Justus Oldekop

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Justus Oldekop (1641)

Justus Oldekop (* 1597 in Hildesheim ; † February 19, 1667 in Wolfenbüttel ) was a lawyer and diplomat and one of the few active opponents of the witch trials of his time. Oldekop first studied law in Helmstedt, Heidelberg, Jena and Marburg and received his doctorate in 1629. He later worked in Halberstadt . Similar to the Reformed clergyman Anton Praetorius and the "witch father" Friedrich Spee ( Cautio Criminalis ), he campaigned against what he believed to be unjust inquisition proceedings.

In addition to the common name Justus Oldekop, it also appears in writings and descriptions as:

  • Oldecop, Justus
  • Oldenkopp, Justus
  • Oldecopius, Johannes Justus
  • Oldekop, Johannes Justus
  • Oldekop, Johannes
  • Oldecop, Justus
  • Oldekop, Iustus
  • Oldekopp, Justus

Life and deeds

Just as Friedrich Spee did this two years before Oldekop in his work published in 1631, he too warned in the title of his work Cautelarum criminalium Syllagoge practica ... to be careful and preventive in criminal trials . At the same time, Oldekop still has a specialist literary background that goes back to the mid-1920s.

The Protestant lawyer and diplomat Justus Oldekop held the post of " Syndicus " of the estates in Halberstadt for ten years from 1650 . There the most important of his writings originated and appeared as “Tractatus de appellatione in causis criminalibus” (1655), in which he worked out the need for a fundamental improvement in the entire criminal justice system. His main work Observationes criminales practica and also his weighty combat pamphlet (1659) against the leading German criminal law teacher of the 17th century Benedikt Carpzov (1595–1666), which was synonymous with a renewed intensification of the witch trial, was also created in Halberstadt .

According to Carpzov, damage by magic was not even necessary, even healing magic was worthy of death due to the assumed devil's covenant (the only way to practice magic). The witches' aviation to Blocksberg , the Devil's Pact and the Teufelsbuhlschaft were proven “grande delicta” for the Saxon criminalist , which no sensible person could doubt. According to this great legal scholar, it was a criminal offense not to believe in it, for that was heresy . Oldekop's armored attack was directed against these and many other points of the witchcraft, for he recognized quite correctly that in the prevailing proceedings only the prevailing "hideous and barbaric procedure" had led to "the apparent falsehood ... being recorded before the truth and was written “ . Oldekop, on the other hand, asks whether one should put so much faith in such an invention that one, like Carpzov, could pronounce a death sentence on such a basis.

When he intended to retire in the independent city of Braunschweig , out of pity for a penniless and obviously innocent peasant girl, he got involved in an inquisition trial that, if questioned, could easily have turned into a witch trial, especially since it was tortured ( that he the bones cracked ). His dedicated contradiction caused quite a stir and shows how dangerous the work of defense counsel still had: he was finally "self incarzeriert " and then ehrenrührigst under the peal of Schandglocke the city directed.

Oldekop had been married since 1630 and had 10 children with his wife Elisabeth. He was buried on March 27, 1667 in Wolfenbüttel.

meaning

Its meaning becomes clearer when you consider that Friedrich Spee is anonymous against the litigation and torture practice of the "witches" and one just has to read his rejection of the well-founded madness between the lines, while Oldekop details all the irrational elements of the witchcraft, takes this to the most violent ad absurdum and presents it with full mention of his name as "old woman-like antics" . He did this decades before Christian Thomasius and about 100 years before the age of the Enlightenment that determined the subsequent culture ( Voltaire , Kant , Gotthold Ephraim Lessing etc. ...). Oldekop deserves the credit of having contributed to the abolition of torture and the foundations of human rights as an early enlightener for Lower Saxony and Anhalt .

Artistic reception of the present

In 2017 the radio station Tonkuhle produced a historical radio play under the title Justus Oldekop und der Hexenwahn. The story by Silas Degen was awarded the Children's and Youth Radio Play Prize 2019 of the Leipzig Radio Play Summer and the Chemnitzer HörNixe 2018 .

  • CD: Justus Oldekop und der Hexenwahn (Script & Direction: Silas Degen, Radio Tonkuhle 2017), historical radio play based on “For and against the Wahn” by Joachim Lehrmann

literature

  • Wilhelm Rothert : Oldekop, Justus, Kriminalist , in ders .: General Hannoversche Biographie , Volume 3: Hanover under the Kurhut 1646-1815 . Sponholtz, Hannover 1916, p. 509f.
  • Karl Henning Oldekop: Justus Oldekop, a contentious lawyer in the 17th century . In: Braunschweigische Heimat , Braunschweigischer Landesverein für Heimatschutz eV - Braunschweig, 1973
  • Dieter W. Weber-Oldecop: Dr. jur. Justus Oldecop (1597-1667), Hannoverscher Konsistorialrat . In: North German family studies: NFK. Journal of the Working Group on Genealogical Associations in Lower Saxony . Neustadt an der Aisch [u. a.]: Degener [u. a.]. ISSN 0468-3390, 1977
  • Article Oldekop, Justus . In: Joachim Rückert and Jürgen Vortmann (eds.): Lower Saxony lawyers . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2003, pp. 22-25.
  • Joachim Lehrmann :
    • For and against the madness / "Witch persecution in the Hochstift Hildesheim" and "A contender against the witch madness". 2003, ISBN 3-9803642-3-2 .
    • Justus Oldekop, a fighter against the witch craze and early enlightenment - in 1200 years of the Diocese of Halberstadt. 2004, ISBN 3-934245-04-08 , pp. 149-162.
    • Courageous enlightener of our homeland. Justus Oldekop. Steps towards liberation from the rule of superstition and violence . In: Peiner's home calendar . Peine: Peiner Allgemeine Zeitung, 2004
    • Justus Oldekop (1597 to 1667). The flight of Lower Saxony's fighters against the witchcraft to the Wolfenbütteler Hof . In: Heimatbuch für die Landkreis Wolfenbüttel , publisher: Landkreis Wolfenbüttel. Braunschweig: Oeding, 2005
    • Justus Oldekop. A contender against the witchcraft - Lower Saxony's unknown early enlightenment , In: Braunschweigische Heimat 2005, pp. 18-23.
    • Justus Oldekop. A Hildesheimer fights against the witch craze . In: Hildesheim calendar . Yearbook for History and Culture , Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, ISSN 1863-5393, 2006
  • Wolfgang Lent: Oldecop (also Oldekop, Oldenkopp), Justus. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Dieter Lent u. a. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon: 8th to 18th century. Appelhans, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , p. 536f.
  • Justus Oldekop:  Oldekop. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 504 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • E. Landsberg .:  Oldekop, Justus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 240 f.
  • Heimatbuch für die Landkreis Wolfenbüttel , Volume 51 (2005), pp. 14-20

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i o. V .: Oldekop, Justus in the database of Niedersächsische Personen ( new entry required ) of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library - Lower Saxony State Library in the version of March 6, 2009, last accessed on February 8 2020
  2. ↑ Award ceremony of the 11th children's and youth radio play competition. Retrieved December 29, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Oldekop, Justus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oldecop, Justus; Oldenkopp, Justus; Oldecopius, Johannes Justus; Oldekop, Johannes Justus; Oldekop, Johannes; Oldecop, Justus; Oldekop, Justus; Oldekopp, Justus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lawyer and diplomat, active opponent of the witch trials of his time
DATE OF BIRTH 1597
PLACE OF BIRTH Hildesheim
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1667
Place of death Wolfenbüttel