Anne Marie von Ziegler
Anne Marie von Ziegler (* around 1545 in Pillnitz ; † February 7, 1575 in Wolfenbüttel ), also known as Schlüterliese , was a noble deceiver and alchemist .
Life
Anne Marie von Ziegler was born as the daughter of Caspar von Ziegler and his wife Clara (née von Schomburg) and came from the Saxon noble family "von Ziegler zu Pillnitz". She grew up in the Old Castle in Dresden, where she lived as a noble lady. She was impregnated by a junker at the age of 14 and drowned her child shortly after it was born. Then she had to leave the yard. A marriage came about through her relatives, but it ended after a short marriage when her husband fell from his horse. She finally went with some servants to her brother Hans von Ziegler in Gotha . There she was married against her will to the cross-eyed valet and court jester Heinrich Schombach of Duke Johann Friedrich of Saxony .
While her husband liked to spy on other people, von Ziegler turned to the alchemical guild, in whose arts she was taught by an admirer. In Gotha, the couple met the alchemist Philipp Sömmering , who was supposed to make a tincture for the duke that could be used to turn other metals into gold. These three fled the city with the amount of money that Sömmering had received for his research when fighting broke out there in 1566/1567.
Work in Wolfenbüttel
They came to Braunschweig , where they gained the trust of Duke Julius by stealth and were finally accepted at his court in Wolfenbüttel in 1571. Here now they should finish the tincture for gold production, which at the same time should give eternal youth in a diluted form. Philipp Sömmering had given himself the Greek name Therocycle and pretended to master the secret art of gold making. Duke Julius actually let himself be fooled by this trio for some time. Sömmering also tried to produce "constellated musket tubes" that would never miss their target. Anne Marie von Ziegler managed to gain the Duke's trust in her arts time and again through her charm and ingenuity. Therefore, despite some warnings, he appointed Sömmering to his chamber, mountain and hut council.
Von Ziegler claimed to Duke Julius that she was born five months early and raised with the secret tincture, or that she was a beneficiary of Count Carl von Oettingen, a son of Paracelsus , who also possessed this tincture and thus achieved immeasurable wealth. She wanted to elicit the recipe from this so that Sömmering could finish it. In addition to the murders of servants or accomplices, the trio also tried to poison Duchess Hedwig , who mistrusted them. Since this failed, von Ziegler fled to Goslar with her husband. Another escape to the Electorate of Saxony was prevented because a letter that Ziegler had sent to a suitor was intercepted. At Pentecost in 1574, the gang and other accomplices were finally arrested. They confessed to their deeds under torture and were sentenced to death and executed in Wolfenbüttel in front of the Mühlenthore on February 7th, 1575 by being pinched with tongs and burned in iron chairs.
The Schombach couple lived in Wolfenbüttel in the “Alte Apotheke” south of the bridge in front of the castle, which had previously served as a place of work for the gold maker Sömmering. In the pharmacy, von Ziegler ran her own laboratory, in which she mixed poisons, including the magic drug that was supposed to make the Duchess lame and crooked when it was spread on her doorstep.
literature
- Jette Anders: 33 alchemists. Past Publishing, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86408-204-7 .
- Florian Arnold: The terrible end of the alchemist. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung of February 27, 2020.
- Ludwig Beck: The history of iron in technical and cultural-historical relation. Volume 2. The XVI. and XVII. Century. Vieweg, Braunschweig 1895, OCLC 312755595
- Ulrike Hagena: Ziegler, Anne Marie von. 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. 757-758 .
- Tara E. Nummedal: Alchemical reproduction and the career of Anna Maria Zieglerin . In: Ambix . tape 48 , no. 2 , July 18, 2001, ISSN 0002-6980 , p. 56-68 , doi : 10.1179 / amb.2001.48.2.56 , PMID 11954610 .
- Tara E. Nummedal: Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood. Alchemy and End Times in Reformation Germany. Penn Press, Philadelphia 2019, ISBN 978-0-8122-5089-3 .
- Albert von Rhamm : The deceitful gold makers at the court of Duke Julius of Braunschweig according to the trial files. Zwißler, Wolfenbüttel 1883.
- Georg Schwedt: Braunschweig (and Helmstedt) . In: Chemical experiments in castles, monasteries and museums . Wiley-VCH-Verl, Weinheim 2012, ISBN 978-3-527-66131-2 ( wiley-vch.e-bookshelf.de - Philipp Sömmering and his attempts at gold production in Wolfenbüttel).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wilhelm Görges : Patriotic stories and memorabilia of the past with many images of cities, spots, villages, castles, palaces, monasteries, churches, ancient buildings a. the country of Braunschweig and Hanover, for the most part as they appeared 200 years ago, together with portraits and other illustrations that were deemed necessary. Volume 2, Friedrich Meinecke, Braunschweig 1844, p. 298.
- ↑ a b c Ulrike Hagena: Ziegler, Anne Marie von. 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. 757-758 .
- ↑ The Upper Harz. In: Ludwig Beck: The history of iron. Volume 2: The XVI. and XVII. Century. Braunschweig, 1895, p. 793 ( deutschestextarchiv.de ).
- ↑ Hans Götting: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch Volume 33, p. 28. Waisenhaus-Buchdruckerei, Braunschweig 1952 ( tu-braunschweig.de ), accessed on November 6, 2013.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ziegler, Anne Marie von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schombach, Anne Marie; Schlueterliese |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German cheater and alchemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1545 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pillnitz |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 7, 1575 |
| Place of death | Wolfenbüttel |