Witch trials in the Dobbertin monastery office

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Office building with court room in Dobbertin Monastery, 2011

history

Spendiner sheep oak near the Richtberg, 2011

Not only in Mecklenburg , but also in the area of ​​the Dobbertin monastery office , there had been alleged witches and court hearings against sorcerers. Until the mid-17th century were also in the monastery office area witch trials carried out and death sentences by executioner enforced. From the years from 1594 to 1683, 25 witch trials are known on record. 14 of them alone for witchcraft with nine death sentences by burning at the stake in Dobbertin .

On the northern edge of Dobbertin on a hill in the Spendiner Tannen, the judicial mountain, the gallows of the Dobbertiner district court once stood and that is where the judgments were carried out. At that time, the court was deliberately built close to the old country road to Güstrow , because this way you could deter robbers and rabble better and keep them away from Dobbertin. On the map of the land surveyor von See from 1777 the parcel with the name Bei dem Rechtsberg was recorded.

The monastery court seemed to have been very busy in these decades, because the monastery office with the front and rear sand propstei at times included 132 villages with 26 estates and 17 leaseholds, plus 16 mills, 12 forest yards, various village jugs, brickworks, glassworks, several schools and 25 churches. During the frequent acts of violence, fights with bodily harm, poisoning, theft of cattle, fish, horses, reeds and wood, adultery, improper behavior in public, theft of church money and insulting pastors as well as magic and witchcraft in the entire monastery area, the horsemen were also as The monastery’s own police were overwhelmed.

The respective monastery captain acted as head of the monastery district court. The assessors were the kitchen master as the financial officer of the monastery office and the official actuary as the recorder. The Syndicus was responsible as authorized representative for legal processing and as judge in the monastery district court. The Dobbertiner pastor was also always present as the pastor of the defendants and, during some interrogations, initially as a guest with the permission of the Güstrow dukes, the executioners from Güstrow. In addition to the land rider, as the monastery-owned police officer, there was also the bailiff, who was also responsible for guarding and caring for the inmates in the monastery prison. Before 1674 the custody, the monastery prison was still in the gate house, the monastery gate of the former nunnery. The negotiations took place in the courtroom of the office building, in which the monastery captain also lived. Only after torture and torture did they go to the gate house, where the prison was located.

In order to reach a verdict, the monastery district court always questioned the teaching institute, the law faculty of the University of Rostock , in the case of severe judgments . If milder judgments were to be expected, the law faculty of the University of Greifswald was asked . The negotiations took place in the courtroom in the office of the monastery chief.

  • Brewery and distillery, prison cells in the attic, 2013.

  • Brewery and distillery, top floor with bat dormers, 2009.

  • Brewery and distillery, prison cell, status 2011.

  • Brewery and distillery, oak plank door with window, condition 2011.

  • Gate house, used as a prison before 1674, 2009

Witch trials

Witch trials in Dobbertin

  • 1594 Fischer, Anna, cremated at the stake. ... be prepared with fire from life to death.
  • 1594 Stindmann, Anna, judgment after torture.
  • 1595 Hovemann, Lena, burned at the stake.
  • 1595 Kagen, Margarete, burned at the stake.
  • 1595 Lange, Anna, final judgment after torture not known.
  • 1595 Lange, Catharina, final judgment after torture not known.
  • 1603 Bolten, Anna, cremation at the stake.
  • 1604 Ortmann, Anne, cremation at the stake.
  • 1604 Vickesche burned at the stake.
  • 1637 Plagemann, Ilse, final judgment after torture not known.
  • 1662 Schroeder, Anna, final judgment after torture not known.
  • 1665 Volckmann, Trine, final judgment after torture not known.
  • 1667 Dolgen, Annen, final judgment after torture not known.
  • 1673 Granzow, Katarina, burned at the stake.
  • 1674 Theetzlaff, cremation at the stake.

