Barbara Ordeneck

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Barbara Ordeneck (* around 1600 in Würges ; † December 9, 1659 in Camberg ) was a victim of the Camberg witch hunt and was executed on December 9, 1659.

Life

Schulstrasse 6 in Bad Camberg

Barbara Ordeneck was the daughter of Hans Kaspar Fleck, who has been in Würges since 1607. Her brother-in-law was Enner's Bermbach von Würges. Around 1625 she married Andreas (Enners) Ordeneck, to whom she bore at least six children, of which her son Simon survived. In 1635 Andreas Ordeneck was mayor of Nassau , later Elector of Trier, from Würges. The family lived in Würges in the house at Schulstrasse 6.

Camberg witch trials

Witch trials in Camberg were carried out especially in the years 1629–1631, 1643–1644 and 1659–1660. 14 women and one man were charged, eight women were executed and one died in custody. The remaining accused were released, often after torture.

Witches Committee

In 1659, as in 1629, fear and unrest spread among the population of Camberg because of the supposed increase in witchcraft. In an initiative, the citizens called on the Nassau cellar Johann Weitzel to initiate the persecution of witches . He wrote to his superior Achatius von Hohenfeld , the governor of the Count of Nassau-Diez . This allowed the citizens to form a witch committee. Despite some reservations, Elector Karl Kaspar von der Leyen , Archbishop of Trier (1652–1676), gave in to the insistence of his subjects. On June 14, 1659, the ten accusers were elected and sworn in for the witch committee with citizens from Camberg, Würges, Erbach , Oberselters , Dombach , Schwickershausen and Haintchen . The mayor and community authorized the prosecutors to conduct interrogations, indictments and convictions. To cover the costs of the litigation, guarantors (including some mayors) used their assets, but the community was liable as a counter-guarantor. If convicted, the costs were charged to the accused according to a fee schedule. As a result, the community had an interest in being sentenced.

Witch Trial Barbara Ordeneck

On Friday, July 4, 1659, the prosecutors began the interrogations in the investigation against Agathe, the wife of Jakob Pauli from Erbach, and against Barbara Ordeneck from Würges. Files on this process can be found in Bad Camberg and Wiesbaden.

The indictment against Barbara Ordeneck comprised 38 points, including particularly cases of harmful magic :

  • She caused the death of a bull owned by Peter Wünschmann who was to be herded into her cow. She said to the animal: Now jump into a hundred devil names.
  • In the house of Peter Weber she enchanted Heinrich the carpenter while he was drinking tobacco and was to blame for his death.
  • She went to the stable door of Adam Becker's horse, which died soon afterwards.
  • At the execution of Margarethe Stopp in 1643, she said: God wanted this to be the last.
  • She made threats when the neighbor Margarethe Werner confronted her when she cut wheat from the neighbor's field.
  • She had caused the leg pain of a man who, during an argument in the bakery, had said: if she were a witch, she should know best herself . The defendant replied: The devil knows where he came from.
  • In addition, three of the last as if witch executed women they named as a participant in witches dances. However, there is no note on this in the files.
  • 18-year-old Johannes Sändt had a swollen knee. His mother attributed this to Barbara Ordeneck's Schadenzauber when they had been drinking beer in their house.

Process flow

In mid-July, the responsible court at the Oberhof in Koblenz criticized the minutes of the previous interrogations, in contrast to the authorities in Nassau-Diez: the witnesses only knew a lot from hearsay. The allegations were not sufficient for arrest or torture.

Now the Nassau government in Diez requested a statement from the Law Faculty of the University of Giessen in a letter dated August 6, 1659 . They saw the available evidence as sufficient for an arrest warrant, but a defense lawyer should be assigned to her. Further evidence should be collected and the remainder after the imperial Halsgerichtsordnung of Emperor Charles V be moved. The Kurtrier authorities, however, insisted on their opinion, so that Barbara Ordeneck remained at large and was not interrogated.

The prosecutors made new allegations; however, the drafting of the new indictment took until September. The witness interrogation took place on September 23, 1659 at the town hall in Camberg by the Weitzel cellar in the presence of the Trier bailiff von Hattstein.

  • The new allegations involved illnesses in two boys. The witnesses believed that the defendant had bewitched the boys.
  • In addition, she was to blame for the death of a deer belonging to Captain Webel, who was in Mainz for the electoral service.
  • The death of the 18-year-old witness Johannes Sändt after a long illness in early November 1659 marked a turning point in the process. Like the family, the doctor and the two surgeons from Limburg were convinced that this must have been an unnatural process.

Interrogation of Barbara Ordeneck

Barbara Ordeneck was drafted on November 18, 1659 for magic and thrown into prison. The next day, the good interrogations by bailiff von Hattstein and Keller Weitzel began at the town hall. Barbara Ordeneck said she didn't know anything. Then she was handed over to the executioner. After being wound up four times , she made a confession of the devil's pact , the devil's allegiance , participation in the witch's sabbath and the magic of harm . She also confessed to killing her best cow, a calf and one of her pigs. She added poison to a Dutchman's child and killed it. As participants in the witch's dance , she named Kellers Leysen, the wife of the Weitzel cellar, and the colonel, Mrs. von Hattstein, perhaps in the hope that the proceedings could be put down.

She was kindly interrogated again on November 23 . She said she regretted her actions and hoped for a gracious judgment. It is noticeable that in her testimony she did not address the charges against her at all. The guard who was supposed to take her back to the prison said that the defendant had stated that she regretted having known so much. She knows nothing of everything she has known. On the orders of the Oberhof in Koblenz (letter of November 28) and the Princely Nassau government (letter of November 29, 1659), she was again interrogated about the various charges. The defendant denied all allegations. She was subjected to the torture again: winding and thumbscrew. She then repeated her November 22nd confession and again accused Kellers Leysen. Then she said, be respectful of her confession to die in Christ and piously.

Judgment day

Judgment Day took place on December 9, 1659. The mayor of Nassau read the verdict, the mayor of Trier broke the staff. As a special grace, the accused was granted execution with the sword because she confessed and repented. The verdict was announced in front of the town hall. The defendant made her last walk to the gallows field on Hohen Strasse on foot. Shortly before the execution, she made an attempt to withdraw her confession. The bailiff and the cellar Weitzel rode up to her to ask her what she was talking about. In the end, the condemned confirmed her confession and was beheaded by the executioner master Niklas von Limburg. Your body was burned. The cost of the trial was 360 guilders and 23 albus. The widower of the executed, the Trier mayor Andreas Ordeneck, recognized this high sum on January 17, 1660 and paid it. He immediately entered into a new marriage, but died in 1661. Barbara Ordeneck had numerous offspring through the two daughters of her son Simon.

literature

  • Rudolf Wolf: witch trials in Camberg , in: Camberg, 700 years of city rights , publisher: Magistrat der Stadt Bad Camberg, Camberger Verlag Ulrich Lange 1991, pp. 55–63.
  • Rudolf Wolf: witch trials in the bishopric Camberg , in: Nassauische Annalen 93 (Wiesbaden 1982), pp. 247-257.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Witches trials / witch persecution Bad Camberg and the names of the victims (PDF; 93 kB), accessed on May 9, 2016.
  2. ^ Rudolf Wolf: Witches Trials in Camberg , in: Camberg, 700 years of city rights , publisher: Magistrat der Stadt Bad Camberg, Camberger Verlag Ulrich Lange 1991, p. 55
personal data
SURNAME Ordeneck, Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Victims of the witch trials in Bad Camberg
DATE OF BIRTH around 1600
PLACE OF BIRTH Choke
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1659
Place of death Bad Camberg