Anna Strassberger

Anna Strassberger , also Straßberger , (* around 1535) was a Bohemian blacksmith's daughter who was expelled from the devil in 1559 . The story has been handed down in four early writings that an unknown person from Schlaggenwald had given for printing on the basis of witness reports, and thus became known nationwide.

Life

Anna Strassberger was the daughter of the mountain blacksmith Valten Straßberger († around 1581), who was one of the first settlers in the mining town of Platten (now Horní Blatná ), which was founded in 1535 . In 1537 he was enfeoffed with a farmstead there , after which he built a house. She still had at least two brothers.

The records report the following about the unmarried blacksmith's daughter: "She lived a Christian chaste and chaste, attended church diligently and used the holy sacraments often and learned the Gospels by heart, but for God's fate she was thrown down by a serious illness last Shrovetide ." The disease may have been epilepsy . Out of a lack of understanding, the parents sought advice from a fortune teller .

After Easter , the young woman's condition worsened and the “physical possession of the devil was understood”. She began to see herself in the room in the shape of a cuckoo, a raven, and a bumblebee, and from day to day she said strange things and screamed as only birds tend to do. When the name Jesus was mentioned, she stuck her tongue out to her mouth like a "plaited willow" and twisted her back so miserably that it couldn't be described. She said that she always thought as if she were lying on water and drowning, but pious people came from all walks of life who wanted to help her. A pious man Elias Hirsch was with her day and night, praying to her and comforting her. He once thought himself that an evil spirit had spoken to him.

The zealous pastor of Schlaggenwald Kilian Rebentrost asked the evil spirit: "Why didn't he stay in heaven, since God made him such a beautiful angel?", To which he received the answer: "Dear Pfaff, I often become a rabbit, o the rich rabbits like to meet me. I know that you prayed for the black stupid margaretta (that's what the obsessed woman called herself in the conversations) on Whitsun holidays ”. After several days the pastor Rebentrost carried the young woman to the church, in which the entire assembled congregation prayed and sang about her, but when the name Jesus was a lot, the possessed bellowed and raged terribly, saying that everything would perish.

On Trinity Sunday , the pastor admonished the congregation to pray for the possessed when suddenly a “tremendous roar and roar of wind” rose in front of the church door. On May 30th the pastor appeared with ten clergymen coming from other places, among them were two deacons from St. Joachimsthal, who were ordered there by Mr. Johann Mathesius , with the order they should not be able to achieve anything, nor should they do anything else. Because of obstacles, Pastor Rebentrost did not arrive there until around noon with another four or five priests and in the presence of the castle captain in Prague, although he was himself a Catholic. With him, the people flocked to the possessed, praying and singing, that the evil spirit was finally driven out and supposedly "drove out the window like a swarm of flies".

Nothing is known about the actual fate of the young woman. Since she is not listed in the local marriage register, it must be assumed that she died of her illness at a young age. A stranger from Schlaggenwald, possibly the pastor himself, had the story published by Georg Baumann in Erfurt , Valentin Neuber in Nuremberg and Hans Gegler in Augsburg and in Wittenberg, citing hundreds of witnesses . Later chroniclers doubt the truthfulness of individual details. Neither Mathesius nor the local pastor report this in their records.

Extracts

"... especially there in this year / 1559. to Platten / the Schneeberg Colony in the Bohemian neighborhood / where everything was still evangelical at that time / thegl. Teuffels = play a game / since Satan is a daughter of Schmidt / whose name is Anna personally possessed and she was cruelly tormented / he was driven out again. Which an unknown von Schlackenwalda with reference to many hundreds testify / who saw / described it and had it printed at Erfurt by Georgium Baumann near St. Paul. The title of this antique and described Devilish Spectacul is thus: A cruel / terrible and wonderful story or new newspaper / which really happened in this 1559th Jhar / zur Platten / zwo meyl weges von Joachimsthal / all there a Schmidt has a daughter / die has been captured and possessed by the evil enemy of the devil / he has spoken so wonderfully and strange things out of her / with the priests / who have been with her every day. And how he was finally cast out from her / by the priest and many pious Christians / the prayer and groaning of the common people / which they did daily for them to God. Somewhat comforting to the pious God-fearing Christians / But to make the wicked and unrepentant a little more terrible to repent / as the evil spirit itself / again his will / had to speak and report ... "

- Historia Schneebergensis

literature

• Christian Meltzer : Historia Schneebergensis , Schneeberg: Fulde, 1716, pp. 1148–1153
• Hermann Hallbauer, Horst Henschel : The treasure of legends of the Erzgebirge , 1st part, Schwarzenberg, 1934, p. 40.
• Wolfgang Marothi : Miriquidis murmur. Saxon and Bohemian sagas from the western Hocherzgebirge , Scheßlitz, 1987, p. 91.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Kronika města | Porta fontium. Retrieved November 30, 2019 . 
2. ↑ A gruesome, terrifying, and wonderful story or new zeytung, which happened in disem 1559. Jar, zur Platten, two meyl weges from Joachimsthal, already a smith has a daughter who is humbled by the evil feyndt the Teuffel, and possessed been: he talked so wonderfully and seltzam thing out of jr ... Neuber, 1559 ( google.de [accessed on November 29, 2019]).
3. ↑ Erich Matthes: The house loan book of the Saxon-Bohemian mountain town Platten im Erzgebirge 1535-1570, Verlag Degener & Co, 1967, p. 53
4. ↑ Johannes Janssen: History of the German people since the end of the Middle Ages: Sixth volume: Art and folk literature up to the beginning of the Thirty Years War . BoD - Books on Demand, 2016, ISBN 978-3-8460-6210-4 ( google.de [accessed November 29, 2019]).
5. ↑ Communications from the Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia . 1913 ( google.de [accessed on November 29, 2019]).
6. ↑ Erzgebirge Museum - 239. A blacksmith's daughter in Platten is possessed by the devil. Retrieved November 29, 2019 . 
7. ^ Kronika města | Porta fontium. Retrieved November 29, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Annual reports of historical science: published on behalf of the Historical Society in Berlin ... ES Mittler & sohn, 1905 ( google.de [accessed on November 29, 2019]).