Anneliese Michel

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Tombstone of Anneliese Michel (other names on the tombstone have been retouched)

Anneliese Michel , actually Anna Elisabeth Michel (born September 21, 1952 in Leiblfing ; † July 1, 1976 in Klingenberg am Main ), was a German student of religious education who died of the consequences of extreme malnutrition . The death attracted a lot of attention because in the months before her death two Roman Catholic priests had performed the great exorcism on her 67 times .

The court proceedings, with which the criminal responsibility of those involved was dealt with, attracted attention far beyond the borders of Germany. In addition to the trials before the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal and the first trial against the founders of the Red Army faction in Stammheim , it was one of the criminal trials in Germany that attracted a lot of attention.

The events, also known as the "Exorcism of Klingenberg", changed the practice of exorcising the devil within the Roman Catholic Church in Germany.

Michel's fate was the motif for several documentaries and feature films , including the multiple award-winning film Requiem by Hans-Christian Schmid .

Origin and parental home

Anneliese Michel came from a strictly Catholic family and a similar milieu in the wine town of Klingenberg on the Bavarian-Franconian Lower Main.

Anneliese Michel's father, Josef Michel, came from a long-established family and craftsmen from Klingenberg. According to his deeply religious mother, whose three sisters were nuns , he should have become a priest. After completing a three-year apprenticeship as a carpenter in his parents' company , he was first drafted into the Reich Labor Service , later into the Wehrmacht and finally into the war on the western and eastern fronts. He returned from captivity in the US in the summer of 1945, attended the building trade school in Munich and passed the master craftsman's examination in 1948  to take over the family business - according to Felicitas Goodman . The father's belief and worldview was shaped by the prophecies of Fátima , the Bavarian medium Alois Irlmaier , the seer Barbara Weigand and other contents of conservative currents within Catholicism.

Anneliese Michel's mother Anna Michel was working in her father's office in Leiblfing when she met Josef Michel. The connection between the two was arranged by Anneliese Michel's paternal grandmother, who resorted to the help of the Diocese of Würzburg. Anneliese Michel's mother brought a daughter born in 1948 into the relationship. This fueled rumors in the village that money had flowed in favor of the Michel family to bring about the marriage. The rumor that it was the child of a Catholic clergyman also seemed to be circulating. The child died of a kidney tumor in 1956, but as an illegitimate child was not given a place in the family grave, but was buried in a separate grave on the cemetery wall. Anna and Josef Michel married in 1950.

Childhood, adolescence and medical history

Michel was born on September 21, 1952, the second child of their mother and the first child of the Michel spouses. Her three younger sisters were born in 1954, 1956 and 1957.

Anneliese Michel was already sickly as a toddler and showed little resistance to disease. From 1959 she attended elementary school in Klingenberg and moved to the 6th grade at the Karl-Theodor-von-Dalberg-Gymnasium in Aschaffenburg . At that time she was a member of the sports club and received piano and accordion lessons . Even then she was strongly influenced by religion, went to mass several times a week , regularly prayed rosaries and occasionally slept on the floor in atonement for others. She was described by those around her as friendly and approachable, but also as serious and introverted. Outwardly, too, she showed persistent piety and conducted religious conversations as persuasion.

In September 1968 Michel had his first seizure. The next attack followed in August 1969 and prompted a neurological examination. After recording an electroencephalogram (EEG), the diagnosis “ cerebral seizure disorder ” was made. A short time later, she fell ill with pneumonia and tuberculosis. During her six-month stay in a lung sanatorium in the Allgäu from March to August 1970, multiple epilepsy-like seizures were also documented. In the opinion of one author, it was there that devilish grimaces appeared for the first time and voices were heard. After returning from the sanatorium, she had to switch to a new school class due to the missed teaching time. As a result, she became increasingly lonely and suffered from depression; the performance in school dropped significantly.

Anneliese Michel's puberty was shaped by the strict parental home. Due to strict moral standards, the mother forbade the sixteen-year-old daughter to interact with her first boyfriend, to participate in dance events and to visit friends.

In the spring of 1973 Michel is said to have complained for the first time about constant knocking in the closet, under the floor and above the ceiling; moreover, voices had spoken to her from hell. In September 1973 she described these impressions to a doctor who interpreted this as the beginning of paranoid psychosis. In the same year, accompanied by great fear of failure, she graduated from high school.

In the winter semester 1973 she began studying at the Pedagogical University in Würzburg . Therefore, in November of the same year, she moved to the Ferdinandeum , a Catholic study seminar with a dormitory. In Würzburg she went to the University Neurological and Polyclinic for treatment in November 1973. During the examination, she stated that since 1972 she had suffered from almost daily seizure states that occurred in the form of absences . A "neurotic depression with developmental character" was diagnosed and the findings of epilepsy were also supported by a new EEG. Another EEG in the spring of 1974 showed an unchanged indication of brain damage in the left temporal area, which was very likely the starting point of the attacks.

In November 1975, Michel successfully passed her exam to obtain a church license to teach . In May 1976, she submitted her state examination thesis entitled Working through fear as a religious educational task ; At this point, however, her health was no longer able to properly work it out.

From the autumn of 1970 until shortly before her death, Anneliese Michel was prescribed medication to prevent convulsive discharge in the nervous system. At times this was accompanied by an improvement in her condition. It is unclear, however, whether Michel took the medication properly and regularly over the entire period . There are considerable doubts about this, as the prescribed quantities were often too low in relation to the actual need.

The exorcisms

After Michel had suffered from epilepsy-like seizures for several years and also complained about demonic perceptions, the leader of a pilgrimage in the Marian pilgrimage site of San Damiano (located south of Piacenza in northern Italy), which is not recognized by the Catholic Church, believed that Michel recognized spiritual problems: As Michel first took part in such a trip under the guidance of the pilgrimage director in the summer of 1973, she is said to have shown a great aversion to all objects used for religious worship. At the instigation of the pilgrimage director, Michel introduced himself to a clergyman from Aschaffenburg, but he saw no evidence of an obsession. However, the chaplain there put in touch with the clergyman Ernst Alt, who was pastor in Ettleben at the time. After Michel had contacted him, he first referred her again to medical help. Since the pilgrimage director still did not believe in a medical explanation, she established contact with Father Adolf Rodewyk , who believed that the descriptions provided evidence of an possession. As the author of two standard works in the theological subject of demonology , the Jesuit Rodewyk was considered an undisputed expert on possession and expulsion in Catholic circles. In addition, he had often prayed the great exorcism himself and was theological advisor to the German Bishops' Conference in the field of demonology.

