Witch hunt in Hamburg

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In Hamburg and its districts, at least 101 proceedings were carried out against suspected witches , magicians and fortune tellers in accordance with Hamburg city law from 1444 to 1738 . Since the files on witch persecution in Hamburg are not good, far more cases must be assumed. Most witch trials ended in the death of the accused.

Hamburg city law

"If a Christian man or woman who disbelieves and deals with sorcery and poisoning and is caught in the act, he / she should be burned at the stake" (Hamburg city law of 1497).

In Hamburg's city law since 1270, the magic of damage was a punishable offense; the devil's pact was explicitly mentioned in the new version of 1605. The Hamburg Lower Court between 1444 and 1642 led the trials against women and some men for damaging magic or witchcraft.

The sorcerers who harm human beings or cattle in body and soul by forbidden means, or who forgetfully abandon God and his holy word out of bad intent and make strange, highly annoying alliances with the evil enemy, will, after Opportunity of provable forfeiture, punished alive with fire or with the sword (Hamburg city law of 1605).

Three people at the stake.
The burning of three witches on November 4, 1585. Illustration from the Wickiana (Collection of Johann Jakob Wick , Zurich Central Library)

Extent of the witch hunt in Hamburg

In Hamburg and its districts, at least 101 proceedings were initiated against suspected witches, magicians, fortune tellers, etc. from 1444 to 1738. This was the result of new research by Kai Lehmann in the German Witch Documentation Center in the Museum Schloss Wilhelmsburg in Schmalkalden . Previous estimates were based on around 40 proceedings in the core period of the Hamburg witch hunt. According to this, from 1444 to 1642 30 women and 7 men were demonstrably executed in Hamburg for witchcraft and magic arts. The files on the witch persecution in Hamburg are not good, so far more cases must be assumed, especially since almost all of the witch trials mentioned ended with the death of the accused. At least 81 of the trials (80%) resulted in the death of the accused. Only 14 of the cases found ended with a release, expulsion from the country, blows of the rod or flight. The fates of six people are unknown.

Nicolaus Staphorst: Hamburg churches. History. Hamburg, Felginer 1723–1729

Witch hunt after the Reformation

Almost all witch trials in Hamburg were carried out after the Reformation entered Hamburg and a new church order was introduced in 1529 with the help of Johannes Bugenhagen .

Witch trials

As the first victim of the witch hunt, Katharina Hanen was burned as a sorceress ("incantatrix") in 1444 .

There were waves of witch trials in the years 1544–1545 (11 defendants), 1555–1556 (17 defendants), 1575–1583 (23 defendants) and 1610 (5 defendants in Harburg ), most of which were executed.

In 1555 fourteen women were arrested on charges of witchcraft. This is the first certified case of the use of torture , which until then had not been used in witch trials in Hamburg. Of the fourteen women, nine died at the stake, two under torture, and in three cases the outcome is unknown.

In 1583 Abelke Bleken had to testify in court on the basis of several allegations made against her and, under torture, made a confession about the magic of harm and the devil's pact . She is the only woman in Hamburg whose responses made in court, the so-called Urgicht , are documented. She was executed by fire on March 18, 1583.

Hamburg 1588

1612 was Mette Harden from Kirchwerder who belonged to the lower classes, with two other women (Cathrin Danckwers from Kirchwerder and Cathrin narrow field from Curslack) in the year 1612, the witchcraft indicted.

Last witch trials in Hamburg

One of the last witch trials in Hamburg took place in 1642: Cillie Hemels was burned for apostasy from God, her sorcery and murder committed against her own husband . In Hamburg-Bergedorf , Margareth Uhler, wife of Sven Uhler, was imprisoned in 1676 on charges of sorcery. She was in custody (temporarily in chains) for 21 months. The acquittal did not take place until 1678, it was the last witch trial in Hamburg.

Memorial stone in the women's garden for Abelke Bleken

Memory of the victims of the witch trials in Hamburg

Memorial stone in the women's garden

On June 7, 2015, the Association of Women’s Garden in the presence of the second mayor of Hamburg, Ms. Katharina Fegebank , inaugurated a memorial stone in the Ohlsdorf cemetery for all those women who were victims of the early modern witch hunt in Hamburg.

