Anna Schulten

Anna Schulten (* around 1628 in Canstein ; † January 8, 1658 in Canstein) was a victim of the Canstein witch trials and was executed on January 8, 1658.

Canstein Castle, lower castle

Life

Anna Schulten (also Anna, the school desks / the school desks Annen) was the wife of Curdt Schulten. She and her first husband had been at war in the army camp . She had a daughter.

Marsberg-Canstein witch trials

Considerable witch hunts took place in the Marsberg area . In the archives of the rule Canstein a voluminous file is No. 1296, in which documents from 19 Canstein witch trials are collected. In 1656 and 1658 nine women and one man were executed there in witch trials. Like Gerta the Boltin, Anna Schulten fell victim to the Canstein witch hunt.

Witch trial against Anna Schulten

In the indictment inquisitions complaint of the highly aristocratic Canstein and Spiegelschen Ficalis amteß prosecutor of February 13, 1657, the following allegations are made:

• Because of her way of life and nature, a general strong and violent shouting and rumor went to Canstein that she was a sorceress .
• Her appearance was also the subject of the indictment: the defendant was of an ugly, quarrelsome nature: verum mala physiognomia et turpe nomen cum aligno indicio est indicium satis sufficiens ad torquendum eum (freely translated: but her ugly appearance and bad reputation, together with the further allegation , are enough to torture them.).
• She often borrowed a butter churn from a neighbor . When it became annoying to him and she complained, Annen said that she had now learned how to make butter if her butter churn was no longer necessary. The woman replied: Let a devil (God forbid) drive you into your body, you may have learned to do magic . Since the defendant did not defend itself and did not reply, it was concluded that the allegation must be correct.
• Magic against the people is also known from the defendant's own daughter.
• When the defendant was at war with her first husband in the army camp, many horses died in the regiment. She was publicly accused of charming the horses.
• From the regiment's location 50 or 60 miles anhero to Canstein (that could have been about 350 kilometers) she sent a message to Raban Johann Spiegel in Canstein and asked for a certificate attesting her innocence that there were no allegations of sorcery in her home country they exist.
• She received the desired certificate from Raban Johann Spiegel, although the indictment emphasizes that she would have been accused by various magicians who had already been executed.
• The document did little to help the regiment. She had to leave the regiment for the sake of peace and returned to Canstein.
• Before a court hearing ( ante inquisitionem ) she had escaped, but came back several weeks later. She was arrested and placed in a well-kept brick prison. She then came out broken through the masonry vault, which she can hardly reach because of the height, and once again made her way away by fleeing .
• She was picked up in the county of Waldeck , brought to Westphalia, and put in a well-kept prison . Again she managed to crawl through a small opening in the door and escape. In total, she escaped from a prison three times, but she always stayed in the area.
• On Tuesday, November 6th, she was caught in the Cansteiner jurisdiction area in Boles Kump (forest area near Marsberg) when she was trying to escape and hide in the bushes. The wanted person pleaded that they would like to let her go. She had all kinds of food with her (bread, small cheeses, raw and cooked meat, bacon, salt, oatmeal) and other things. In the heated exchange, she asked why they started with her innocent, since there were more people who were as guilty as she was.
• But the defendant had been named as a sorceress 20 years ago by a number of accused and executed. And in Canstein there were general rumors about them.

Interrogation protocol of Annen Curt Schulzenere's wife

• In the interrogation protocol of October 19, 1657, previous allegations are again carried out and the highly embarrassing questioning is required.
• About making butter: As daily experience shows that witches can always make more butter than others , and because the defendant has learned to make more butter from a new butter churn than from other people, that's why it is cheap to use it for a sorceress to keep.
• With regard to their three escapes, it is confirmed that this is sufficient reason for the use of torture: that defendants are to be attacked with strict, harsh and sharp embarrassing questions for evacuating and researching the truth, even if they are found to be dead and further condemned.

Death sentence on the school desk

• In the judgment it said: At the request of the fiscalis of the Canstein-Spiegelische legal representation, the judges and lay judges of this Canstein- and Spiegelischen neck court condemned Curdt Schulten Frauwen otherwise called the school desks with the help of an impartial legal scholar , that the defendant had fallen away from God Almighty and promised the devil and thus surrendered to the shameful vice of sorcery and taught sorcery to others and caused harm , which is confirmed by her testimony before the embarrassing court.
• It is rightly recognized that the embarrassing defendant is to be executed with the sword from life to death for such gross mistreatment and that her whole body is to be thrown on a stake and burned. That such a judgment was made in accordance with the law and the acts and statements committed is confirmed with my hand-held signature and the stamp of the seal . Bernd Waltermann (signed the death sentence for Elisabeth Hempelmann in 1658: Friderich Waelterman Dr. Comm (Commissar)).
• Anna Schulten was executed on January 8, 1658.

Criminal witness

Her name appears in two other witch trials:

• In the minutes of the Urgicht of September 7, 1656 of Thielen Anna from Leitmar with a detailed description of witch dances at the Owl Church , she is accused of being a participant in the witches dance place .
• In the indictment against Tönnies Todt in 1685 she is named as a witness : True, that the Schultenfrau zum Canstein, who was executed in 1657 for the sake of magic, stated that the defendant was a magician and insisted on it until death.

Under the torture, new names of alleged accomplices were blackmailed. Through such statements more people were drawn into the witch hunt, and there were chain trials with many victims.

Marsberg Museum Memorial plaque for the victims of the witch trials

memory

In the local museum of the city of Marsberg there is a memorial for the victims of the Marsberg witch trials.

literature

• File No. 1296 in the archives of the Canstein lordship with documents.
• Alexander Josef Freiherr von Elverfeldt : From the shameful vice of magic. Witch trials in the Canstein Patrimonial Court in the second half of the 17th century , Canstein 2006 (PDF; 1.8 MB), accessed on April 28, 2016.

See also

• Canstein witch trials
• Gerta the Boltin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tanja Gawlich: The witch commissioner Heinrich von Schultheiss and the witch persecution in the Duchy of Westphalia . In: Harm Klueting (Ed.): The Duchy of Westphalia . Vol. 1: The Duchy of Westphalia: Westphalia from the Electorate of Cologne from the beginnings of Cologne rule in southern Westphalia up to secularization in 1803 . Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-402-12827-5 , p. 308
2. ↑ Alexander Josef Freiherr von Elverfeldt : From the shameful vice of magic. Witch trials in the Canstein Patrimonial Court in the second half of the 17th century , Canstein 2006 (PDF; 1.8 MB), accessed on April 28, 2016.
3. ↑ The translation would also be conceivable: But her evil look and bad reputation, together with the further accusation, are completely sufficient to torture her.
4. ↑ Historisches Obermarsberg eV: Secretly turned your neck at night  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Witch Chase- Fear of black magic