In 1674, the Theetzlaff was the last Dobbertiner to be cremated at the stake in the presence of the monastery captain Friedrich von Jasmund , the Syndicus Dr. Joachim Nesen and the executioner Claus Lowsen from Güstrow.

Witch trials around Dobbertin

Signpost on the old country road to Lähnwitz, 2011

Lähnwitz

  • 1602 Bornesche, Trine Teufelsbuhlschaft with death sentence by beheading.

Mestlin

  • 1557 Schultes, Joachim Sorcery and Blessing of Cattle and Plow, judgment not known.

Witch trials in the sand prostitute

All legal proceedings were carried out by the monastery district court in the monastery office in Dobbertin.

Lexow

  • 1634 Drewes, Trine, general accusations, procedure unknown.
  • 1635 Drewes, Trine, general accusations again, multiple charges, proceedings unknown.
  • 1665 Stuedemann, Margaretha, dismissal, method not known.
  • 1674 Gantzowen, Catharina, after repeating the torture revocation, death sentence cremation.
  • 1674 Hechts, Hedwig, charged several times, dismissed after general torture.
  • 1682 Tiedeman, Anna Grete, multiple indictments of duel with the devil, attempted escape, verdict not known.
  • 1669 Heins, Maria, bad reputation, dismissed after formal reprimand.
  • 1669 Seliken (Selig), Dorethea, human injury, attempted escape after repeating torture.

Sietow

  • 1662 Schröder, Anna Zauberei und Hexerei, expelled from the country's original feud .
  • 1669 Heins, Maria Schlechter Ruf, only procedural reprimands before dismissal.
  • 1669 Seliken, Dorothea human damage, attempt to escape after repeating the torture.

From old monastery files

There are only a few court files on witch trials carried out in the Dobbertin monastery among the files still available from the monastery court. The course of the process could be reconstructed from some files.

Dobbertin

  • Recorded honest testimony, against Catharinen Grantzowen Hans Weltsihnen hfrowen in the village Dobbertin in po prot venefici (magic) 13 Septbr 1673.

Behind it are 78 sheets on which large parts of the process are written down. One can see from it how such witch trials were conducted back then. However, it is not possible to find out from these court files who brought the report or the denunciation and just as little as why this happened. The witch Katarina Granzow was the wife of the not entirely poor Dobbertiner innkeeper Hans Weltzien. In her youth she had served with the nunnery von Below in the women's monastery . As an innkeeper, she had to be resolute towards some guests, because her husband was mostly involved in agriculture. At one point in the interrogation protocol she said that she had learned to do magic because it had fared badly in the war of 1634. The monastery files still contain accurate registers of marches by the imperial and Swedish troops.

Nineteen witnesses were called in to prove the accused was sorcery. The name, occupation and age of all are known. Five witnesses no longer lived in Dobbertin, but all worked for the monastery office and were dependent on the monastery office. Joachim Löwe and Joachim Schmidt are riflemen in the forestry office, Andreas Ludwig and Heinrich Köpke, as land riders, are the monastery's own police officers who report to the monastery captain. Michael Preuße is a miller and has leased the Dobbertiner mill from the monastery office and will not act against the interests of the monastery administration. His 20-year-old servant must have stuck to his masters. The builder Paschen Cordes works on the monastery building yard. The fisherman Bartolomeus Lembke was also dependent on the monastery office as the tenant of the Dobbertiner See. But a farmer and four women were also among the witnesses.

Of the other people involved in the process, the publicly approved and legitimized notary Cristiany Schovig from Güstrow should be mentioned, who performed the legal tasks and drafted the minutes that are still available today. The main characters and representatives of the prosecution were the monastery captain Christoff Friedrich von Jasmund and his kitchen master Arnd Kalsow. The kitchen master, as the financial officer of the monastery office, was also the mediator for reaching a judgment with the dean, senior and the doctor's of the law faculty of the University of Greifswald . The pastor of the defendants was Vincet Lukow, because the pastor's position had been vacnz since 1672.