From autumn 1973, Ernst Alt met Anneliese Michel, initially every two weeks, later once a month until November 1974. In the course of the conversations, Alt made the spiritual diagnosis of “being out of touch ” in September 1974 , in which demons have not yet taken possession of the person concerned, but rather them merely harassing, and asked Anneliese Michel to choose a soul guide in order to lead an orderly religious life according to his standards. Anneliese Michel then decided on Ernst Alt. The diagnosis was not inconvenient for Anneliese Michel and her parents, as there was no acceptance of a medical explanation of her condition; rather, one sought refuge in a religious interpretation of the symptoms.

On July 1, 1975, Ernst Alt spoke a first exorcism (a so-called exorcism probativus ) about her, to which, according to the observers, she should have reacted by tearing the rosary. Around this time Anneliese Michel withdrew to her parents' house for the first time, as she was initially too weak to continue her studies due to the seizures and the weight loss that had occurred in the meantime. At the request of Ernst Alt, the Würzburg Bishop Josef Stangl agreed for the first time to a small exorcism that was carried out on August 3, 1975. From this point on, Anneliese Michels' state of mind deteriorated rapidly: she could hardly sleep, suffered from a strong urge to move, screamed and raged, began to fast, but ate insects and drank urine. At this point in time, Ernst Alt advised admission to a mental hospital, which was unacceptable to Anneliese Michel and her parents. Above all, the parents feared that this would shut out her career as a teacher.

At the beginning of September 1975, Adolf Rodewyk visited Anneliese Michel and prepared a report for Bishop Josef Stangl, in which he recommended holding the great exorcism. Father Arnold Renz was appointed as the exorcist, and he agreed. At that time he was pastor in Schippach ( Elsenfeld parish ) and religious of the Salvatorians . Arnold Renz had achieved a certain fame in church circles at that time, as he campaigned intensively for the beatification of the "seer" Barbara Weigand , who died in Schippach .

Bishop Josef Stangl (here May 1959) ordered the great exorcism on September 16, 1975

On September 16, 1975, Bishop Stangl finally ordered the great exorcism according to the Roman ritual . While exorcisms are generally intended to serve as protection from evil, the great exorcism is intended as a rite for driving out devils from the possessed. From the first major exorcism on September 24, 1975 until Michel's death in early July 1976, there were 67 exorcistic sessions according to the great rite, with Arnold Renz running a tape recorder from the second session. The tape recordings show that Michel spoke in a greatly changed voice and repeatedly uttered spontaneous screams. She used crude expressions which the exorcists ascribed to demons. The exorcists stated that Michel was possessed by the demon Lucifer and the "human demons" Judas , Nero , Cain , Hitler and Valentin Fleischmann. Valentin Fleischmann is a priest. He worked in the Ettleben community from 1572 to 1575, making him a predecessor of Ernst Alt. Valentin Fleischmann is said to have had four children and was a manslaughter.

As the reason for the obsession, Ernst Renz stated that Anneliese Michel had communicated through a demon that she was suffering from an atonement obsession in order to save other people from hell. The reason for this is again a curse that a former neighbor of Michels' mother pronounced on Anneliese Michel before she was born.

In the phases in which Anneliese Michel continued her studies, she commuted between Würzburg and Klingenberg in order to be able to pursue studies and expulsions largely side by side. She succeeded in doing this without attracting much attention, as the circle of people initiated into the exorcism was deliberately kept very small. This happened because Michel and her family Ernst Renz understood that Bishop Stangl had ordered that no information about the exorcism should be passed on to third parties. It went so far with Anneliese Michel that she largely limited her seizures to times when only the initiated were present, and thus the circle of trust could be maintained.

With the beginning of Lent on March 3, 1976 ( Ash Wednesday ), Michel stopped eating altogether. She claimed voices forbade her to eat. Her mental and physical condition deteriorated dramatically from that point on. She also tortured herself, for example by kneeling for hours or banging her head on the floor. From mid-April 1976 Michel could no longer get out of bed in Würzburg. In order to shield her nonetheless, her oldest sister came to the dormitory. Friends of the group from a rosary prayer group reported from this time that the sister had prevented a doctor from being called by referring to other medical care. Initiated friends were also sworn to the alleged confidentiality requirement of the bishop.

From May on, Michel could no longer stay in Würzburg. Ernst Alt picked them up and brought them first to his parish in Ettleben and then to their parents' house in Klingenberg. From this point onwards, according to Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz, she increased her physical exertion again: 500 to 600 squats a day, lashing around, biting, scratching and self-harm were now the daily rule. According to the statements of those present, Anneliese Michel inflicted severe wounds on herself in a variety of ways. For example, she tried to bite holes in the wall, breaking off a tooth.

In the last weeks of her life, Michel was temporarily handcuffed to the bed to prevent further injuries. During this time until her death she believed that she recognized the wounds of Jesus Christ. Michel had sore feet because she wore shoes that were too small when she was walking around the house. The body also had open pressure sores over the knees due to prolonged kneeling. Michel was convinced that “the act of grace of the stigmata ” was also given to her hands, but that these were not visible: the Savior had not let them open at her request so that she could finish her thesis. In all likelihood, all visible injuries were due to self-flagellation or uncontrolled actions during spontaneous seizures. The injuries are documented in many photos.

On June 30, 1976, Michel's exorcism was carried out for the last time. She died on July 1, 1976 from the effects of poor nutrition and extreme emaciation. During the autopsy carried out on the day of her death, pneumonia was also found, which had worsened her condition in the final phase. No pathological change in the temporal lobe was found, but this is no evidence that she did not have epilepsy. When she died, she weighed only 31 kg and was 1.66 m tall.

Judicial processing and exhumation

Preliminary investigation

The investigation into the unexplained cause of Michels death was opened by the public prosecutor at the Aschaffenburg district court on the day she died. The reason for this was a call from Alt directly to the investigating authorities. He announced that a young woman had died who had been exorcised for several months. Thereupon, on the orders of the public prosecutor, an autopsy of the body was carried out on the same day .

The criminal police, entrusted with the investigation by the public prosecutor's office, extended the criminal investigation on suspicion of negligent homicide to Michels' parents as well as Alt, Renz and Stangl. The procedure was later extended to Rodewyk.

