Witch hunt in Fritzlar

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The witch hunt in Fritzlar in Northern Hesse is documented for the period from 1596 to 1631. At least 62 people, mostly older women, fell victim to it - a very high number for a community of fewer than 2000 people at the time. In relation to the number of inhabitants, Fritzlar was at the top end of the scale for the number of witch executions (if, although this is not clear, victims are equated with executions): As a percentage of the population, the number of victims was about five times as high as in the whole (and as with intensive persecution notarized) ore monastery Mainz with its then about 300,000 inhabitants and about 2000 executions.

Electorate of Mainz

The north Hessian city ​​of Fritzlar belonged to the ore monastery of Mainz from 1079, and this also had a decisive influence on what happened in the city at the time of the witch hunt . As in the area of ​​the Electorate of Mainz , this majority fell during the terms of office of the four Archbishops of Mainz and Electors Wolfgang von Dalberg (r. 1582–1601), Johann Adam von Bicken (1601–1604), Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg (1604–1626 ) and Georg Friedrich von Greiffenclau zu Vollrads (1626–1629). From 1594 onwards there were four waves of massive witch hunts in Mainz, around 1595, 1603, 1615 and 1627, with many hundreds of trials and witch burnings , with a hysterical increase in the fear of witches , especially under Johann Adam von Bicken and Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg. The latter brought a system into the witch trials in 1612 by having all courts served an investigation order with 18 general and 98 special questions. In total, more than 2000 death sentences were passed in the course of the witch persecution in the ore monastery of Mainz , making the ore monastery one of the most persecuting territories in the empire . The witch trials, which were also used as a means of the Counter-Reformation , served a social discipline on a larger scale, which would not have been possible with other means on this scale and in such a short time. At the same time, they were a tried and tested means of increasing state revenues, because the condemned's assets were confiscated. This source of income was very useful for the construction of Johannisburg Castle in Aschaffenburg, which was built between 1605 and 1619 .

Fritzlar

So far there is no comprehensive description of the witch hunt in Fritzlar. Some case files are in Vienna , others in Würzburg . Processes from the years 1596, 1616 and 1626–1631 are known. The names of 62 known victims of Fritzlar witch trials are listed on an information board in the Gray Tower; however, a higher number of victims must be assumed. In the Thirty Years War , shortly after a plague epidemic, seven men and 25 women were burned as witches and sorcerers between 1627 and 1629. In 1656, the Mainz government made inquiries about the whereabouts of funds that should have flowed to the chamber from the Fritzlar witch trials between 1626 and 1630 with their chief magistrate von Amöneburg and Fritzlar.

Individual fates

Some individual fates became known:

  • In 1596 Elisabeth Kollers, wife of the citizen Henrich Kollers, was imprisoned in a tower for sorcery . "After the ordeal , she confessed". Although she was able to escape from the tower (presumably the Frauenturm) to Großenenglis , seven kilometers away , she was then extradited back to Fritzlar. Her name is not on the list of victims of the Fritzlar witch trials; so she may not have been executed. The case was put on record because it concerned the legal issues of an extradition from the Hessian to the Mainz area.
  • In 1628 Elisabeth Braun, b. Favorable, condemned to death by fire at the stake as a witch . Elisabeth Braun was the widow of Johannes Braun, who died in 1621, a respected and wealthy man. The legal costs imposed on their relatives amounted to 220 Rhenish thalers, a sum that made a fortune at the time.
  • In 1629 Hans Kerber, who was accused of sorcery, was able to flee Fritzlar.
  • Maria Rörig, daughter of the mayor Wilhelm Gerhard from Fritzlar, was imprisoned by the witches' court in Wildungen in September 1630 . She persisted under the torture and was finally released in May 1631. Her daughter Susanne Weber was accused of witchcraft in Wildungen in 1656

Footnotes

  1. ^ Witch trials in Kurmainz: Wolfgang von Dalberg
  2. ^ Witch trials in Kurmainz: Johann Adam von Bicken
  3. ^ Witch trials in Kurmainz: Johann Schweickard von Kronberg
  4. ^ Witch trials in Kurmainz: Georg Friedrich von Greiffenclau von Vollrads
  5. ^ Herbert Pohl: Magic belief and fear of witches in the Electorate of Mainz. A contribution to the witch question in the 16th and early 17th centuries . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07444-9 , p. 22.
  6. ↑ Witch Trials in Kurmainz Working Group , headed by Ludolf Pelizaeus: Witch Trials in Kurmainz, "punishment of the abominable magic of magic" , multimedia CD, series: Dieburger Kleine Schriften, edited by Archäologische und Volkskundliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dieburg eV - Association for City and Home History Research, Groß-Umstadt 2004, General and Modern History. Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
  7. ↑ The Black Death raged in Fritzlar in 1472, 1483, 1558, 1567, 1585, 1597, 1610/11 and 1624.
  8. ↑ Paul Gerhard Lohmann: Evangelical Christians in Fritzlar , Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2004, ISBN 3-8334-0730-1 , S. 97th
  9. ↑ StA Wü MRA 7770, fol. 13-25. Herbert Pohl: Magic belief and fear of witches in the Electorate of Mainz. A contribution to the witch question in the 16th and early 17th centuries . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07444-9 , p. 26.
  10. ↑ Paul Gerhard Lohmann: Evangelical Christians in Fritzlar , 2004, p 89; Memorial book p. 36, p. 1; St.A. Marburg, Order 4f, No. 357.
  11. ↑ Paul Gerhard Lohmann: Evangelical Christians in Fritzlar , 2004, p 16; Hans Braun: Foundations of a history of the Braun family , Berlin 1914, p. 26.
  12. ↑ St. A. Marburg, Best.4f, No. 482.
  13. ↑ Paul Gerhard Lohmann: Evangelical Christians in Fritzlar , 2004, p 47, 79, 91, 93, 95th

literature

  • Paulgerhard Lohmann: Evangelical Christians in Fritzlar . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2004, ISBN 3-8334-0730-1 .
  • Horst Heinrich Gebhard: Witch trials in the Electorate of Mainz in the 17th century . Publications of the history and art association Aschaffenburg e. V., Volume 31, Aschaffenburg 1989, ISBN 978-3-8796-5049-1 .

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