Gesche Köllers

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Loccum Monastery, copper engraving by Matthäus Merian 1654/1658

Gesche Köllers (also Gese Köllars, Köllarß) (* around 1620 ; † June 2, 1660 in Loccum ) was a farmer's wife and widow of a Mr. Wiemars from Wiedensahl ; she was a victim of the witch hunts in Loccum. Known of her family are a son Hilger and other children as well as a brother Heinrich, who was a soldier in Hoya.

Process flow

In the 17th century, around 33 people were executed in witch trials in the Loccum monastery area . Between 1581 and 1661 there were a total of 54 documented cases of witchcraft in the monastery’s area of ​​responsibility. After the wave of witch trials in 1638, five charges of witchcraft were brought before the Loccumer Stiftsgericht, the monastic jurisdiction, between 1659 and 1661. Abbot John XI. (Kotzebue), who had been elected in 1658, took part in the proceedings of the Loccumer Stiftsgericht and conducted inquiries in the proceedings against Gesche Köllers.

Remarkable is the kindling of the witch hunts in Loccum monastery by the Wiedensahl pastor Heinrich Rimphoff (1599–1655), who published the writing Drachen-König in Rinteln in 1647 . The village pastor took part in the Loccum witch hunts as a witch hunter and later also initiated witch trials in Verden as superintendent.

Gesche Köllers from Wiedensahl was accused in 1659 at the instigation of her neighbor Kurt Wilkenings, who accused her of "witchcraft and magic". She stated that his motivation was probably hatred because she was not at his will when he harassed her on various occasions.

On September 1, 1659, the mayor and the entire council of the Wiedensahl community brought an indictment to the Loccum collegiate court with 31 charges and eleven witnesses. A lengthy process followed, in the course of which Gesche Köllers initially steadfastly denied the "guilt" she was accused of. She was u. a. Accused of blasphemy and desecration of the host as well as magic spells . She bewitched a neighbor's horses, sheep and cows and the weather. After an interrogation on October 18, the Wiedensahl community sent reformulated charges and a list of eleven witnesses on October 31, 1659. The first witness appeared on November 1, 1659, Mr. Johann Culmann, pastor in Wiedensahl. She asked for the water test , but on February 24, 1660 it was negative for her. In the Loccum tradition, the small pond on the slope above Bachteich and Fulde is known as the witch's pond, where the water samples were taken.

After questioning the witnesses, surprisingly, an opinion from the law faculty of Rinteln University on March 3 found that she was suspicious, but not convicted. After reimbursement of the expenses and the original feud, she was to be expelled from the area of ​​Loccums Abbey.

The beheading of Leonora Galigaï on the Place de Grève

The Wiedensahl community immediately drafted a new indictment. The Rinteln University now recognized the use of torture carried out by the Stadthäger executioner Henrich Farneke. The application of the ordeal broke their resistance. The minutes of May 5, 1660 recorded her confession. Your lover would be "Hans Buschmann". She named women and men from the village of Wiedensahl who had been at the witch's dance. Under the torture with leg screws and with fire, she said, among other things, Gesche Spanuth (Heimann) and her husband Heinrich Heimann of witchcraft. The latter managed to escape, while Gesche Spanuth and Gesche Köllers were sentenced to death and executed.

Duke Georg Wilhelm of Braunschweig-Lüneburg

Duke Georg Wilhelm (Braunschweig-Lüneburg) (1648–1665) pardoned the condemned in three of the last Loccum witch trials (trial against Gesche Heimann, her husband Heinrich Heimann and Gesche Köllers) to lighter sentences (for beheading with the sword instead of burning at the stake ). Gesche Köllers was executed on June 2, 1660 in Loccum. It is said that most of the convicted were burned on the "Rosenbraken", a piece of land between Klosterforst and Bundesstrasse 441. The bill for the trial against Gesche Köllers has been preserved. In total, the costs amounted to more than 116 thalers, which the family had to pay.

Loccum Monastery, Gesche Köllarsweg, 2016

Commemoration

In 1987, women from Rehburg-Loccum and Wiedensahl planned in a working group to erect a sculpture to commemorate the victims of the witch hunt, but Abbot Eduard Lohse raised considerable concerns, so the monastery and the city administration spoke out against this project. The Loccum Monastery rejected an installation in the monastery forest with reference to the threat of “soil mysticism”.

On the occasion of the 850th anniversary of the Loccum Monastery in 2013, a literary-musical evening with texts from the Acta Criminalia of the Loccum Monastery is on the program.

In 2016 the Gesche-Köllars-Weg was inaugurated in the Loccum monastery.

rehabilitation

On September 25, 2013, the City Council of Rehburg-Loccum passed a resolution on the socio-ethical rehabilitation of the victims of the witch trials.

The Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Hanover announced a social rehabilitation of the victims of the witch trials on September 18, 2015.

swell

literature

  • Peter Beer: Witch trials in the monastery and monastery area Loccum. (= Studies on the Church History of Lower Saxony. Volume 41). V&R Unipress, Göttingen 2007, pp. 36f, 129f, 156.
  • Horst Hirschler: The lonely struggle of the Gese Köllar. Witch trials in the Loccum Abbey District. In: Helmut Strecker (ed.): Wiedensahl earlier and today. Stolzenau 1975, pp. 89-113.
  • The end of the witch hunt: the late “fame” of the Gesche Köllars. In: Schaumburger Nachrichten. June 11, 2010,
  • Joachim Lehrmann : witch hunt in Hanover-Calenberg (and Calenberg-Göttingen). Lehrmann, Lehrte 2005, ISBN 3-9803642-5-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rehabilitation of victims of the witch trials. Letter from the Church Senate Hanover, September 2015. (anton-praetorius.de)
personal data
SURNAME Köllers, Gesche
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Victims of the witch trials in Loccum
DATE OF BIRTH around 1620
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiedensahl
DATE OF DEATH June 2, 1660
Place of death Loccum