The negotiations took place in 1673 in the courtroom of the office building in the Dobbertiner monastery and ended on April 13, 1674 in the prison in the Pforthaus. It has not been recorded whether the defendant Katarina Granzow was still able to walk after the torture and staying in the prison there for months. The final judgment was pronounced on May 8, 1674.

From the countless interrogation records show that she was subject of Youth on the evil rumor of witchcraft and run home many devils beings. In the course of the trial, the judge had questioned many witnesses so skillfully and then put their testimony into their mouths. There was only talk of hearsay about trips to Blocksberg, which are considered witches' dance places, and the events there. But no Blocksberg is known on the Dobbertiner Feldmark. The defendant's son played a role in several question articles. Allegedly she wanted to teach her son magic. Since he did not want this, he became obsessed with evil. The different statements of the witnesses served as evidence of the witchcraft. The process in which the son had to drive wood for the monastery office and the horse was sick and swollen was also quite puzzling . Apparently the horse has recovered. But strangely enough, the fisherman and the blacksmith's servant had witnessed this incident and the land rider Ladwig, who was not there, reported the incident to the office. When the police officer Schmidt was supposed to testify that the defendant's son had confirmed his mother's witchcraft, the guilty conscience came and he had already forgotten it because it had been so long. The kitchen master Kalsow reminded him that he had told him once on a trip. The chef, too, had apparently eagerly contributed to incriminating the accused. Some questions from the court also deal directly with the rumor of witchcraft and deliberately fall back on the chatter of other people. The accused is associated with the witch Karnatschen, who was killed in Güstrow. They wanted her to know whether she had sat by the fire with the convicted sorceress, the Karnatschen from Güstrow, and made very suspicious speeches . The two witnesses, a rifleman and a horseman, answered the question in the affirmative, although they were never in Güstrow.

More serious is the fact that the defendant was evidently denied a defense counsel.

One can see from the instructions of the lawyers from the University of Greifswald that certain points can lead to a conviction. There are seven questions on which the death sentence is based. At the seventh interrogation since September 13, 1673, three of them were already connected with the torture, the pastor admonished her and then the executioner put the thumbscrews and leg sticks on her. After the first degree of ordeal, the prisoner vowed to confess: she was a sorceress. On February 7, 1674, she had revoked all confessions, but by March 18, 1674, after the torture, she again confessed to all charges. In the instruction of the Greifswald lawyers of April 23, 1673 it can be read: Should the accused then admit the sorcery and confirm her confession, she is to be brought from life to death in accordance with our previous decision. If she is given more lenient circumstances for the reasons given, she should first be beheaded and then cremated.

On May 8, 1674 the final judgment was made. There are no records of how the verdict was reached and how it was communicated to the accused. The officers of this Closter Ambts recognize the death by fire as justice.

Endurtell Hinnoch Catharina Grantzowen Hans Weltzihn's wife for this publicly shown embarrassing throat court their committed and confessed magical sin, ratified and confirmed Alß speak vndt If you are to bring you from life to death to the well-deserved punishment with the apartment, and if you are to be judged, rightly. Publicatum on the ClosterAmbte Dobbertin the 8th May Anno 1674.

Mestlin In the Dobbertin monastery and its monastery villages, during the Reformation in 1557, a revision also took place in Mestlin. There was a special case there, as a male delinquent was mentioned in the protocol in the first revision of the Mestlin Church . In the minutes it says: Joachim Schultes is indicated (indicated) for Mestelyn that more people cheat, write briue (letters) and bless the cattle. When he appeared before the Visitors it was complained that he was fooling around with sorcery and terrible lies. Scriptures and books have also been found with him that tell him how to bless and to bid (discuss). Since he was identified as a magician, the Dobbertiner monastery captain Jürgen von Below had him brought to Dobbertin and arrested. The books and writings have also been secured with the monastery captain. Further files on this case are no longer available.

Sietow

  • Articuli inquisitionalis (points of question) ct. Annen Schröder's bath mother in Sitow in pcto. (Punkto) veneficy (sorcery) 1662.

