Heinrich Kerkmann

Heinrich Kerkmann , also Henrich Kerckmann , (born December 13, 1587 in Lemgo ; † March 26, 1666 ibid) was mayor of Lemgo and notorious for his witch hunts , as well as for his role in the witch trials .

biography

Heinrich Kerkmann was born on December 13, 1587 in Lemgo, the largest town in the County of Lippe at the time , as the son of Henrich Kerkmann. This came from the neighboring county of Ravensberg and was employed by the Lippe sovereign as chancellor , one of the highest civil offices in the service of the count. His mother, Anna Erp-Brockhausen, was also a member of the middle-class upper class, whose family had lived in Lemgo for centuries.

Kerkmann spent his childhood in his Lutheran home. After attending school in Lemgo and Salzuflen , he began to study law in Rostock in 1608 , accompanied by his tutor Valentin Melasius. This was followed by a total of five years of study at the University of Giessen , where he received his doctorate in the subjects of civil , church and feudal law in 1616 .

From 1621 he lived again in his parents' house in Lemgo and married Elisabeth Wippermann, the daughter of the wealthy businessman Jobst Wippermann. Through this marriage, his relationships with the Lemgo leadership were strengthened, which led to his repeated election as mayor , although he had not previously held any council offices. In Lemgo at that time it was common for two complete council members to replace each other and for Kerkmann to be elected mayor every other year from 1626 onwards. He was held in high esteem by the rulers of the Lippe region and around 1640 worked for several years as a privy councilor for Count Philip I of Schaumburg-Lippe. In 1649 he was appointed court judge and served as an assessor at one of the two upper courts in Lippe .

The Thirty Years War (1618–1648), however, presented him with a tough test. Lemgo was looted twice during this time, which brought poverty and misery to the city and the solution of the problems required the mayor's whole strength. His first wife died in 1634 and he married Maria Magdalena Vilthut two years after her death, who also died eight weeks later. The cause of death was a plague epidemic , which Kerkmann also fell ill with, but got away with his life. Five years later he married again; his third wife was Catharina Elisabeth Than from Lübbecke in 1641 .

As in many other places in Germany, there were repeated witch trials in Lemgo. The first great wave of persecution of the 17th century from 1628 to 1637 claimed 86 lives, including 81 women. During his tenure, Kerkmann endeavored to perfect the city's witchcraft justice system and reduced the execution costs incurred in burning victims at the stake . He introduced so-called pardons in which the convicts were executed by the executioner with the sword instead of with fire. The mostly wealthy relatives had to bear the costs. Soon he was considered an expert in witch justice and was significantly involved in the second wave of lawsuits in 1653 and 1656 together with his long-time employee, City Secretary Johannes Berner . The mayors changed, but the city secretary remained in office and played a disastrous role for the victims for nearly six decades.

The authoritarian regiment of Kerkmann generated resistance in the citizenry and the Lemgo ruling class, but thanks to his good relations with the ruler of Lippe, he was able to maintain his claim to power until his death. Shortly before, he had appointed Hermann Cothmann as his successor, who was supposed to build up an even worse regiment and who remained in the collective memory of the citizens of Lemgo as the sole “witch mayor”.

Heinrich Kerkmann died on March 26, 1666 after a short illness at the age of 78. In the funeral sermon the pastor spoke of the fight of a Christian knight against the devil and against the world, which is in a state of trouble. From his third marriage there were six children, one of whom was a son, Hermann Gerhard Kerkmann, who was also mayor of Lemgo (1689–1695). The house of the Kerkmann family diagonally across from the witch mayor's house gradually fell into disrepair when the widow moved away from Lemgo. It was later rebuilt and known as the "Old Abbey", which now houses the municipal adult education center.

literature

• Karl Meier-Lemgo : History of the city of Lemgo. Verlag FL Wagener, Lemgo 1952.
• Karl Meier-Lemgo: Lemgo, a stronghold of the witch inquisition. In: Messages from Lippe history and regional studies. 16, 1938, ZDB ID 501236-3 , pp. 5-62.

Web links

• Rügge, Nicolas: Kerkmann, Heinrich , from: Lexicon for the history of witch persecution, ed. v. Gudrun Gersmann, Katrin Moeller u. Jürgen-Michael Schmidt, in: historicum.net (accessed January 1, 2009)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Kerkmann, Heinrich, Lemgo
2. ^ ^{A b} Karl Meier-Lemgo: History of the City of Lemgo , page 116f. Verlag FL Wagener, Lemgo 1952.