The investigation against Stangl and Rodewyk was the part of the prosecutor's office in July 1977, on the grounds set that both had no real contact with the victim and therefore could not have had intimate knowledge of his health, which excludes a criminal offense.

exhumation

In temporal, but not factual, connection with the legal proceedings, the deceased was exhumed on February 25, 1978 at the Klingenberg cemetery. To justify the move, Michel's parents stated that the corpse should be transferred from the wooden children's coffin used for burial to a zinc-lined oak coffin. In the background there was presumably also the claim of a lay sister that Anneliese Michel had appeared to her and announced that her body was not decomposed , which proves the supernatural nature of the event. When the coffin was opened in the cemetery morgue, the mayor of Klingenberg, the head of the funeral home and his helpers, a representative from the district administration and two police officers were present. None of the accused was present when the coffin was opened. Renz claimed to have been prevented from entering the morgue by police officers. The other participants testified, however, that he only took a few steps towards the morgue, but then turned back voluntarily. They also confirmed a decomposition in line with the time frame . Alt was near the cemetery, but from the beginning he doubted the truth of the visions of the Allgäu nun. The visionary lay sister was the director of a children's home in the Allgäu. After Renz had to retire from his former pastor, he was quartered in this children's home for a while. One can only speculate about a connection; in any case, this was not discussed publicly at the time.

Criminal proceedings

The place of the trial: The Aschaffenburg district court in the justice center

After the indictment was received by the court in July 1977, the proceedings against the four defendants began on March 30, 1978 before the Aschaffenburg Regional Court, which became known worldwide as the Aschaffenburg Exorcism Trial and attracted a great deal of media attention. Numerous foreign media applied for filming permits. The Vatican also closely observed the proceedings: The apostolic nuncio in Germany feared that the process would violate the protection of the confessional secrecy as guaranteed in the Reich Concordat , since the public prosecutor's office from Renz and Alt had received the tapes of the exorcisms and the extensive correspondence with Bishop Stangl.

The appraiser of the mental hospital of the University of Würzburg, appointed by the court at the request of the public prosecutor, found that Michel had suffered from an epileptic seizure disorder . Because of the drug treatment, the disease has looked for a different form of expression and has become a paranoid psychosis . This is also confirmed by the tapes of the exorcism sessions. It is a fact of experience that epilepsy patients can often have exaggerated or pathological religious attitudes as well as depressive and paranoid phases. The deterioration in health that began in April 1976 was due to autosuggestion as a result of a definitive loss of control. According to the expert, other causes of this severe, complex clinical picture lay in an undiagnosed, extreme form of anorexia , which ultimately led to death by starvation.

According to the expert opinion, Michel's death could have been prevented by calling in a doctor in good time, later by drug and psychotherapeutic treatment, and most recently by force-feeding , which was required from April 1976 at the latest. At this point in time, a briefing according to the Bavarian custody law would have been possible, since Michel had endangered himself to the highest degree and, due to her mental illness, was no longer able to make a decision that was so far-reaching and necessary for her survival.

At the request of the defense counsel for the two clergymen, the court appointed two further experts from the psychiatry department of Ulm University, including Eberhard Lungershausen , who came to essentially the same conclusions. They only contradicted the first reviewer with regard to the diagnosis of brain damage. In addition, the two authors of the second report suspected an unrecognized, untreated severe schizophrenia as a component of the disease.

An appraisal also took place with regard to the defendants. The first assessor found that all four of the accused had a very pronounced religiosity, which led to the subjective perception that Michel could only be saved through divine help. The accused priests had acted on the basis of their religious beliefs; this was based on naive - if not to say primitive - religious convictions.

The second reviewer came to the conclusion that the first reviewer's conclusions were also correct with regard to the defendants. They also diagnosed with Renz a brain calcification . Regarding Alt, they stated that he could be described as psychologically abnormal. This was concretized in such a way that the possibility of a psychosis of the schizophrenic group of forms was obvious in his case, without, however, evidence of symptoms being derived from the findings of the assessment.

In their defense, Michel's parents pleaded that they had entrusted the fate and life of their daughter to the church and the priests who acted. Renz, in turn, put the responsibility on his parents. Medical care and nutrition are not the job of an exorcist. The parents should have arranged everything that was necessary. All of the defendants also pointed out that Rodewyk had assured them that no one had died during an exorcism.

As defense attorney, the Michel spouses used, among others, the lawyer Erich Schmidt-Leichner , who had gained media fame in the 1960s through his work as a defender in German war crimes trials .

Finally, on April 19, 1978, the public prosecutor applied for the defendants to be punished for “negligent homicide by omission ”. The clergy were to receive a fine of 120 daily rates each; No sentence was required for the parents, as they would have suffered heavily enough from the loss of their daughter. The defendants' defense lawyers all petitioned for their acquittal.

judgment

The court went far beyond the prosecution's request and sentenced both the parents and Renz and Alt on April 21, 1978 to six months' imprisonment each with a three-year suspended sentence . The court accused the defendants of having to provide medical help and consult a doctor. In favor of the accused, the court saw a considerable reduction in the ability to discern, as they "irrevocably believed in the personal existence of the devil", which in the sense of Section 21 of the Criminal Code led to a reduced culpability . The court did not comment on the question of Michel's obsession in the written judgment. Only in the oral justification of the judgment the court is said to have said: “Anneliese Michel was not possessed. She has been insane since May 1, 1976. "

The verdict was largely approved by legal experts. A few critical voices complained that the court had judged questions of faith in an inadmissible way with the decision. For example, the magistrate and author Harald Grochtmann took offense at the fact that the belief in the devil led to a reduced culpability in the decision. It is difficult to assume that all Christians who fully follow the doctrine of their respective churches may be guilty of reduced liability.

All four defendants initially submitted appeal against the decision, took the requests for revision but then returned, which is why the judgment appealable was. In the opinion of those involved, the judgment on the matter is only God's business, secular courts have no jurisdiction. In fact, at least the clergy were also guided by legal considerations in their decision: According to an assessment by the Diocese of Würzburg, a revision should have been without any prospect of success.

Interpretations of events

Medical interpretation

Due to the findings in court proceedings, scientific-medical interpretations predominate. According to the statements of all treating physicians, the five to six documented large epileptic seizures between 1968 and 1972 - depending on the count - made the diagnosis of epilepsy necessary, which has been confirmed in a total of nine neurological examinations since 1969. The judicially appointed experts also came to the conclusion, taking into account the treatment files of the treating physicians and the sound recordings of the exorcisms, that Michel had undoubtedly suffered from epilepsy. In diseases of this kind, however, it is not uncommon for very stressed, exaggerated and pathologically religious attitudes to arise, over which Michel finally lost control in the summer of 1975. As a result, Michel developed a severe psychogenic psychosis .