A native of Sietow bathing mother Anna Schröder was because of proven böhterey , Meeting of diseases for the purpose of healing, and reported Zauberey some time bey the Closter drafted Ambte Dobbertin gefenglich . After the judgment obtained by the Rostock legal scholars of the Faculty of Law, she had to endure and suffer a tough one . A repetition of the ordeal at Closterhof in Röbel did not produce any information. The advice of the legal members obtained by the Röbeler Sandpropst Hieronymus Christoph Gerlach brought a mild verdict, because the bathing mother was spoken to as far as Frey was and was put on hold. After she had to swear the original feud under oath, Anna Schröder was dismissed. From now on she had to avoid the Closter Ambt and its villages altogether and never allow herself to be seen in them as long as she lived.

  • Acta inqusitionalis ctr. the married Simon, b. Seelig from Sietow in pto.Zauberey 1665–1670.

After suspicions in 1665 against Dorothea Simon, b. Selig (Selicke, Zehlicke) had the Dobbertiner monastery captain Christoph Friedrich von Jasmund and the chef Arend Kalsow issue a letter of protection for the area there and the surrounding towns. The shepherd Hans Gößler zu Gotthun had claimed that he was possessed by the evil spirit and that Dorothea Simon taught him that. On July 5, 1669, the Faculty of Law in Rostock received a protocollum inquisitionis . It was proceeded ex officio , ex officio , without motion against them. Her parents and where she was before were also questioned, but confirmed her good reputation. But the interrogation protocol with the shepherd's claims, which were massively supported by the pastor, were burdensome. Since Selig had fled from interrogation three times, the monastery officials turned to Duke Christian Louis at the end of July . On the orders of the superintendent, the pastor had denied her participation in Holy Communion and she was now sent to prison. Months passed with witnesses questioning, the village mayors and farmers in the villages of Lärz, Schwarz, Diemitz and Sietow spoke only in their favor. The hearing of witnesses was carried out by the notary Schwowig, who also logged in other Dobbertiner trials. From other available minutes with 20 questions it emerged that the supposedly possessed shepherd Rößler was melancholy and not only he was influenced by the Sietower pastor Johann Hein. As a result, on March 14, 1670, the Rostock Faculty of Law recommended that the Dobbertiner monastery district court release the Sehlig from custody and admit them again to the Lord's Supper. Jürgen Simon had complained to the superintendent in Malchow because the Sietower pastor continued to refuse the Lord's Supper. The pastor did not appear at the scheduled meeting between the pastor and Simon's wife on June 16, 1670. He was sick and claimed that Simon's disease had inflicted him on him . The files are missing for the other rumors.

literature

  • Wilhelm Mastaler: The Güstrow executioners and the witch trials. Güstrow 2007, pp. 1-25.
  • Robert Zagolla: Torture and Witch Trial . The criminal law practice of the Rostock Faculty of Law in the 17th century. Bielefeld 2007 ISBN 978-3-89534-641-5
  • Katrin Moeller: That arbitrariness takes precedence over law. Hunting of witches in Mecklenburg in the 16th and 17th centuries. Bielefeld 2007 ISBN 978-3-89534-630-9
  • Fred Beckendorff: Trial of the alleged witch Katarina Granzow, wife of the Krueger Hans Welzin, in the monastery office in Dobbertin 1763 to 1764. Introductory remarks and attempted transfer of the files located in the state archive in Schwerin. Techentin 2007. (unpublished translation)
  • Gert Haendler: The files of the law faculty of the University of Rostock as a historical source for the witch trials in Mecklenburg. Yearbook for Mecklenburg Church History, Volume 12, Wismar 2009 ISBN 978-3-941917-01-9 pp. 18–59.
  • Horst Alsleben : The Dobbertiner Rechtsberg. The gallows once stood on a hill in the Spendiner firs. SVZ, newspaper for Lübz-Goldberg-Plau, 18./19. October 2014, p. 9.
  • Horst Alsleben: Quarrelsome, unsociable - witch! SVZ Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Magazin, February 23, 2018.
  • Horst Alsleben: The Witches of Dobbertin. In: STIER and GREIF, Heimathefte für Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Issue 1, Rostock 2019 ISBN 978-3-356-02247-6 , pp. 8–9.

