Benigna Schultzen

Benigna Schultzen (* in the 17th century in Klatzow ; † after 1711 ) was a woman who lived with her second husband Christian Wünn in the small Mecklenburg town of Penzlin and was charged in a witch trial. Their inquisition and revision process stretched over 12 years from 1699 to 1711, making it one of the longest in the history of the witch trials.

Life

Benigna Schultzen lived in the 17th and 18th centuries. Century and was born in Klatzow . After the death of her first husband, she married the arable citizen Christian Wünn and lived with him in Penzlin. He supported Benigna during the revision process from 1699 to 1711.

accusation

As early as 1694, Benigna Schultzen was accused of witchcraft for the first time by a woman condemned as a "witch" . Her reputation was thus damaged, although the convict did not confirm her charges in a comparison. For Benigna, this meant that from then on she would be associated with witchcraft more quickly if anything happened near her. Her quick-tempered nature and the fact that she was alien also contributed to this.

Even so, it was not until 1699 that Benigna was charged again. She then fled to her sister in Zirow and thus avoided arrest. The authorities took the escape as an indication of their guilt. The city ​​judge Franz Joachim Schultz took up the investigation. In August 1699, the following evidence was confirmed by testimony: Benigna Schultzen was called a witch by other women convicted as "witches", she wanted to evade the trial by fleeing, she had made threats and cast damaging spells . She had tried to bring her late first husband into contact with the devil and she had also pretended to be pregnant and allegedly gave birth to toads.

For reasons unknown, Benigna Schultzen returned to Penzlin and was immediately arrested. The inquisition proceedings on suspicion of witchcraft were opened.

The Inquisition Trial

The first procedural step of an inquisition proceeding should be the inquisitio generalis , in which the available evidence had to be examined without pressure or violence. The city judge, Franz Joachim Schultz, skipped this step and immediately began the embarrassing questioning .

Torture cellar in the old castle Penzlin , where Benigna was tortured

On November 3, 1699 at 7 a.m., Benigna Schultzen was tortured for the first time. A confession was only made after the city judge had the torture repeated and extended, contrary to the instructions of the Greifswald Faculty of Law . The next day, Benigna signed the extorted confession. The Greifswald Faculty of Law declared this confession null and void on December 9, 1699, as the signature, contrary to the legal provisions, was given too early and no defense counsel was called in. The Penzlin court again ignored the requirements from Greifswald and Benigna was handed over to the executioner again on December 18, 1699.

During the subsequent torture, Benigna Schultzen suffered a stroke and temporarily lost her speech. The torture was stopped without a confession. Only gradually did the defendant regain her ability to speak.

The city judge filed another application for torture with the Greifswald Faculty of Law on the grounds that the accused was only faking her inability to speak. On April 3, 1700, however, the Faculty of Law decided on release and expulsion from the country . As a result, Benigna Schultzen was released from prison. The expulsion from the country was not enforced for undetermined reasons.

The revision

After several quiet years with her husband in Penzlin, the situation worsened again. Benigna's brother-in-law, ducal court butcher in Strelitz , inquired about the state of affairs in 1707. The city judge announced another arrest and thereupon Benigna von Strelitz, where she had visited relatives, fled to Klatzow. After a while she returned to Penzlin and was arrested.

The torture was rejected by the Faculty of Law on January 24, 1708. Instead, the release and expulsion sentence of April 3, 1700 should be carried out. On May 15, 1708, Benigna Schultzen was expelled from the country. This began the revision efforts of the now impoverished couple.

On September 8, 1708, Christian Wünn sent a letter of appeal to Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Mecklenburg-Schwerin , in which he asked for his wife to be rehabilitated and for the property to be returned. The Duke then took the case. On September 20, 1708, he requested that the trial files be sent and had the city judge summoned for October 17. He stayed away from the appointment without excuse. Files were not sent. Repeated inquiries from Benigna and an intensified letter from the Duke to the city judge led to the files being sent in during 1709. These were given to Benigna Schultzen and her lawyer in order to draft a statement.

In her defense letter, Benigna went into the various charges and tried to refute them with logic and with the currently applicable laws and regulations. These laws were mainly the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina (CCC). With the help of these laws, she showed many procedural errors that alone should have resulted in an acquittal. She also quoted various inquisitors of her time to point out the flawedness of the evidence against her. The Duke was persuaded by the letter of defense. In his judgment of February 4, 1710 he ordered the annulment of all previous judgments and the restitution of the assets that had personally fallen to the city judge and the " baron ", Heinrich Leopold von Maltzan (# 620, 1680-1712). Benigna Schultzen has been fully rehabilitated.

However, that did not end the case. Benigna was arrested again by the city judge Franz Joachim Schultz and held for two weeks. The city judge also refused the ordered reimbursement of 48 Reichstalers (equivalent to about 12 pigs or 8 cows). The Baron von Maltzan then banished Benigna from the city of Penzlin.

After a new letter to the Duke Benignas she received a protection and on April 28, 1711 letter of safe conduct , her and nationwide access to confession and communion secured. The baron was not persuaded to allow her to stay in Penzlin and the repayment of the property by the city judge did not take place.

literature

• Ines Borkowski: When people still believed in witches. More than 300 years ago, Benigna Schultzen experienced what is probably the longest trial in Mecklenburg. In: Experience the Mecklenburg Lake District. 1996, pp. 26-29.
• Katrin Moeller: That arbitrariness takes precedence over law. Hunting of witches in Mecklenburg in the 16th and 17th centuries. (Witches Research, Vol. 10). For regional history, Bielefeld 2007.
• Gerda Riedl: Suspect of witchcraft. The inquisition and revision proceedings of the Penzlin citizen Benigna Schultzen. Wallstein-Verl., Göttingen 1998.
• Marion Röbkes: Hexen, Götter, Kulte Artha Verl., 2001, pp. 72–74.
• Detlef Stapf: No fire without a confession. The case of Benigna Schultzen from Penzlin occupies an international witch symposium. In: Nordkurier , November 25, 1995.

swell

• State Main Archive Schwerin : File LHAS 2.12-4 / 3 Städtewesen specialia, Penzlin No. 42.

Web links

• Literature about Benigna Schultzen in the state bibliography MV