In summary, the medical diagnosis of the events is: "Paranoid-hallucinatory psychosis in epilepsy on the background of special psychosocial factors, whereby a psychogenic identification of a pathological type with the role of a possessed was given."

Psychological interpretation

Uwe Wolff (here 2012) created a standard work on the psychological interpretation of events

The Protestant theologian and cultural scientist Uwe Wolff , who deals intensively with the cultural history of angels and demonology , largely agrees with the judicial experts. He is less interested in scientific and medical explanations than in the question: Why did Anneliese Michel become ill? In response, he offers Michel's strict Catholic upbringing, which was paternal and authoritarian, but above all morally overwhelming and full of fear. In contrast to the majority of her generation, she could not simply free herself from her upbringing through transgression and provocation. Only one role in the world of her hometown offered the possibility of liberation: that of the possessed. As a possessed person, she could insult anything Catholic, her parents and the surrounding culture without having to expect punishment. Wolff explains the extremely traditionalist statements made during the exorcisms, for example against communion in the hand , as suggestively caused by Alt and Renz.

At the same time, Wolff gives a second explanation, which in a certain way runs counter to the first. Accordingly, it was precisely her deep roots in Catholic piety that aroused Michel's suspicion of the help of doctors. Because none of the doctors was able to give her a sense of her suffering. Religion is quite different; Here she was able to understand her suffering as a substitute atonement through which other people could shorten purgatory or even save hell . On the other hand, the Catholic Church had forbidden her repeatedly deliberate suicide - as a mortal sin , this would have just destroyed the meaning of atonement. As a result, the last option was death because of the already existing suffering. Therefore, from Easter 1976, she gradually starved herself to death.

Other authors see a disturbed father-daughter relationship as the source of the suppressed aggression that triggered the events. The initially suppressed impulses would have taken on a life of their own in the course of development and redefined as evil spirits.

The theologian and professor of the Catholic Faculty of the University of Tübingen, Herbert Haag , also sees a relationship between Michel as a possessed person and the exorcist according to a psychological control loop. Renz reacted to Michel's expectations with his incantations, which caused her physical and mental stress to rise to such an extent that her inner strength of resistance broke and she could only explain her incomprehensible illness in a religious mania.

Official church interpretation

The Cardinal Joseph Hoffner , then chairman of the German Bishops' Conference and the highest representatives of the Catholic Church in Germany, said on April 28, 1978 in the press release on the case Klingenberg, according to Catholic doctrine, a demonic possession is in principle possible. To this end, he appealed to the Church's uninterrupted doctrine of the invisible beings created by God , who are called angels . Some would have turned against God as the author of all good in a free decision and thereby became evil out of themselves. Such evil spirits, also called demons, tried in many forms to exert a disastrous influence on the world and people, one possible expression being possession.

Höffner had written: “Catholic theology clings to the existence of the devil and demonic forces. There is also no reason for people at the end of the 20th century to deny the work of Satan and evil spirits in our world or to perceive the statements about them as absurd. The church teaches in an uninterrupted tradition that God created invisible beings with knowledge and will. Some, of their own free will, turned against God as the author of all good and became angry. The Church also believes that these evil spirits are also trying to exert a disastrous influence on the world and on people. This action takes many forms. One of these forms can be obsession ”.

In a statement by the Bishops' Conference in 2005, the Catholic Church recognized that Michel's cause of death was indirectly the Great Exorcism itself. However, no position was taken on the question of their possible obsession.

Cultic-religious interpretation

Representative of the thesis of a diabolical possession: Felicitas Goodman (around 1988)

The American ethnologist Felicitas Goodman tried to explain the events on the basis of her own cultural anthropological ideas. Accordingly, there is the so-called phenomenon of a “religious state of emergency” in all religions, which can occur both positively and negatively. This state of emergency is in principle created in humans, with different people being differently gifted for reaching this state. If the state of emergency is experienced positively, it affects the pleasure center of the brain, otherwise it reaches the punishment center. A special sign of the religious state of emergency is speaking in a certain, recurring vocalization, that is, in certain rhythms and melodies. This vocalization can be demonstrated in recordings of the exorcisms.

According to Goodman, there are also remedies in all religions in the event that the state of emergency is experienced negatively. The Catholic Church has for centuries refined the great exorcism. The violent psychological shock caused by the exorcism serves to guide the brain of the person concerned to divert the state of emergency from the punishment center to the pleasure center. This is exactly what happened with Michel: On October 31, 1975, all demons went out after she had repeatedly had visions and auditions of the Mother of God , various other saints and angels and allegedly from Christ himself.

According to Goodman, however, the medication had a fatal effect. From the beginning, the neurochemical agents calmed the brain and thus hindered the desired brain reaction to the exorcism and ultimately led to the demons returning only a few moments after the expulsion. From that moment on, the drugs would have been decisive. The demons previously known by name had less and less a chance to speak and after February 29, 1976 they fell silent. Even the positive voices hadn't been heard after Good Friday 1976. After she was unable to swallow, Michel could finally no longer take the drug Tegretal (active ingredient carbamazepine ). Now, according to Goodman's thesis, the withdrawal symptoms of the drug set in, which in their opinion coincide in a striking way with Michel's symptoms. Finally, she died of damage to the red blood cells caused by Tegretal.

Goodman's theses are regularly used by followers of cultic-religious attempts at interpretation as evidence of a diabolical obsession, although their work is widely described as unscientific and incomprehensible.

Church political interpretation

Michel's statements in the context of the exorcisms show, among other things, a proximity to the program of the group around the French archbishop and founder of the Pius brotherhood Marcel Lefebvre . Among other things, the Brotherhood is hostile to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council . Renz was said to be close to this group, in some cases he was even considered a one hundred percent supporter. In a letter to Stangl, for example, he admitted that in two cases in his parish church he had tried in vain to perform communion on the mouth against the will of the worshipers. The region around Klingenberg is considered to have been infiltrated by supporters of the Pius Brotherhood, in Miltenberg they used the old train station as a place of proclamation.

