Hermann Cothmann

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Witch Mayor's House

Hermann Cothmann , also Herman Cothman (* May 1, 1629 in Lemgo ; † January 25, 1683 ibid), was mayor of Lemgo and notorious for his witch hunts and his role in the witch trials . He shaped the image of his hometown Lemgo like no other.

biography

Hermann Cothmann was born on May 1, 1629 in Lemgo, the son of Dietrich Cothmann, who came from one of the oldest prominent families in the city, while his mother, Catharina Goehausen, belonged to a family of civil servants and scholars from Brakel in the Principality of Paderborn . He was also the nephew of Hermann Goehausen , a law professor at Rinteln University , who became known as the theoretician of witch hunts. His father had neither professional nor economic success throughout his life, while his mother even fell victim to a witch trial in 1654.

After attending school, Cothmann studied four semesters of law in Rostock from 1649 to 1651 . Due to lack of money, he took over the post of court master with a noble family on Rügen and accompanied the son of the house to the University of Jena . Here he studied four more semesters of law from 1657 to 1659. In 1661 he returned to Lemgo and took over the legal office of his late father. One of his first tasks was to prevent his parents' house from being foreclosed , which he only managed with great difficulty. In 1663 he married the daughter of the Osnabrück bailiff Wilhelm des Baer zu Dissen, Christina Elisabeth, and took the citizens' oath .

Cothmann sought to be close to the long-time mayor Heinrich Kerkmann , who had made a name for himself as a ruthless witch hunter in Lemgo. When he had found access to the circle of people around the most powerful man in the city, he was able to rise quickly in the hierarchy of the city and on January 16, 1666, Kerkmann had him from the city council to become the "Director of the Embarrassing Processus contra die Unholden und Hexen" (Director of the Embarrassing Court ). After 1628 to 1637 and 1653 to 1656, there was now the third wave of witch trials of the century, and Cothmann imposed a total of 37 death sentences in his first year in office.

In January 1667, Cothmann was elected mayor. Although there were two council members in Lemgo at that time, which replaced each other every year, with the exception of 1669 and 1674 he was mayor without interruption, a unique case in the history of the city. During his tenure from 1666 to 1683, around a hundred people fell victim to the witch trials, a noticeable number of them men and members of the Lemgo leadership, including the pastor Andreas Koch and the pharmacist David Wellmann.

The authoritarian regiment of Cothmann generated resistance in the city's bodies, which accused him of greed and enrichment in the property of the citizens. However, he had the backing of Count Simon Henrich , ruler of Lippe , who had appointed him count's district administrator even before the election as mayor and who always supported the rulers in Lemgo for fear of unrest.

Cothmann led the last witch trial in 1681 against Maria Rampendahl , who survived the trial and, through her husband, brought a lawsuit against the authorities of Lemgo and Detmold before the Reich Chamber of Commerce. Despite the serious allegations, this ended with a settlement and the city only had to bear half of the legal costs. A few days after the verdict was announced, Cothmann died at the age of 53. Since then, there have been no more witch trials in Lemgo, but the image of a center of witch persecution stuck to Lemgo. The magnificent house of Cothmann in the style of the Weser renaissance is still called the witch mayor 's house and is a museum.

Historians have repeatedly dealt with the question of Cothmann's motives. The most common explanation for his motives is the persecution and elimination of political opponents, as well as the enrichment of the wealth of wealthy victims. In addition, psychological motives in connection with his mother's execution may have played a role.

literature

  • Friedrich Gerlach: The patrician family Cothmann in Lemgo. 11 episodes in: Lippische Blätter für Heimatkunde. No. 12, p. 45 f., No. 13, p. 49 f., 1950, ZDB -ID 1485433-8 ; No. 1, p. 1 f., No. 2, p. 5 f., No. 3, p. 9 f., No. 4, p. 13 f., No. 5, p. 18 f., 1951; No. 6, p. 21 f., No. 7, p. 25 f., No. 8, p. 29 f., No. 9, p. 34 f.
  • Karl Meier-Lemgo : History of the city of Lemgo (= special publications of the natural science and historical association for the state of Lippe. ISSN  0466-6224 ). FL Wagener, Lemgo 1952.
  • Karl Meier-Lemgo:  Cothmann, Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 376 ( digitized version ).
  • Nicolaus Rügge: Hermann Cothmann. The "witch mayor" of Lemgo (= Lemgo. Personalities. ). Landesverband Lippe, Lemgo 2007, ISBN 978-3-936225-19-8 .
  • Luisa J. Preißler: The witch judge - comic adaptation of the story about the witch trials of Hermann Cothmann.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Cothmann, Hermann - Mayor ( Memento from May 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal , WS 1649/50, No. 15
  3. ^ A b c Karl Meier-Lemgo: History of the city of Lemgo. 1952, p. 114 f.
personal data
SURNAME Cothmann, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Witch mayor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mayor of Lemgo and notorious for his witch hunts
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1629
PLACE OF BIRTH Lemgo
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1683
Place of death Lemgo