Witch trials in Würzburg

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Witch trials in Würzburg took place from the end of the 16th to the 18th century.

history

The first witch trials in the Würzburg monastery took place in the last years of the reign of Prince-Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn (1573-1617). The witch trials in the bishopric under Johann Gottfried I of Aschhausen assumed great proportions . Especially under Julius Echter's nephew, Prince-Bishop Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg (1623–1631), a wave of witch persecutions took place between 1626 and 1630 , which the Reich Chamber Court decided to prevent. Under Ehrenberg's successor Franz von Hatzfeld (1631–1642), further witch trials can be identified, whose successor Johann Philipp von Schönborn (1642–1673) tried to prevent them.

The last person to be convicted of being a witch was the nun Maria Renata Singer von Mossau in 1749 .

scope

In the Bishopric of Würzburg were during recatholicization burned in the city on the 200 convicted over 900. There is a register of executions up to the twenty-ninth fire in February 1629. It lists 157 people. The biographer of the bishop (at Gropp) knew the continuation of the directory up to the forty-second fire with a total of 219 victims. This only applies to those who were executed in the city of Würzburg itself; the total number of executions in the bishopric under Philipp Adolf von Ehrenberg was nine hundred according to a message printed with Bamberg censorship.

The witch hunt affected children, young people, women and men of all classes; Nobles, councilors, mayors and people of humble origins. 20 percent of those burned in Würzburg are said to have been priests and religious.

Similar massive persecutions can also be found in southern Germany in the witch trials of the Hochstifte Bamberg and Eichstätt as well as in Kurmainz and Ellwangen . This does not mean, however, that these Hochstifte were centers of witch persecution, but that, in contrast to other areas, the meticulously kept logs have survived the centuries to the present and the processes can be researched.

The maypole in Würzburg marks the location of the first of three charred piles that were rediscovered in the 1970s. Together with charcoal finds from a possible fourth pyre, they make a row that took up the entire length of the Lady Chapel . Dendrochronological examinations of the wood residues point to the time of the witch burnings

In Würzburg, the Nikolausberg, the Schalksberg, the Greinberg and the “Sanderwasen” (the Sanderrasen in the Sanderau, also known as the “Sanderanger” ) were considered places where alleged witches came together for the Witches Sabbath .

Places of execution

In most cases, the place of execution was on the market square in Würzburg next to the Marienkapelle (Würzburg) . Remnants of the pyre were rediscovered in the 1970s when excavating for the underground car park. Another place for cremation was in front of the south portal of the city wall, today's Sanderrasen. However, not only so-called witches , but also criminals, plague victims and animal carcasses were burned there. The logs show that the majority of the delinquents were first beheaded at the place of execution and then burned on the sand lawn.

literature

  • Kurt Baschwitz: Witches and witch trials. Bertelsmann, Munich 1990, pp. 252-260.
  • Max Bauer, Wilhelm Gottlieb Soldan, Heinrich Heppe (ed.): History of the witch trials. Volume 2. 1911, pp. 17-20 (reprint: Müller & Kiepenheuer, Hanau 1968).
  • Ronny Baier:  Ehrenberg, Philipp Adolf von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 24, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-247-9 , Sp. 545-549.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Eberhard David Hauber: Bibliotheca sive acta et scripta magica. 36th piece, 1745, p. 807.
  • Ralph Kloos, Thomas Göltl: The witch burners of Franconia. Erfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-95400-109-5 .
  • Robert Meier: The early witch trials of Prince-Bishop Julius Echter. With a review of Lyndal Roper's "Hexenwahn" . In: Würzburg diocesan history sheets . tape 79 , 2016, p. 145–156 ( Download [PDF; 118 kB ; accessed on August 17, 2020]).
  • Robert Meier: witch trials in the Würzburg monastery. From Julius Echter (1573-1617) to Philipp von Ehrenberg (1623-1631). Echter, Würzburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-429-05382-6 .
  • Friedrich Merzbacher : The witch trials in Franconia. 2nd, expanded edition. CH Beck, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-406-01982-X .

Web links

Wikisource: Directory of the witch people, so directed at Würzburg with the sword and then burned  - sources and full texts

(Complete list of victims of the witch fires in Würzburg from 1627 to the beginning of 1629)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Meier: The early witch trials of Prince-Bishop Julius Echter. With a review of Lyndal Roper's "Hexenwahn". In: Würzburg diocesan history sheets. Tape. 79, 2016, pp. 145–156.
  2. ^ Friedrich Merzbacher : The witch trials in Franconia. 1957 (= series of publications on Bavarian national history. Volume 56); 2nd, extended edition: CH Beck, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-406-01982-X , pp. 41–45.
  3. ^ Friedrich Merzbacher: The witch trials in Franconia. 1970, pp. 49-52.
  4. ^ Friedrich Merzbacher : The witch trials in Franconia. 1957 (= series of publications on Bavarian national history. Volume 56); 2nd, expanded edition: CH Beck, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-406-01982-X , pp. 7 and 174, note 360.