the bailiff to present the confession to the law school. This ruled that Landmann was guilty of “sorcery and wrongdoing” and “should be punished to death with fire.” The Duke then had the sentence carried out on the market square in Hornburg.

The procedure and the judgment in this process lasted only about a month, which was very short according to the procedural rules of the chancellery regulations from the year 1535 of Duke Heinrich the Younger and generally for the time.

reception

To commemorate this witch trial, the play Anna Landmann - Alleged scenes from her life was staged in Hornburg on the 400th anniversary of her death . It was written by the author Hans Georg Ruhe and premiered on October 19, 1996 by the Hornburg Old Town Theater ensemble on Hornburg's market square. It was created on the basis of an initiative by the women's workshop for education, culture and handicrafts together with other projects that are intended to commemorate Anna Landmann. In addition, a street in Hornburg was named after her in memory of her.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c H. D. Lange: Landmann, Anna. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 8th to 18th century . Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , p. 426-427 .
  2. ↑ Anna Landmann - Presumed scenes from her life. In: regionalweltenbuettel.de. October 16, 2013, accessed June 22, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Anna Landmann, Hornburg on anton-praetorius.de
personal data
SURNAME Farmer, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Collar, Anna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German woman, convicted and executed as a "witch" in Hornburg
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century or 16th century
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1597
Place of death Hornburg