Lucie Kunschopper

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Lucie Kunschopper , b. Hagemann (* after 1600 ; † 1668 in Rinteln ), was the widowed wife of Hinrich Kunschopper and had two children. She was a victim of the witch hunts in Rinteln.

Witch hunts in Rinteln

Interrogation in a witch trial

Rinteln was the scene of intense witch hunts. The witch trials were largely driven by the professors of the law faculty at the University of Rinteln . The lawyers of the Akademia Ernestina reinforced the witch trials by advising city ​​and local courts throughout the northwest. Between 1621 and 1675 around 400 reports have been handed down that consistently ordered the ruthless persecution of alleged witches and sorcerers.

The legal offense of witchcraft was anchored in the nationwide Constitutio Criminalis Carolina . It was also found in the Polizey Ordinance , which Count Ernst zu Holstein-Schaumburg , the founder of the Rinteln University, had issued in 1610. Witchcraft was considered a death-worthy crime punished by burning at the stake. The city council in Rinteln held the high jurisdiction with the right to convict and burn people for witchcraft.

In the area of ​​today's city of Rinteln, at least 88 people were charged in witch trials between 1560 and 1669, many of which ended with execution. The high points were the years 1634 to 1655. In the years 1634–1635 13 people were executed. Another wave of witch trials began after Rinteln was given its own government with a higher court in 1651 because of its remote location from the royal seat of Kassel. In 1654 at least eleven people were charged with witchcraft, and in 1655 another three people. Two children were among the last victims of the witch trials in Rinteln. In 1660, the city council sentenced the six-year-old child Elisabeth Bödecke from the Exten district and the eleven-year-old girl Anneke Rohmeyer from Steinbergen with expulsion for alleged witchcraft.

The city of Rinteln, whose university contributed significantly to the spread of the witch trials, holds a sad record in Lower Saxony.

Witch trial against Lucie Kunschopper

On September 4, 1668, the charges were brought by the embarrassing public prosecutor in Rinteln.

The indictment stated: In certain experience it had come about that several weeks ago Hinrichs Kunschopper's wife did herself harm against nature and cut off her tongue. This is an inevitable sign of their magic .

Testimony from witnesses read:

  • The main witnesses in the first interrogation were Marten and Margarete Teigeler, who testified that the Kunschoppersche had poisoned their child with an apple. After death, the child turned black as coal.
  • Margarete Teigeler stated that the Kunschoppersche had visited her dead child again with Adelheit Dröge and said that God had given her a sign that she was to blame for the child's death.
  • According to the Geisterbergschen, a neighbor, the Kunschoppersche poisoned two of their cows and poured water over their pigs. There was poison in it and the pigs died from it.
  • Johan Geisterberg confirmed his wife's statements and added that the incident with the pigs was 14 to 15 years ago. He had heard from Hans Asche's wife that Lucie Kunschopper had cut off her tongue because the devil made her so afraid .
  • This was confirmed by the neighbor Johan Nüllmeyer. He accused the Kunschopper of having given her butter once, which tasted bad.
  • During the first two interrogations, Hans Asche hadn't had anything bad to say about the Kunschopper. During his third interrogation, he testified that the Kunschoppersche had poisoned two cows for him 15 and 27 years ago.
  • Ilsabe Winter stated that she had heard that the Kunschopper had poisoned Teigeler's child. She would now be convinced that Kunschopper was also to blame for the death of her child. She bought shoes from her for the child, but when the child put the shoes on, it became ill and died.
  • During the interrogation, the two children told the Kunschoppers that their mother had become very strange three weeks before the accident.
  • The city preacher in St. Nicolai, Magister Daniel Wilhelmi , always visited the accused of the witch trials in prison with the order to obtain a confession. He testified that when he visited the Kunschopper in prison by order of the court, she had made a confession. But Lucie Kunschopper revoked this admission.

The lawyers at Rinteln University ordered the ordeal. However, after repeated torture, Lucie Kunschopper died in prison and the trial could not be completed.

swell

  • City archive Rinteln, witch trial files, unrecorded inventory.

literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karin Gerhardt-Lorenz, Lucie Kunschopper - 1668 accused as a witch
  2. ↑ after Gerhard Köbler: Middle Low German mnd .: kuntschopper, kunschopper = scout
  3. ↑ a b c Names of the victims of the witch trials in Rinteln
  4. ↑ The Eulenburg. University and City Museum Rinteln: witch hunt in Schaumburg .
  5. ^ Karl Heinz Spielmann: Witch Trials in Kurhessen , Marburg 1932
  6. ^ Stefan Meyer: Adelheid Sieveking (1600-1654): a death at the stake . In: Geschichte Schaumburger Women (2000), pp. 222–232.
personal data
SURNAME Kunschopper, Lucie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kunschoppersche, Hinrich Kunschopper's wife
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German witch trial victim
DATE OF BIRTH after 1600
DATE OF DEATH 1668
Place of death Rinteln