According to Renz and Michel's parents, the Virgin Mary forced the demons to put messages into Michel's mouth that the world absolutely needs to know. Renz's suggestive questioning technique during the exorcisms led to the suspicion that he had literally put words into Michel's mouth in order to later spread them as religious truths. For example, in the exorcism of January 23, 1976, Renz had Michel the devil speak about Lefebvre and the reform-oriented theology professor Hans Küng :

Renz: Are you to blame for Küng's heresy, for example?
Lucifer: Yes, we have more.
Renz: The Bishop Lefebvre?
Lucifer: Oh, you don't listen to him, what a shame!
Renz: Who said what a shame?
Lucifer: I don't!

Much of the content of the “Statements of the Demons” is directed against the innovations of the Second Vatican Council, for example communion in hand, the abolition of communion pews , the popular altar and others. But political issues such as the reform of the abortion law are also the subject of the statements. Since Renz intended from the beginning to publish the sound recordings, it seems reasonable to assume that Michel was merely misused by the priests involved as an object of demonstration for the existence of the devil and for the dissemination of religious-political messages. Even within the Würzburg diocesan instructions, it was assumed that a tendency hostile to the Council sympathized with obsession and that the devil 'paints everyone on the wall'.

Interpretation of those involved

When Anneliese Michel was still alive, the circle of people close to her and initiated into the exorcism were convinced of her demonic possession . This included in particular her family, the clergy Alt, Renz and Rodewyk as well as the pilgrimage director.

One of Michel's sister is known to have followed a secular-psychological interpretation after her death. Nothing is known about any change in their minds about what happened after Michel's death.

Alt justified his behavior decades after the event. Ten years after Michel's death, he wrote: “I cannot say that demons are the result of an overexcited imagination! I can't say there is no hell. I cannot say that Klingenberg is ticked off; Anneliese Michel was insane! ”Thirty years after the events, he wrote:“ The mandate is: Drive out demons ( Mt 10.8  EU )! ... if we don't, what will happen to the Church and the world? "

Other approach

The abuse officer of the Würzburg diocese, Klaus Laubenthal, described the allegation of sexual abuse of a woman by Arnold Renz in his 2015/2016 annual report . Corresponding allegations were also made against Ernst Alt. According to Laubenthal, future research on the Michel case should also consider the aspect of sexual abuse.

aftermath

The events surrounding Anneliese Michel continue to have an impact today.

In 1979, under the pressure of the ongoing public debate, the German Bishops' Conference decided to convene a multidisciplinary working group to clarify fundamental questions in the context of obsession and exorcism. In addition to theologians, psychologists were deliberately appointed to the commission; it was presided over by Prelate Josef Homeyer . The working group recommended the revision of the traditional criteria of possession, the rejection of the imperative form of exorcism and the guarantee of medical and psychiatric assessment and help before and during the ritual. The results of the commission prompted the German Bishops' Conference in 1984 to petition the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship to redesign exorcism as a liturgy for liberation from evil . The results of the working group were only included in the revised version of the exorcism ritual from 1999. The new version of the exorcism ritual continues to include the term exorcism instead of liturgy for liberation from evil in the title. However, with the new rite, an exorcism must be broken off if the person concerned refuses to consult a doctor.

The public discussion about the role of the Catholic Church in the context of the events led to the fact that there were and are only a few approved exorcisms in Germany. The latest reliable figures from 2008 only confirm individual official expulsions in the dioceses of Augsburg and Paderborn. However, a high number of unauthorized expulsions can be assumed.

In parts of conservative religious circles, Michel enjoys the reputation of a saint . There are many reports of pilgrimages to Michel's grave by entire tour bus groups from many European countries. In the literature there are descriptions of it for the year 2009. At a vigil for exorcism victims in 2010, however, only three participants came together.

Building damaged by arson on the site next to the former Michels sawmill

In honor of Anneliese, her father had a small chapel built and consecrated on his private property in the immediate vicinity of the cemetery after her death . The parents received pilgrims there during their lifetime. After the death of Michel's mother in 2012, the chapel was closed. A picture of Anneliese Michel is supposed to hang in the chapel of San Damiano .

The events also received regular feedback in the media. In June 2013, for example, the case again attracted attention when a building on the site next to the Michel family's former sawmill burned out. Media initially associated the fire with satanists . In fact, the fires were started by an obedient firefighter.

reception

Film documentation

  • Death by casting out devils. Report, Germany 1976, 45 minutes, script and direction: Helge Cramer, production: Bayerischer Rundfunk , series: Der Weisse Fleck, first broadcast on August 2, 1976. First documentation about the exorcism case, including a detailed interview with Father Renz. Nomination for the Adolf Grimme Prize 1977.
  • Der Fall Anneliese M. Feature, Germany 1978, 45 minutes, script and director: Helge Cramer, production: Bayerischer Rundfunk, series: Der Weisse Fleck, first broadcast on March 21, 1978. Processing on the occasion of the exhumation.
  • Satan Lives - The Return of Exorcism. Feature, Germany 2006, 44 minutes, script and director: Helge Cramer, production: Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln , series: Die Story, first broadcast on March 27, 2006. Main focus on conversations with former fellow students Michels. Nomination for the Adolf Grimme Prize 2007.
  • Devil's work and God's contribution. Documentary, Germany 2011, 95 minutes (TV version 88 minutes), script and director: Helge Cramer, production: Bayerischer Rundfunk in coproduction with Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, first broadcast on April 21, 2011. Presentation of today's exorcism practice in Germany with special consideration of the aftermath of the Michel case. Nomination for the Grimme Prize 2012 .

motion pictures

theatre

Musical confrontation

  • The Public Image Ltd. group processed the death of Anneliese Michels in the piece Annalisa on her debut LP, released in 1978.
  • The Austrian black metal group Seduced used original sound recordings of the exorcism as the intro for the song Die Teufelseintrieb .
  • The American power metal band Cage handled the case in the piece Anneliese Michel on the 2011 album Supremacy Of Steel .
  • The American metal band Currents used the case in their 2012 piece Anneliese on the single of the same name.
  • The Belgian black / death metal group Possession covers the case on their EP Anneliese from 2014.

literature

Non-religious appraisals

  • Sepp Maderegger: Demons. Anneliese Michel's obsession in the light of analytical psychology - a contribution to the discussion about the personality of the devil. Ovilava-Libri publishing house, Wels 1983, ISBN 3-85410-030-2 .
  • Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The Anneliese Michel case. Church, justice, press. Königshausen & Neumann , Würzburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8260-5230-9 .
  • Otto Schrappe: The path from epilepsy to obsession. About AM and its seizure disease. In: Nervenheilkunde 1, 1982, ISSN  0722-1541 , pp. 59-65.
  • Uwe Wolff : The devil is in me . Heyne, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-453-60038-X . First published under the title: That breaks the bishop's cross. The last expulsion of the devil in Germany 1975/76 . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-499-60619-4 .

