Witch hunt in Davensberg
There were numerous witch trials in Davensberg at the end of the 16th and 17th centuries . From 1593 to 1647 (according to other sources 1657) 55 witch trials took place in the area of the aristocratic court Davensberg-Nordkirchen , which led to numerous executions.
Prehistory, preconditions
The processes and events in Davensberg are related to the historical witch hunt in the whole of Central Europe. The persecution in the then Principality of Münster was of less intensity than in other areas and started relatively late. Within the prince-bishopric, the aristocratic court Davensberg-Nordkirchen, which was subordinate to the von Morrien families and extended over large parts of the Werne office , was a place of intense persecution. Later on, there were also disputes with the Münster councils about the type of procedure and overall power and influence in the region. At the height of events, the then judge of Davensberg, Anna Sophia von Limburg-Styrum, widow of Johann von Morrien, condemned in a letter of December 1629 and January 1630 with drastic words “wicked people” who were “unhadden” so many, “ especially ”of the“ magic ”, that they had to intervene with the“ holy justitz ”.
course
Persecution began in 1590
The witch hunts began in the early 1590s. The first big witch trial began in 1596 against Margarete Bunigmann from the "Easter farmers". She was charged with sorcery and, after consulting the University of Marburg, subjected to embarrassing questioning . There was an acquittal, but the process caused a stir in the region.
In the following years there were further individual proceedings. In 1611 several men and women accused of sorcery were tried, whereupon the convicts were executed. In 1618 several persons were charged with the damaging spell and executed by burning. In Davensberg, as in other places in the region, the so-called water test was used in the course of the persecutions . 1624 Merge density from Westrup was executed.
Trial of Anna Walboem
One of the victims of the witch hunt in Davensberg was eighty-year-old Anna Walboem. The order in 1549 Ottmarsbocholt born Anna Walboem was in the autumn of 1629 by other accused and later executed women under the torture denounced that she had participated in the joint Hexentanz. These women were later executed.
Anna Walboem was captured in November 1629 and condemned to an embarrassing question shortly thereafter . Despite the torture, she did not make a confession. A lawyer complained in a letter dated December 14, 1629 how the Davensberg court had imprisoned and tortured the old woman, known to be honest and pious, under unworthy conditions. Against the opinion of some experienced legal scholars, she was only drafted and embarrassedly questioned because of the denunciation of ugly burned witches . The Davensberg court had the old persohn tortured so horribly that she remained lying on the square as if dead.
Five legal scholars prepared an expert opinion on behalf of her family, which strictly denied the torture of mother Walboem and demanded her release. The councilors of Münster decided on December 18, 1629 that she had to be transported to better premises as soon as possible, as the cold weather meant that the woman would die in prison. But the judges Johann Ascheberg and Engelbert Langenhorst in the Davensberg court refused to follow this decision of the Munster council and referred to the orders of the court lady Anna Sophia von Morrien.
While there was still an argument about her, the 80-year-old defendant was already on her deathbed. After her death in January 1630, a dispute broke out between the Walboem family and the Davensberg court over the fate of the body. The court had an executioner confirm that the devil had broken old Walboem's neck and consulted the notorious witch commissioner Heinrich von Schultheiß . The family was outraged by this finding, which would have stigmatized them as a blood relative of a witch and possibly put them in danger. In return, the family hired a lawyer to file a lawsuit against the responsible court representatives because the deceased had not confessed to sorcery. This trial showed how the Davensberg court disregarded all applicable procedural guidelines in witch trials.
memory
In Davensberg there is no memorial stone or plaque for the victims of the witch trials. In 2018 it was decided that the street in the new “Hemmen” building area in Davensberg would be named Anna-Walboem-Straße.
controversy
On February 24, 1995, at the suggestion of the Davensberg Heimatverein, a monument to Pope Innocent VIII was inaugurated next to the church . The sculpture shows him with the certificate for the approval of the construction of St. Anne's Church. Letters to the editor in the local press sparked controversial discussions about the person and life's work of the Pope, whose name is linked to the start of the witch hunts. The Bull Summis desiderantes affectibus , which he wrote in 1484, caused a sharp increase in witch trials, especially in Germany. The Heimatverein emphasized that only the founding situation of the church should be considered.
Sources and literature
- Gudrun Gersmann: water samples and witch trials, views of witch-hunting in the Bishopric of Münster in: historicum.net, from January 26, 2008
- Archive Nordkirchen 12219, Protocollum criminale , Bl.86b, 89b, 92 and 95.
- Archive Nordkirchen 10720.
- Münster State Archives, Antiquities Association 317b, p. 37b, letter dated December 18, 1629.
- Gudrun Gersmann : Conflicts, crises, provocations in the Principality of Münster. Criminal justice in the field of tension between aristocratic and sovereign justice , in: Delinquency, justice and social control (1300 - 1800). Contributions of historical crime research to a social and cultural history of the premodern , ed. by Andreas Blauert and Gerd Schwerhoff, Konstanz 1999
- Davensberger Jahrbuch 1997, p. 87.
- Hartmut Hegeler : Witch monuments in Westphalia and Lippe . Unna 2013, pp. 27-29, ISBN 978-3-940266-07-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gudrun Gersmann: Conflicts, crises, provocations in the Principality of Münster. Criminal justice in the field of tension between aristocratic and sovereign justice , in: Delinquency, justice and social control (1300 - 1800). Contributions of historical crime research to a social and cultural history of the premodern, ed. by Andreas Blauert and Gerd Schwerhoff, Konstanz 1999. HJ Wolf: History of the witch trials , Nikol Verlag, Hamburg 1995, p. 677
- ↑ a b c d e f g Gudrun Gersmann: Water samples and witch trials, views of the witch hunt in the Prince Diocese of Münster in: historicum.net, from January 26, 2008
- ↑ Archive Nordkirchen 12219, Protocollum criminale, pages 86b, 89b, 92 and 95. Münster State Archives, Altertumsverein 317b, page 37b, letter of December 18, 1629
- ↑ SPD Ascheberg 2018/07/10
- ↑ Street name Anna-Walboem-Straße, Coesfeld district land registry office