Dina Vinhofvers

Dina Vinhofvers , married Schumacher , (* 1620 in Copenhagen ; † July 11, 1651 ibid) was executed because of a scandal surrounding Corfitz Ulfeldt .

Life

Dina Vinhofvers was born in Copenhagen to parents of German origin. Her mother married a silk weaver after her father's death .

Around 1640 Dina married Daniel Schumacher in Holstein , with whom she had a daughter. When her husband died in Lübeck in the late 1640s , she returned to Copenhagen as the lover of Lieutenant Jørgen Walter (1610–1670), who was born in Holstein , and lived with her mother and stepfather. It is not known whether Dina worked in her stepfather's trade. It is more likely that she was supported by her lover, who had successfully held Rendsburg against the Swedes during the Torstensson War in 1645 and was accepted into the Danish nobility in 1649.

At the end of 1650, Jørgen Walter reported to King Friedrich III. , Ulfeldt is planning an assassination attempt against him. He gave Dina as a witness, allegedly Ulfeldt's lover. Six weeks earlier, lying in his bed, she watched as Leonora Christina , Ulfeldt's wife and half-sister of the king, showed her husband a vial of poison that she was going to give the king. Dina was summoned to court and interrogated. She not only confirmed her statement, but also claimed to know where the poison was kept. She also stated that the Ulfeldts' doctor, Otto Sperling , who was also respected at court , had procured the poison, and described where it was kept together with instructions for use. At a later interrogation she declared that von Ulfeldt was pregnant. He had assured her in writing that he would look after the child. He had deposited this certificate with his confessor Simon Hennings . This story was initially believed and increased the king's distrust of his brother-in-law Ulfeldt. A public investigation was not carried out for the time being.

Dina Vinhofver's child was born in March 1651 and disappeared immediately after birth. Shortly afterwards, Dina told Simon Hennings that Jørgen Walter was planning to murder Ulfeldt and his entire family. Worried, Ulfeldt asked the king for protection. Dina was arrested and interrogated. She denied under oath that she knew about the murder plans confessed to the pastor. When asked about the child, she replied that the father was a Pastor Paul Andersen. At a later interrogation, however, she insisted that her deceased child came from Ulfeldt. Henning's wife had paired her with Corfitz Ulfeldt and Hennings himself was in possession of a paper that proved Ulfeldt's paternity, but did not want to give it out. Ulfeldt himself now continued the trial against her and had her indicted in the city court for defamation. Ulfeldt's wife, Walter, Hennings and his wife and Sperling were interviewed as witnesses. In doing so, Dina's claims regarding the child's father were refuted and her description of the interior of Ulfeldt's house was recognized as false and Dina was thus exposed as a liar.

The case was referred back to the High Court, which sentenced Dina Vinhofvers to death for perjury and violation of the Ulfeldts' honor . She was then locked in the Blue Tower and embarrassedly interrogated again . She admitted that Jørgen Walter was the child's father and had incited her to the slander. Shortly before her execution, however, she partially revoked this confession, which was probably true , and sued Ulfeldt and Pastor Hennings, who had refused to hand over the paper, while still on the scaffold .

Walter was arrested. However, Ulfeldt and his wife no longer felt safe in Denmark after this incident. Hennings and Sperling also left Copenhagen. Walter was banished and, when he returned to Copenhagen in 1668, imprisoned in the Blue Tower, where he died in 1670.

Behind Dina's lying claims was probably not only her lover Jørgen Walter, but above all his powerful friend Christian zu Rantzau . Their slander initiated Ulfeldt's fall and with it the decline of the party of the sons-in-law of Kirsten Munk , which was powerful under Christian IV - and was therefore in the interests of Friedrich III.

Literary use

The Danish poet Adam Oehlenschläger made Dina Vinhofvers the main character in his drama Dina in 1841 . Ebbe Kløvedal Reich also worked on fate in 1974 in Rejsen til Messias .

literature

• Ludvig Holberg : Danish Empire History: Translated into German. With a complete register for all three parts. Volume 3, Korte, 1759, p. 73 ff. ( Digitized version )
• Dina Vinhofvers (c. 1620–1651). In: Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon
• Dina Vinhofvers. In: Dansk Biografisk Leksikon

Web links

Commons : Dina Schumacher  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jørgen Walter in: Dansk Biografisk Leksikon
2. ↑ Heinrich Wilhelm Rotermund : Lexicon of all scholars who have lived in Bremen since the Reformation, together with news from bored Bremen residents who held positions of honor in other countries. Volume 1, 1818, p. 199.