Barbara Pächlerin

Barbara Pächlerin (* probably between 1490 and 1500 ; † August 28, 1540 ) was an Austrian farmer and convicted in a sorcery trial . It is also known as Sarntaler witch or under the name Barbara Pächler , Barbara Pachler or Vulgonamen Pachlerzottl even Pachler-Zottl written.

Life

Barbara Pächlerin was probably born between 1490 and 1500 and came to Sarntal around 1510 with her family from Villanders in Eisack Valley . There the parents leased the Stöckelehof in the village of Auen , where she initially helped out and after her marriage to Chuenz Pächler became a farmer at Pachl in the village of Windlahn . With Chuenz Pächler, who died in 1554, she had a total of six children; including the son Hans, who had died before 1555 and was first married to a woman from Villanders whose name was unknown. In his second marriage, Hans Pächler was married to Margretha, "a little girl". Her second child was Brigitha, who died before 1587, who was married to a Jörn, who first lived in Verano and then in Mölten . The third child was his son Martin, who died in 1571, a carpenter at Burgfeld zu Steet / Sarnthein , whose first marriage was to a Maria and the second was to Katharina Aicher from Pens . Another child was Margreth, who died around 1585 and was married to Hans Urbaner or Tschötter, who lived in the Gufidaun court . Another child was Jacob, commonly known as Maisnegger, who was married to an unknown woman in Windlahn. There was also Anna, who died before 1571, her first marriage to Michel Gerin zu Unterreinswald and her second marriage to Bärtl Farcher in the Sarnthein court .

At the age of about 45 or at most 50 years of age, Barbara Pächlerin was accused of sorcery and subsequently tortured at Reinegg Castle until she made her forced confession ( embarrassing questioning ). Under the chairmanship of the judge Rueland Kaboy († 1559) from Castelrotto , she was convicted of witchcraft in the Sarntal cellar castle and sentenced to death at the stake . She was sentenced on August 28, 1540 and burned at the stake. As can be heard from the court record, Barbara Pächlerin wanted to poison and kill a certain Pachmann-Anndl, because she suspected she had seduced her husband, which led to adultery . Whether this was the reason for the indictment and what role Anna Pachmann played in it cannot be fully reconstructed today. After the death of his wife, Chuenz Pächler remarried; this time an Anna Platter from Nordheim in Sarntal, with whom he had a daughter, among other things, who was baptized Barbara. Under its vulgar name Pachlerzottl it also found its way into the South Tyrolean world of legends .

literature

• Ilse Korotin (Ed.): BiografıA. Lexicon of Austrian Women. Volume 3: P-Z. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-79590-2 , pp. 2443–2444.
• Ignaz Vinzenz Zingerle : Barbara Pachlerin, the Sarnthaler witch, and Mathias Perger, the Lauterfresser, two witch trials , Innsbruck 1858 digitized version of the Bavarian State Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The “Stoanernen Mandln” in Sarntal and the mysterious legend of the witch “Pachlerzottl” , accessed on June 4, 2017