swell

Printed sources

Unprinted sources

cards

  • Bertram Christian von Hoinckhusen : Mecklenburg Atlas with description of the offices. around 1700, sheet 61 Description of the Dobbertin Monastery Office.
  • Directional - survey map from the noble Dobbertin monastery office 1759.
  • Brouillion from the Dorffelde Dobbertin to the high nobility monastery Dobbertin on regulation Community Directorial Commission measured from 1771 by F. von See, reticified and drawn in 1824 by Heinrich Christoph Stüdemann, scale 1: 4,820 Ruthen.
  • Dobbertin Copy of a map of Jager See, Dobbiner See, Klädener See, measured in 1777 by F. von See.
  • Historical Altlas of Mecklenburg, Wiebekingsche map from 1786, sheet 23, scale 1: 25,000, Cologne, Graz 1869.
  • The topographical, economic and military map of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the Principality of Ratzeburg by Count Schmettau 1788.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horst Alsleben: Quarrelsome, unsociable - witch! SVZ Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Magazin, February 23, 2018.
  2. ↑ Horst Alsleben: The Dobbertiner court mountain. The gallows of the monastery court once stood on a hill in the Spendiner fir trees. SVZ Lübz-Goldberg-Plau, 18./19. October 2014.
  3. ↑ Horst Alsleben: The Witches of Dobbertin. 2019, p. 8.
  4. ↑ Monastery lands near Röbel and the Müritz, which were known as Sandpropstei because of their light soils .
  5. ↑ All research on ownership and size of the monastery office by the author.
  6. ↑ Horst Alsleben: Quarrelsome, unsociable - witch! SVZ Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Magazin, February 23, 2018.
  7. ↑ Horst Alsleben: The Witches of Dobbertin. 2018, p. 9.
  8. ↑ Universitätsarchiv Rostock, Banner files ff S 0251, p 89, S 0261 S. 99th
  9. ↑ University Archive Rostock, Banner File S ff 0251 S. 89th
  10. ^ Rostock University Archives, Spruchakten S 0261 p. 187.
  11. ^ Rostock University Archives, Spruchakten S 0261 p. 187.
  12. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 3217 The bath mother Schröder was charged with sorcery in 1662.
  13. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 3005 Witch Trial against Catharina Grantzow 1673/1674.
  14. ↑ Horst Alsleben: Quarrelsome, unsociable - witch! SVZ Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Magazin, February 23, 2018.
  15. ↑ LHAS 2.12-3 / 2 Monasteries and Order of Knights, Dobbertin. No. 366 Claus Lowen's request to Güstrow for appointment as executioner at the monastery.
  16. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 3217 Closter Dobbertin inquisitio bath mother Annen Schrödersin pocto Veneficy (sorcery) 1662.
  17. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 4478 Human injury against the married Simon, b. Seelig from Sietow, 1665–1670.
  18. ↑ Fred Beckendorff: Trial of the alleged witch Katarina Granzow, wife of Krueger Hans Welzin in the Dobbertin monastery office, 1673 to 1674 . (unpublished translation)
  19. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 898 Official Protocols 1623–1632.
  20. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 659 Costs for billeting of the Imperial and Swedish Armies until 1659.
  21. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 3005 witch trial against Catharina Grantzow 1673/1674.
  22. ↑ LHAS 2.12-3 / 2 Monasteries and Order of Knights, Dobbertin. No. 437 Visitatio of all Dobbertin churches, Anno 1557. No. 22, 23. Dobbertin, Goldberg, Zidderich, Mestlin.
  23. ↑ LHAS 3.2-3 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin. No. 4478 Human injury against the married Simon, b. Seelig from Sietow 1665–1670.