Cultic-religious processing

  • Elisabeth Becker (ed.): The exorcism of the church under fire. Christiana-Verlag , Stein am Rhein 1995, ISBN 3-7171-0991-X .
  • Kaspar Bullinger: The life and death of Anneliese Michel and the statements of the demons. 2nd expanded edition. Ruhland-Verlag, Altötting 1983, DNB 948879831 .
  • Felicitas D. Goodman : Anneliese Michel and her demons. The Klingenberg case from a scientific perspective. 5th edition. Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 2006, ISBN 3-7171-0781-X .
  • Lisl Gutwenger (Ed.): “Drive out demons!” From Blumhardt to Rodewyk. On the work of Catholic and Protestant exorcists. Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 1992, ISBN 3-7171-0956-1 .
  • Georg Siegmund (Ed.): From Wemding to Klingenberg. Four world famous cases of exorcisms. Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 1985, ISBN 3-7171-0869-7 .

Notes on the literature

  1. ↑ The work is the first and so far only scientific processing of the investigation files as well as the documents from the diocesan archive of Würzburg (status: December 2015).
  2. ↑ Book review: Bernhard Schweßinger: First scientific review. bistum-wuerzburg.de, April 4, 2014, accessed on January 13, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Book review: Christian Wölfel: Anneliese Michel: Exorzismus-Tod is still used today. In: welt.de. April 7, 2014, accessed January 13, 2015 .
  4. ↑ TV report: Death by driving out devils. The case of Anneliese Michel from Klingenberg. (No longer available online.) In: sat1bayern.de. April 4, 2014, archived from the original on May 3, 2015 ; Retrieved December 7, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Wolff had an extensive collection of material for his work, which the Michel family gave him. In addition, he was in possession of Rodewyk's estate, insofar as it concerned the affairs of Anneliese Michel. The pilgrimage director gave him the tapes of the exorcisms. In addition, he had contact with Michel's mother as well as with Alt; compare Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The Anneliese Michel case . 2014, p. 243 f., in particular footnote 962 .
  6. ↑ a b So far, the works of Wolff and Goodman were the only way to find out the background to what was going on. However, both works have in common the lack of verifiability. Compare: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The Anneliese Michel case . 2014, p. 248 .
  7. ^ Collection of all the minutes of the exorcisms. Published at the instigation of Michels and Renz's parents.
  8. ↑ The author had access to the judicial procedural file, which was submitted to her by defense attorney Alts. She also had correspondence with Alt and Renz. The latter also gave her copies of all recordings of the exorcisms. She also had personal contact with the Michel family, who shared their memories of the events and handed over photos. Compare: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The Anneliese Michel case . 2014, p. 239-242 . Since the provision of the procedural documents was to be thanked with a discharge from Alts, the Michel family later refused to work together, compare: Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 37 f . Goodman herself admits in her work that she did not always adhere to facts: "For those who do not know this part of Germany and its Catholic piety from personal experience, I used a little color." Compare: Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 24 .

