Henneke from Essen

Henneke von Essen (partly also Henningh von Essen , Latinized: Henricus von Essen ), (* approx. 1561 ; † 14 August 1631 ) was a high official in the Duchy of Westphalia, mayor of Arnsberg and victim of the witch hunt.

Minutes of the court councilor of the Electorate of Cologne from June 17, 1631 on the fall of Henneke von Essen

family

He came from an old noble family based in Arnsberg. It was probably not identical to the family that had their ancestral home in Essen . It carried a coat of arms that has been handed down on the choir stalls of the Rumbeck monastery . The coat of arms is not clear. Maybe it was green twigs in the gold shield. The helmet covers were black, red, and gold.

The father Caspar von Essen was a Westphalian land clerk and master craftsman . A son of Henneke von Essen, also called Kaspar von Essen, worked in public services and was mayor of Arnsberg. In 1646 he married Anna von Papen, the daughter of his heir . The family lived in the forerunner building of the Landpfennigmeisterhaus in Hallenstrasse directly below the town hall. In 1623 Abbot Gottfried Reichmann confirmed the foundation of a mass in the church of the Wedinghausen monastery.

Public officials and mayors

He was Landpfennigmeister of the Duchy of Westphalia . As one of the highest class officials, he was responsible for the finances of the duchy. In the witch trial against Dorothea Becker (Dorothea ab Hardt) in 1590, Henneke von Essen appears as a witch judge in Kaspar von Fürstenberg's diaries. In 1604 he was a judge at the electoral high court in Arnsberg. As such, he left a first report on the Schnadegang in Arnsberg. As a judge, von Essen had been involved in the first instance since 1605 with the investigation of a defamation suit in which it was an allegation of witchcraft.

In 1602, 1606, 1607, 1611, 1621, 1625, 1626 and 1627 he was also the mayor of Arnsberg . At least the beginning of his activity as mayor was marked by the great fire of 1600. He tried to get support from other municipalities for the reconstruction. From a meeting with the mayors of Olpe , Attendorn and Drolshagen , he brought the significant sum of 100 Reichstalers with him. As mayor, on December 8th, 1608, he signed the new city law with the Arnsberg morning language, since the old documents were lost in the city fire of 1600. He made great contributions in rebuilding the city. The Thirty Years' War began later in his time . In a report from the year 1625 he describes how the city was heavily burdened by estimates and contributions. In addition, the repair of the fortifications resulted in high costs. Just like the witch commissioner Heinrich von Schultheiß , von Essen donated for the restoration of the church tower of St. Laurentius Church or the bell tower in the old town. From Essen gave at least 20 thalers for this (to compare the contribution of the estates totaled 50 thalers). In the same year there was also a wave of plagues with 90 deaths. Due to the epidemic, the re-election as mayor could not take place in Arnsberg, but the voters met in Allendorf and the swearing-in took place in Sundern .

Victims of the witch hunt

The person of Essen is especially noteworthy because, as a high-ranking representative of the electoral state, he expressed concerns about the extent of the planned witch hunts. He feared that this could become a Wirtzburgisch werck . Henneke von Essen alluded to the mass burning of 1,300 people in Würzburg in 1630. That made him suspicious of the witch commissioner Heinrich von Schultheiss . This was compounded after citizens of the city proposed a general municipal tax to fund the upcoming trials. Von Essen was of the opinion that the money could be spent more wisely.

The mayor's protests could of course not stop the development. His successor in the office of mayor, Prange, reported about the year 1630 that times were getting more restless. He didn't just mean that during this phase of the Thirty Years War there were troops in the city. He also reported that the "collar" had been renewed in the market as an instrument of witch persecution. Apparently were Besagungen (denunciations) against Henneke voiced by food and opened a case against the mayor. This happened at the instigation of Landdrosten Friedrich von Fürstenberg . An expert opinion by the law faculty of the University of Cologne considered the "ordeal" to be permissible in his case.

But the accused mayor did not confess despite the agony of torture . The 70-year-old man was not released, but died after one year imprisonment on August 14, 1631 "at the castle in carcere (that is, in the dungeon of the electoral castle)."

Individual evidence

1. ^ HJ Deisting / M. Jolk: Coats of arms, seals and logos of Arnsberg citizens and institutions. In: Heimatblätter magazine of the Arnsberger Heimatbund. 14/1993 p. 46.
2. ^ HJ Deisting / M. Jolk: Coats of arms, seals and logos of Arnsberg citizens and institutions. In: Heimatblätter magazine of the Arnsberger Heimatbund. (End) 16/1995 p. 51.
3. ^ Landesarchiv NRW, Westphalia Department, Wedinghausen Monastery - Documents, No. 440 Regest Online.
4. ^ Karl Feaux de Lacroix: History of Arnsberg. Stein, Arnsberg 1895, Werl 1983 (repr.) P. 299.
5. ↑ Magdalena Padberg: An extraordinary witch trial. From Eslave versus Volmers / Hoberg. Arnsberg, 1987.
6. ^ Karl Feaux de Lacroix: History of Arnsberg. Stein, Arnsberg 1895, Werl 1983 (repr.) P. 254.
7. ^ Karl Feaux de Lacroix: History of Arnsberg. Stein, Arnsberg 1895, Werl 1983 (repr.) P. 336 f.
8. ↑ Rainer Decker: The Arnsberg witch judge Dr. Heinrich von Schultheiss. In: Heimatblätter magazine of the Arnsberger Heimatbund. 16/1995 p. 26.

literature

• Hartmut Hegeler, witch prison for the "Arnßpergher Burgermeister" Henneke von Essen , Bautz Verlag Nordhausen 2012 ISBN 978-3-88309-698-8
• Rainer Decker: The Arnsberg witch judge Dr. Heinrich von Schultheiß (around 1580-1646) . In: Arnsberger Heimatblätter, vol. 16/1995. Pp. 22-35.
• Rainer Decker: The witch hunts in the Duchy of Westphalia (Westfälische Zeitschrift 131/132, 1981/1982, pp. 339-386).
• Klemens Pröpper: The Crimea . In: 750 years of Arnsberg. On the history of the city and its citizens. Arnsberg, 1989. p. 559.

Web links

• Hunting of witches in the Sauerland during the Thirty Years War ( Memento from December 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (in the Internet Archive ).
• WDR contribution to Henneke von Essen.