Maria Flint

Katharina Maria Flint (* around 1739 ; † December 20, 1765 in Stralsund ) was a German child murderer . The death row inmate was freed from prison by the child's father and taken out of the country. However, she returned to Stralsund, where she was executed with the sword. Together with the case of Susanna Margaretha Brandt , she served Goethe as the figure of Gretchen in Faust .

Act and condemnation

Maria Flint was the daughter of a Stralsund shoemaker. Around 1761 she found a job as a seamstress for the tenant Diek in Gagern near Kluis . There she met his son, Lieutenant Johann Diek. This harassed her repeatedly during her three years in the service of the Dieks until she finally gave in to his insistence. She got pregnant from him . When she asked for his assistance about this, he turned her away. In 1764 she returned to her parents, who lived in Stralsund's Johanniskloster . When the parents died soon afterwards, she was allowed to stay in their apartment for the time being. At Pentecost 1765 she gave birth to a child, which she strangled and buried. Apparently, her pregnancy had not gone undetected, as rumors began circulating that she had had a child and got rid of it. The Stralsund city council initiated an investigation based on these rumors, in the course of which Maria Flint confessed to the crime. The child's body was found according to their information. After the Faculty of Law at the University of Rostock issued an opinion based on the investigation files, Maria Flint was sentenced to death.

Kidnapping and escape

After the judgment became known, Johann Diek stood up for Maria Flint after all. The court clerk, Burmeister, was to be bribed to let them escape. However, Burmeister rejected attempts at bribery. Diek, who could be sure of the support of the officers of his regiment, therefore planned the violent liberation of the condemned from the custody near the Kütertor , in House Bielkenhagen 7 . The city council announced on the evening of October 28 that the action was to take place on the night of October 29, 1765. As a result, the city guards were reinforced. The city also obtained support from the Swedish military occupation in the event of an attack on the city prison. After three o'clock in the morning a group of armed people dressed as civilians or seafarers pushed their way through the city gate to the prison without even being addressed by the military guard stationed there. The strength of the group was given differently and was probably between 20 and 50 men. Fighting broke out in which some of the attackers managed to break into the prison, free Maria Flint from her cell and flee with her through the guard gate and in a boat over the Knieperteich. Meanwhile, the majority of the attackers met the reinforcements of the city guard at the intersection of Heilgeiststrasse / Hüx ( Mönchstrasse ). In the scuffle that followed, at least twelve city guards were injured, some seriously. Three others were fatally wounded. One attacker was also killed. The Swedish military garrison, which had been notified, did not intervene in the fighting, nor, as requested by the council, had the city gates locked so that the attackers could leave the city unmolested.

Johann Diek fled with Maria Flint on foot to Voigdehagen, from there on horseback via Horst to Jarmen in Prussia . There he first accommodated her with the ferryman and then organized an escort from Gützkow that brought Maria Flint back to Swedish Pomerania to the lease of his brother Moritz in Rappenhagen . He hid her there for five or six days. After Maria Flint's profile appeared in the "Stralsundische Zeitung" on November 3, 1765 and a reward of 50 thalers was offered for information about her whereabouts, he no longer saw her safety in Rappenhagen being guaranteed. He took her to the Gützkower ferry , where she received two hussars and accompanied them to Berlin , from where she traveled by stagecoach to Dresden .

Return and execution

On the morning of December 2, 1765, Maria Flint unexpectedly stood at the door of the Stralsund prison. She asked to be admitted and explained that she could not find rest and wanted to die. When questioned, she stated that she had not recognized any of her liberators or kidnappers.

On December 20, Maria Flint was brought to the Stralsund town hall under strong guard , where she again confessed her guilt in the hall. The death sentence was then read out publicly. Then she was driven in a carriage to the place of execution , which was outside the Tribseer Tor, and beheaded with the sword, with great sympathy among the population . The actual place of execution, where Maria Flint was buried, is not known. Possibly it was in the area of ​​the former Mariakronfriedhof .

Investigation of the kidnapping

On the day of the kidnapping, the city opened an investigation into the rescue operation. The questioning of witnesses was unsuccessful, especially since the population feared possible reprisals from the officers of the Swedish occupation. Since the military lacked any support, the city turned to the Swedish Governor General Axel von Löwen . This referred the matter to the Royal General Court Martial, which followed the application of the city and arrested the guards of the Kütertorwache. Since the guards belonged to the “Queen's Body Regiment”, a regimental court martial had to be formed from this , which met on November 11, 1765. This court made the progress of the investigation very difficult and tried successfully to drag the matter down. Therefore, on the initiative of Stralsund , the state estates of Swedish Pomerania submitted a complaint to the Swedish king. In February 1766, his cabinet issued instructions to dissolve the regimental court martial and to form a mixed court martial from all regiments stationed in Stralsund. After the hearing of around 150 witnesses and mutual accusations between the city council and the regiments, a judgment was passed by the Pomeranian General Court of War at the end of 1766. Lieutenant Johann Diek and ten other soldiers and NCOs were sentenced to death. Other NCOs were demoted and two officers were fined.

In March 1767, the Swedish King Adolf Friedrich converted the death sentence for Diek and the ensign Adelhjelm into 28-day prison sentences and the revocation of the officer’s license for one year. The remaining nine death sentences were changed to 24-day prison sentences. In 1769 Johann Diek and three of his brothers were raised to the nobility by Emperor Joseph II . The Dieks called themselves von Dycke from then on . Johann von Dycke died in Sweden in 1782 with the rank of riding master.

reception

The events surrounding Maria Flint found their way into literature and art. Johann Wolfgang Goethe dealt with the fate of Maria Flint during his student days in Leipzig, which he later worked on together with that of Susanna Margaretha Brandt in the Gretchen tragedy.

Johann Kaspar Steube reported in 1791 in "Wanderings und Schicksale" about the events.

In 1838 and 1839 Friedrich von Suckow published under the pseudonym Thorwald in the magazine Sundine a multi-part novelistic review, which was mainly based on oral traditions. It was only during the publication that he became aware of the diary entries of Stralsund Pastor Müller, who was present at the execution.

1902 published Rudolf Baier in the Stralsundischen histories. a processing of the actual events based on the court files. Otto Wendler published in 1906 “Maria Flint. A Stralsund novel from the 18th century. “In 1936 Maria Flint appeared: Opera in four acts and a prelude. by Alexander von Krüdener, Alfred Basan and Hans Braun-Bessin.

literature

• Rudolf Baier : Stralsundian stories. Publishing house of the Royal Government Printing House, Stralsund 1902, pp. 218–249 ( digitized version ).
• Markus Vette : Maria Flint - Otto Wendler's 1906 novel with a picture section and the latest archive research results. Eugenia Verlag, Stralsund 2017, ISBN 978-3-938853-34-4 .

Web links

• Literature about Maria Flint in the state bibliography MV

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rainer M. Holm-Hadulla: Goethe's melancholy and his self-treatment strategies. In: Hermann Faller, Hermann Lang (Hrsg.): Depression. Clinic, causes, therapy. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8260-4550-9 , p. 256 ( Google Books ).
2. ^ Johann Kaspar Steube , Jochen Golz (ed.): From Amsterdam to Temiswar: Wanderings and fates. Ruetten & Loening, Berlin (Original Gotha 1791), p. 32f ( Google Books ).
3. ↑ Thorwald: Maria Flint. An act-like story from the last half of the previous century. In: Sundine. Entertainment sheet for New West Pomerania and Rügen. Volume 12, 1838, pp. 302f ( Google Books ).