Web links

Commons : Anneliese Michel  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . Heyne, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-453-60038-X , p. 56 .
  2. ^ A b Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8260-5230-9 , p. 20 .
  3. ↑ a b Marcus Wegner: Exorcism Today . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2009, ISBN 978-3-579-06476-5 , p. 71 .
  4. ↑ a b c Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 2006, ISBN 3-7171-0781-X , p. 28 .
  5. ↑ In detail on the religious background: Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 46-71 .
  6. ↑ Marcus Wegner: Exorcism Today . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2009, ISBN 978-3-579-06476-5 , p. 74 .
  7. ↑ In detail on the aspect of the illegitimate daughter: Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 52-55 .
  8. ↑ a b Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 33 .
  9. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 34 .
  10. ↑ With reference to the investigation file: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 21 .
  11. ↑ a b c d Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 22 .
  12. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 38 .
  13. ↑ a b Only mentioned here: Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 44 . In Michel's correspondence from this period, however, she does not describe any demonic experiences. She also comments on her epileptic seizure soberly and without referring to the supernatural, compare her letters. In: Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 84 ff .
  14. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 47 f .
  15. ↑ With reference to the exploration protocols of the Institute for Psychotherapy and Medical Psychology at the University of Würzburg from 1973 and 1974: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 22 .
  16. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 52 .
  17. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 23 .
  18. ^ A b Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 28 .
  19. ↑ a b With reference to the investigation file: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 29 .
  20. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 45 .
  21. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 303 .
  22. ^ A b c Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 47 .
  23. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 286 .
  24. ↑ With reference to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 30 .
  25. ↑ The diocesan newspaper of the Diocese of Würzburg speaks of an absurd form of devotion to Mary in San Damiano. Compare to this: Press office of the Episcopal Ordinariate Würzburg: Documentation. Selection of important church pronouncements on the "Klingenberg case". (PDF; 2.12 MB) (No longer available online.) November 21, 2005, p. 12 , archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 20, 2016 .
  26. ↑ With reference to the investigation file: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 24 f .
  27. ↑ In detail on the pilgrimage and the events resulting from it: Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and their demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 54-61 .
  28. ↑ With reference to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 25th f .
  29. ↑ With reference to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 26 .
  30. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 39 .
  31. ^ A b Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 27 .
  32. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 31 .
  33. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 34 .
  34. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 36 .
  35. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 111 ff .
  36. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 113 ff .
  37. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 37 . There, in particular, explanation in footnote 90.
  38. ↑ With extensive sources: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 37 ff .
  39. ↑ The Exorcism of Klingenberg . In: materials and information currently . No. 3 , 1976, p. 3–15 ( blogsport.de [PDF; 2.4 MB ; accessed on December 4, 2014]).
  40. ↑ Verbatim rendering of the arrangement in: Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and their demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 121 f . Online with reference to Goodman: Press Office of the Episcopal Ordinariate Würzburg: Documentation. Selection of important church pronouncements on the "Klingenberg case". (PDF; 2.12 MB) (No longer available online.) November 21, 2005, p. 3 , archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 20, 2016 .
  41. ↑ Detailed description of the prehistory of the arrangement together with reference to sites of discovery: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 39 ff., p. 41 .
  42. ↑ Detailed description in: Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and their demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 126-129 .
  43. ↑ a b With detailed reference to the investigation file: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 44 .
  44. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 42 .
  45. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 135 .
  46. ↑ Ernst Alt: Statements of the demons in the Klingenberg case. In: Lisl Gutwenger (ed.): Drives out demons . Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 1992, ISBN 3-7171-0956-1 , p. 235-245, p. 242 .
  47. ^ A b Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 46 .
  48. ↑ With reference to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 41 f .
  49. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 47 f .
  50. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 48 .
  51. ↑ With reference to the investigation file: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 49 .
  52. ↑ With reference to letters from Renz and Alt to Stangl: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 49 f . There in particular footnote 144.
  53. ^ Also with reference to a letter from one of the clergymen to Stangl: Jean-Marie Faerber. Zeitzeichen Fall Klingenberg. In: Georg Siegmund (Ed.): From Wemding to Klingenberg. Four world famous cases of exorcisms . Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 1985, ISBN 3-7171-0869-7 , p. 93-169, p. 150 .
  54. ↑ a b Marcus Wegner: Exorcism Today . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2009, ISBN 978-3-579-06476-5 , p. 81 .
  55. ^ With reference to the forensic medical findings: Eric Hilgendorf: Teufelsglaube and free evaluation of evidence. (PDF; 9.6 MB) Würzburger jurisprudential writings, Volume 80. In: Festschrift for Rainer Paulus. Klaus Laubenthal, January 20, 2009, p. 97 , accessed January 16, 2015 .
  56. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 157-159 .
  57. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 218 .
  58. ↑ With reference to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 55 .
  59. ↑ a b With reference to the investigation file: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 53-55 .
  60. ^ With reference to the factual documentation of the diocesan archive of Würzburg: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 62 .
  61. ↑ For the exact wording of the revelations see: Alois Döring: Demons give testimony. Belief in the devil and exorcism in traditionalist movements . In: Swiss Archives for Folklore = Archives suisses des traditions populaires . tape 81 , no. 1-2 , 1985, pp. 1-23; 12 ff ., doi : 10.5169 / seals-117518 .
  62. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 63 f .
  63. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 223 .
  64. ^ A b Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 65 f .
  65. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 64 . See footnote 206 in detail there.
  66. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 222 .
  67. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 62 f .
  68. ↑ With reference to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 66 .
  69. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 85 f .
  70. ↑ With various references to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 67-69 .
  71. ↑ a b With reference to the case files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 69 .
  72. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 237 .
  73. ↑ a b Jost Nolte : People in court: they are all obsessed. In: zeit.de . April 21, 1978. Retrieved April 11, 2016 .
  74. ↑ With reference to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 70 .
  75. ↑ a b Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 239 .
  76. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 70 .
  77. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 70 .
  78. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 241 .
  79. ↑ With reference to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 50 f .
  80. ↑ With reference to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 50 .
  81. ↑ Michael Getler: Cries of a Woman Possessed. In: washingtonpost.com . April 21, 1978, accessed April 11, 2016 .
  82. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 34 .
  83. ↑ With reference to sources in the judgment: Eric Hilgendorf: Teufelsglaube and free assessment of evidence. (PDF; 9.6 MB) Würzburger jurisprudential writings, Volume 80. In: Festschrift for Rainer Paulus. Klaus Laubenthal, January 20, 2009, p. 97 , accessed on November 27, 2014 .
  84. ^ Jean-Marie Faerber. Zeitzeichen Fall Klingenberg. In: Georg Siegmund (Ed.): From Wemding to Klingenberg. Four world famous cases of exorcisms . Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 1985, ISBN 3-7171-0869-7 , p. 93-169, p. 93 .
  85. ↑ Compare example: Eric Hilgendorf: Devil's faith and free evaluation of evidence. (PDF; 9.6 MB) Würzburger jurisprudential writings, Volume 80. In: Festschrift for Rainer Paulus. Klaus Laubenthal, January 20, 2009, p. 98 , accessed November 27, 2014 .
