Butter churn sample

In 1598 in Mölln, the maid Grethge Langenhinricke was to be convicted of "magical malice" by means of a butter churn.

history

The widow Geseke Kulemann managed to butter the butter only in the presence of her maid Grethge. One of the wall makers' servants recommended that she take a little straw from the accused's bed and place it under the churn . The cream could actually be buttered afterwards and so it was believed to have found the culprit and convicted of witchcraft. A witch trial was then carried out against Grethge. The use of the embarrassing questioning was forbidden by the council of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck , instead the maid was banned from the cities of Mölln and Lübeck.

literature

• Rolf Schulte: Witches in Schleswig-Holstein from 16.-18. Century. Heath 2001

Web links

• Hunting witches in Schleswig-Holstein at historicum.net
• Hunting witches in the history of Schleswig-Holstein from abisz
• Katrin Moeller: "It is an extremely fair law that sorceresses are killed" Witch hunt in Protestant northern Germany at DHM.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Witch trials in Lübeck, exhibition board, November 2007 (PDF, 2.2MB, p.3)