Catharina Margaretha Linck

Catharina Margaretha Linck or Anastasius Lagrantinus Rosenstengel , as she called herself (* 1687 in Gehofen ; † November 8, 1721 in Halberstadt ), was the last woman who was executed in Europe for fornication with another woman. She was a German button maker, calico printer and soldier who posed as a man, was baptized four times and married the same woman twice.

Life

childhood

Catharina Margaretha Linck's mother lived in poor circumstances, a soldier had made her pregnant. Only when the mother and daughter were able to find accommodation in the orphanage founded by the Pietist August Hermann Francke a few years after the girl was born did their material situation improve. In this institution, which later became the Franconian Foundations , the child received schooling and religious education. His thirst for freedom, his self-confidence and a certain "criminal energy" showed when it broke away, but it returned.

Life as a prophet and a soldier

Linck was apprenticed to a button maker and calico printer for three years , then at the age of 15 she went traveling. In Calbe (Saale) she appeared in men's clothes for the first time and even equipped herself with a horn with which she could urinate while standing. The disguise opened up not only a way out of poverty, but also the possibility to enter into sexual relations with other women. She traveled to Nuremberg with a radical pietist sect . Here she joined the Anabaptists , was baptized in the name Anastasius Lagrantinus Rosenstengel and appeared as a prophet . In 1705 she became a soldier with the troops of the Electorate of Hanover and also fought in the War of the Spanish Succession . During this time she appeared under different names, including Anastasius Beuerlein , Peter Wannich and Cornelius Hubsch . For her sexual contacts with women, she made a leather pouch as a penis , stuffed it and provided it with a "pouch made of pigs blisters". Although she was exposed as a woman several times, she managed to be recruited as a soldier over and over again for over seven years. However, when she deserted and was caught, she faced the death penalty for abandoning her force. Here her true gender proved to be life-saving: she confessed to her confessor that she was a woman. He passed the information on and Linck was released after 16 weeks.

marriage

At the age of 30, she married her 19-year-old lover Catharina Margaretha Mühlhahn from Halberstadt in 1717 in the church of St. Paul. Just one year later the Rosenstengels had to leave Halberstadt after intrigues by their mother-in-law : She suspected from the start that Anastasius Lagrantinus Rosenstengel was a woman. The penniless couple wandered around, begging for a living.

In Münster the two found a place to stay in a Jesuit college because they pretended to be repentant sinners and to be concerned about their souls. They played this role successfully for a year, then were baptized Catholics and married a second time. After that, they had to leave the monastery and live off begging again. In the spring of 1720, Catharina Margaretha Mühlhahn returned penniless to her mother in Halberstadt alone. Anastasius Lagrantinus Rosenstengel came to Helmstedt and received accommodation there from the pastor of the Lutheran parish of St. Marienberg because she again played the repentant sinner in search of the right faith. On May 12, 1720 she was baptized Lutheran in the church of St. Marienberg. The godparents were the Julius University , the Council of the City of Helmstedt and the St. Marienberg Monastery , who also gave a respectable sponsorship money of 25 Reichstalers. Immediately after the baptism, Rosenstengel set out for Halberstadt to bring the wife to a safe place to stay in Helmstedt and to marry again. In Halberstadt, however, there was a scuffle between Rosenstengel and the mother-in-law, in the course of which the leather dildo was discovered. As a result, Rosenstengel was reported to the city court by the mother-in-law and was immediately arrested.

death

In May 1720 Rosenstengel was tried for sodomy (in the sense of fornication with another woman) before the Inquisition Court in Halberstadt. The “land and people deceiver” was sentenced to death and executed with the sword on November 8, 1721 at the fish market in Halberstadt.

reception

In her non-fiction book In Männerkleidern , Angela Steidele names Catharina Linck 's life as typical for all women from lower classes who disguise themselves as men; "In the early 18th century, all of a sudden, career opportunities, sources of income, freedoms and rights were open to her that she could only dream of before." In her letter novel Rosenstengel , Angela Steidele interwoven the story of Catharina Margaretha Linck with that of King Ludwig II of Bavaria . In 2015 the novel was awarded the Bavarian Book Prize in the fiction category.

literature

Angela Steidele : In men's clothes. The daring life of Catharina Margaretha Linck alias Anastasius Rosenstengel, executed in 1721. Biography and documentation . Böhlau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-412-16703-7 .
Florian Welle: On the trail of the secret. Role change. Soldier, prophet, lover: Catharina Margaretha Linck spent most of her life in men's clothes. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , No. 263, 14./15. November 2015, p. 63.

Belletristic representation

Angela Steidele: Rosenstengel: A manuscript from the environment of Ludwig II. , Matthes & Seitz Berlin , 2015, ISBN 978-3-95757-136-6 (print), ISBN 978-3-95757-195-3 (e-book) .

Web links

Literature by and about Catharina Margaretha Linck in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p Florian Welle: On the trail of the secret. Role change. Soldier, prophet, lover: Catharina Margaretha Linck spent most of her life in men's clothes. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, No. 263, 14./15. November 2015, p. 63.
↑ worth reading. Ilija Trojanow and Angela Steidele at Denis Scheck. SWR , October 22, 2015, 12:40 am, accessed on November 5, 2015.
↑ Angela Steidele: In men's clothes. The daring life of Catharina Margaretha Linck alias Anastasius Rosenstengel, executed in 1721. Biography and documentation . Böhlau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-412-16703-7 , quoted from Florian Welle: On the trail of the secret. Role change. Soldier, prophet, lover: Catharina Margaretha Linck spent most of her life in men's clothes. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , No. 263, 14./15. November 2015, p. 63.
↑ Angela Steidele: Rosenstengel: A manuscript from the environment of Ludwig II. Matthes & Seitz Berlin , 2015, ISBN 978-3-95757-136-6 (print), ISBN 978-3-95757-195-3 (e-book) .

personal data
SURNAME	Linck, Catharina Margaretha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Rose stem, Anastasius Lagrantinus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German button maker, calico printer and soldier who posed as a man
DATE OF BIRTH	1687
PLACE OF BIRTH	Homestead
DATE OF DEATH	November 8, 1721
Place of death	Halberstadt

[Welle-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p Florian Welle: On the trail of the secret. Role change. Soldier, prophet, lover: Catharina Margaretha Linck spent most of her life in men's clothes. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, No. 263, 14./15. November 2015, p. 63.

[2] worth reading. Ilija Trojanow and Angela Steidele at Denis Scheck. SWR , October 22, 2015, 12:40 am, accessed on November 5, 2015.

[3] Angela Steidele: In men's clothes. The daring life of Catharina Margaretha Linck alias Anastasius Rosenstengel, executed in 1721. Biography and documentation . Böhlau, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-412-16703-7 , quoted from Florian Welle: On the trail of the secret. Role change. Soldier, prophet, lover: Catharina Margaretha Linck spent most of her life in men's clothes. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , No. 263, 14./15. November 2015, p. 63.

[4] Angela Steidele: Rosenstengel: A manuscript from the environment of Ludwig II. Matthes & Seitz Berlin , 2015, ISBN 978-3-95757-136-6 (print), ISBN 978-3-95757-195-3 (e-book) .