  86. ↑ Harald Grochtmann: Judgment of the district court Aschaffenburg in the so-called Klingenberg case: incorrect in the reasoning and insofar untenable in the result. In: Elisabeth Becker (ed.): The exorcism of the church under fire? Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 1995, ISBN 3-7171-0991-X , p. 98-122 .
  87. ^ Press office of the Episcopal Ordinariate Würzburg: Documentation. Selection of important church pronouncements on the "Klingenberg case". (PDF; 2.12 MB) (No longer available online.) November 21, 2005, p. 2 , archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 20, 2016 .
  88. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 242 .
  89. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 86 . There with reference to the files of the vicar general of the Diocese of Würzburg, explained in footnote 273.
  90. ↑ With various references to the investigation files: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 67-70 .
  91. ↑ With reference to statements in footnote 221 there: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 68 .
  92. ↑ With detailed evaluation: Ernst Schulz: Obsession and Exorcism in 1976 . In: Journal of Forensic Medicine . No. 82 , 1979, pp. 313-321 .
  93. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 235 ff .
  94. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 263 .
  95. ↑ Sepp Maderegger: demons. Anneliese Michel's obsession in the light of analytical psychology - a contribution to the discussion about the personality of the devil . Verlag Ovilava-Libri, Wels 1983, ISBN 3-85410-030-2 , p. 91 (for the influence of the other parties involved, see p. 29 f.).
  96. ^ Herbert Haag: At a loss for evil . 2nd Edition. Piper Verlag, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-492-10951-9 , pp. 175 .
  97. ^ Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference: Declaration of April 28, 1978 against hasty exorcism. The church and the devil. (PDF; 2.12 MB) (No longer available online.) In: Documentation: Selection of important church pronouncements on the "Klingenberg case" . April 28, 1978, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 20, 2016 .
  98. ↑ www.exorzismus.net: Press release of the Catholic Church. .
  99. ↑ a b Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference: The Klingenberg case and the consequences. (PDF; 68 kB) In: weltanschauungsfragen.de. November 15, 2005, accessed November 27, 2014 .
  100. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 253 .
  101. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 260 .
  102. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 254 ff .
  103. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 261 .
  104. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 296 f .
  105. ↑ On the theory of the religious state of emergency and its application in the Michel case, see overall: Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and their demons . 5th edition. 2006, Chapter 9: The Discovery of the Biological Basis in Religious Experience, p. 243-268 .
  106. ↑ Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 294 f .
  107. ↑ On the complex of medication as a whole, see: Instead of an old healing method (exorcism) - death through drugs, (Chapter 10) in: Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 269-295 .
  108. ↑ Exemplary: Jean-Marie Faerber. Zeitzeichen Fall Klingenberg. In: Georg Siegmund (Ed.): From Wemding to Klingenberg. Four world famous cases of exorcisms . Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 1985, ISBN 3-7171-0869-7 , p. 93-169, p. 155 .
  109. ↑ Also exemplary: Ernst Alt. Testimony of the demons in the Klingenberg case. In: Lisl Gutwenger (ed.): Drives out demons . Christiana-Verlag, Stein am Rhein 1992, ISBN 3-7171-0956-1 , p. 235-245, p. 235 .
  110. ^ Instead of many: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 241 . In particular, footnote 946.
  111. ↑ a b Likewise: High in heaven . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1980 ( online ).
  112. ↑ a b Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 241 .
  113. ↑ In detail in: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 180-183 .
  114. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 223 .
  115. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 181 .
  116. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 169 .
  117. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 169 ff . Chapter The instrumentalization and dissemination of the "messages" of Anneliese Michel.
  118. ^ Quoted in total from Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The Anneliese Michel case . 2014, p. 180 . The work refers to Kaspar Bullinger: The life and death of Anneliese Michel and the statements of the demons. 2nd expanded edition. Ruhland-Verlag, Altötting 1983, DNB 948879831 , p. 74.
  119. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 177 .
  120. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 180 .
  121. ↑ On the statements of the demons as a whole: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, Chapter: The "Statements of the Demons" in a conservative and traditionalist reading, p. 176-183 .
  122. ^ Publication of all protocols: Kaspar Bullinger: The life and death of Anneliese Michel and the statements of the demons . 2nd expanded edition. Ruhland-Verlag, Altötting 1983. DNB 948879831 .
  123. ↑ Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The case of Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 175 .
  124. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, p. 57 .
  125. ^ So the Vicar General Wittig at the time. Compare this to Petra Ney-Hellmuth: The Anneliese Michel case . 2014, p. 88 . There with reference to the handbook of the vicar general.
  126. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The devil is in me . 2006, ISBN 3-453-60038-X , pp. 302 .
  127. ↑ Ten years later. Statement from Pastor Ernst Alt, 1986. In: Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 305-317, p. 317 .
  128. ↑ Thirty years later. Second statement from Pastor Ernst Alt, 2006. In: Felicitas D. Goodman: Anneliese Michel and her demons . 5th edition. 2006, p. 346-351, p. 351 .
  129. ↑ Christine Jeske: Priest confesses sexual acts in Poland. In: mainpost.de. March 21, 2016, accessed on October 13, 2016 ( payment barrier ).
  130. ↑ Christine Jeske: News in the case of exorcism Anneliese Michel. In: mainpost.de. October 10, 2016, accessed on October 13, 2016 ( payment barrier ).
  131. ↑ Klemens Richter: "Liturgy for Liberation from Evil" instead of "Exorcism". In: Ulrich Niemann, Marion Wagner (Ed.): Exorcism or Therapy? Approaches to liberation from evil. Pustet, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7917-1978-5 , pp. 94-110.
  132. ↑ Manfred Probst and Klemens Richter: Exorcism or liturgy for liberation from evil. Information and contributions to a necessary discussion in the Catholic Church. Aschendorff, Münster 2002.
  133. ↑ With further evidence: Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 83 .
  134. ↑ Marcus Wegner: Exorcism Today . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2009, ISBN 978-3-579-06476-5 , p. 90 .
  135. ↑ Philipp Gessler: And deliver us from evil. In: taz.de. October 1, 2008, accessed January 8, 2015 .
  136. ↑ With reference to the daily newspaper Die Welt : Petra Ney-Hellmuth: Der Fall Anneliese Michel . 2014, p. 264 .
  137. ↑ a b c Bruno Schrep: Get out, out in the name of God! In: Der Spiegel . No. 49 , 1996 ( online ).
  138. ↑ Confession to drive out the devil: vigil for exorcism victims. In: main-netz.de. March 3, 2010, accessed December 7, 2015 .
  139. ↑ Marcus Wegner: Exorcism Today . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2009, ISBN 978-3-579-06476-5 , p. 92 .
  140. ↑ Manfred Weiss: Exorcism Case: How Klingenberg has to live with the stigma. In: main-echo.de. July 6, 2016, accessed July 11, 2016 .
  141. ↑ Marcus Wegner: Exorcism Today . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2009, ISBN 978-3-579-06476-5 , p. 91 .
  142. ↑ Exemplary for various representations: Klingenberg Exorcism: Did Satanists set fire to this house? (No longer available online.) SAT.1 Bavaria, June 12, 2013, archived from the original on June 15, 2013 ; Retrieved November 12, 2014 .
  143. ↑ Likewise: Jens Raab: The devil is loose in Klingenberg. In: main-echo.de. June 14, 2013, accessed July 1, 2016 .
  144. ↑ Fire series: suspended sentence for firefighter. In: merkur-online.de. March 12, 2014, accessed December 7, 2015 .
  145. ↑ Death by driving out devils. ( Memento from November 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Originally from: cramerfilm.de, accessed on January 5, 2016.
  146. ↑ a b c Devil's work and God's contribution. ( Memento from November 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Originally from: cramerfilm.de, accessed on January 5, 2016.
  147. ^ The case of Anneliese M. ( Memento from November 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Originally from: cramerfilm.de, accessed on January 5, 2016.
  148. ↑ Satan Lives - The Return of Exorcism. ( Memento from November 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Originally from: cramerfilm.de, accessed on January 5, 2016.
  149. ↑ Devil's Work and God's Contribution. WDR television, April 21, 2011, accessed on July 19, 2020 .
  150. ^ Print / online edition: Bernhard Setzwein: Stranger Voices . Edited, commented on, explained and provided with material by Hans-Peter Ecker and Kirsta Viola Ecker; University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg 2015, Volume 2 of the series “Bamberg Texts for Stage and Film”, ISBN 978-3-86309-308-2 (print edition), e ISBN 978-3-86309-309-9 (online edition ).
  151. ↑ A successful, daring production. From: bernhardsetzwein.de, accessed on September 19, 2014.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 16, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Michel, Anneliese
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Michel, Anna Elisabeth (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic, died after exorcism
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Leiblfing
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1976
Place of death Klingenberg am Main