Street names

Mette-Harden-Strasse Hamburg-Kirchwerder
  • Mette-Harden-Strasse in Kirchwerder has been named after Mette Harden since 1995 .
  • The Abelke-Bleken-Ring in Ochsenwerder has been named after her since 2015.
  • It is proposed to name a street in honor of Katharina Hanen, who was burned as a sorceress in 1444. The occasion is a citizen's petition.

See also

literature

  • Matthias Blazek: Witch trials, gallows mountains, executions, criminal justice in the Principality of Lüneburg and in the Kingdom of Hanover , Stuttgart 2005.
  • Eckart Kleßmann : History of the City of Hamburg , Hamburg 2002.
  • Emil B. König: History of the witch trials, the births of human madness , Paderborn (without year of publication).
  • Sönke Lorenz: Sending files and witch trials. Shown using the example of the Faculties of Law in Rostock and Greifswald (1570 / 82–1630) , II, 1.
  • Sönke Lorenz: The sources. The witch trials in the Rostocker Spruchakten from 1570 to 1630 , Frankfurt am Main 1983.
  • Roswita Rogge: Hamburg - witch hunt . In: Lexicon for the history of witch persecution , ed. v. Gudrun Gersmann, Katrin Moeller, and Jürgen – Michael Schmidt (last accessed on May 15, 2016)
  • Roswitha Rogge: witch hunt in Hamburg? Harmful magic in everyday life and in the judiciary . In: History in Science and Education GWU; Journal of the Friedrich Seelze Association, Volume 46, 1995, pp. 381-401
  • Carl Trummer: Lectures on torture, the persecution of witches, judicial courts, and other strange phenomena in the Hamburg legal history , 1st volume, Hamburg, with Johann August Meißner, 1844, pp. 64, 108–118, 136–160
  • Antje Windgassen: The Witch of Hamburg . Gmeiner Verlag. Meßkirch 2015, ISBN 978-3-8392-1734-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rita Bake: Ein Gedächtnis der Stadt Vol. 2: Women's biographies from A to Z. Hamburg 2015. State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 2010. Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. School and Vocational Training Authority. Office for Further Education. P. 433 (PDF; 5.8 MB), accessed on May 22, 2016.
  2. ↑ Hartmut Hegeler : Names of the victims of the witch trials / witch persecution Hamburg (PDF; 13 kB), accessed on May 23, 2016.
  3. ↑ Eckart Kleßmann : History of the City of Hamburg , Hamburg 2002, p. 136
  4. ↑ Roswitha Rogge: Bleken, Abelke . In: Hamburg biography . Volume 1, Christians, Hamburg 2001, p. 48.
  5. ↑ Dagmar Unverhau: Riot and rebellion in the Bergedorf office because of a magician and three sorceresses in 1612 , p. 5. PDF 3 MB, accessed May 22, 2016
  6. ↑ Rita Bake: A new memorial stone in the women's garden . In: OHLSDORF - magazine for mourning culture.
  7. ↑ Fegebank dedicates stone in memory of burned witches .
  8. ↑ Memorial stone for Abelke Bleken
  9. ↑ Speech on the occasion of the inauguration of Hamburg's first memorial stone for the women accused of being witches and burned in Hamburg .
  10. ^ Rita Bake: Ein Gedächtnis der Stadt Vol. 2: Women's biographies from A to Z. Hamburg 2015. State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 2010. Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. School and Vocational Training Authority. Office for Further Education. S. 324 (PDF; 5.8 MB), accessed on May 19, 2016.
  11. ↑ Street name recalls the tragic fate of a woman. Hamburg – Ochsenwerder. The ring road of the new building area "Ochsenwerder 13" is supposed to remind of Abelke Bleken from Ochsenwerder. 20th November 2014.
  12. ↑ Petra Schellen: Hamburg - A street for the "witch". In: taz Nord, May 2, 2016.
  13. ↑ Nico Binde: Is it allowed to name a street after a witch? In: Hamburger Abendblatt, May 13, 2016.
  14. ↑ Judith Pape: Is the late appreciation for a "witch" coming? In: NDR.de, May 15, 2016.
  15. ↑ Nina Gessner: Hamburger demands: Street should be named after a witch In: Hamburger Morgenpost, June 13, 2016.