Maria Schnökel

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Eulenburg Museum: Stations in the witch trial against Maria Schnökel, Rinteln 1654

Maria Schnökel (* around 1600 ; † August 25, 1654 in Rinteln ) was the victim of the witch persecution in Rinteln.

Life

Rinteln Eulenburg Museum: Exhibition of witch trials. Exhibits: (top left) Cunradus Hartz, treatise ... against the crime of witchcraft , 1634 Rinteln; (right above) Hermann Goehausen , Processus Juridicus , Rinteln, 1630

Maria Schnökel was a born Biesenmeyer and married to Heinrich Schnökel. In other sources she is mentioned: Heinrich Schreckel's wife, Henr. Schroeckel's wife Mar. Brennerkings. The Schreckelsche. In 1654 she got into a witch trial , which is at the center of an exhibition on the witch trials in Rinteln in the Eulenburg , the university and city museum Rinteln.

Witch hunts in Rinteln

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 accused of witchcraft (including Magdalena Meyers , Hoppenstock's widow) and in 1655 another three people.

According to archive documents, only three men were accused of witchcraft in Rinteln and burned at the stake. Johann Ernsting , known as Kronenschäfer, was accused of being an alleged werewolf and was executed on May 30, 1655.

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 Maria Schnökel

Since the autumn of 1653 found at the nearby Schloss Arensburg in neighboring Schaumburg-Lippe of the local Count Philip of "witchcraft" at the instigation of mass trials on charges held, bringing together under the torture , the accused always new women and men participating in the coven accused. The tortured named the cliff of the Luhden mountain between Eilsen and Rinteln as the witches' dance place . In a first wave of lawsuits from January to March 1654, the Rinteln City Court also began investigations into witchcraft. Eight women accused were sentenced to death, including Adelheid Sieveking at the end of February 1654 .

One of the accused women testified under torture that the citizen's wife Maria Schnökel had also been there at the nightly witch's dance on the Steinanger. This so-called statement was entered in a special list by the court. April 1654 Maria Schnökel got into a dispute with a neighbor. This suddenly crossed himself in front of her and turned away. For the first time Maria Schnökel suspected that a "bad rumor" was circulating about her.

Catalog of questions in the witch trial against Maria Schnökel, Rinteln 1654
Expert opinion in the witch trial Maria Schnökel, Rinteln 1654

On July 3, 1654, the city court began a specific investigation against Maria Schnökel and had witnesses interrogated. As in the trial against Adelheid Sieveking, members of the Wiebbach wall maker family appeared with suspicions and testimony. The following were heard as witnesses: Anna Maria Wiebbach, wife of the wall maker Otto Wiebbach from the Klosterstrasse district, and the baker Johann Bockmann from the Ritterstrasse district. Known by name as a judge is Johann Dempter (around 1590–1654), merchant, councilor and honorary city judge.

On July 10th, the city court heard more witnesses and finally sent the files to the law faculty at Rinteln University. On July 19, the university's legal opinion was available: Arrest and "question amicably". On July 20, Maria Schnökel was arrested tomorrow at three o'clock and interrogated in the city court. She denied all allegations. The minutes were sent back to the university with the files. Five days later, the university's second legal opinion was available: interrogated again, this time using torture. On July 31st, at 10:00 am, the hour-long torture began in the attic of the City Hall with a stretching bench and leg screws. Maria Schnökel remained steadfast. Afterwards, Pastor Daniel Wilhelmi talked to them in the cell . Maria Schnökel was too exhausted to offer any further resistance. She admitted to being a witch. On August 3, she revoked her confession: she had been deceived and cheated by Pastor Wilhelmi. But on August 5th, Maria Schnökel resigned and confessed again. During the interrogation on August 8, Maria Schnökel confessed to all the details that were wanted to be heard from her. She also named alleged accomplices.

On August 17, the indictment was prepared and sent to the university with the files. On August 25th the "Final Legal Day" took place on the market square. The university's third report was publicly announced as a judgment. It read: death by burning. A little later, the defendant died at the stake along with two other women.

Convictions and executions from July to August in 1654:

  • Heinrich Hoppenstock's widow, executed on July 8th.
  • Katharina Vogel, widow of Cordt Meinersen, executed on July 8th.
  • Widow of Daniel Herrmann, executed.
  • Jost Renecking's wife, fled, returned voluntarily, probably executed.
  • Maria Schnökel, executed on August 25th.
  • The Hafferbocksche, executed on October 6th.

swell

  • City archive Rinteln, witch trial files, unrecorded inventory. This includes: Catalog of questions in the trial against Maria Schnökel and the report by the University of Rinteln.

literature

  • Karl Heinz Spielmann: Witch trials in Kurhessen , Marburg 1932
  • Hans-Jürgen Wolf: History of the witch trials , Hamburg 1995

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Meyer, exhibition on witch trials , Eulenburg, Museum in Rinteln
  2. ^ Karl Heinz Spielmann, Witch Trials in Kurhessen , Marburg, 1932
  3. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Wolf, History of the witch trials , Hamburg, 1995, p. 720
  4. ↑ The Eulenburg. University and City Museum Rinteln: witch hunt in Schaumburg .
  5. ↑ a b Names of the victims of the witch trials in Rinteln
  6. ↑ Elmar Lorey, Werewolf Trials in the Early Modern Age
  7. ↑ Karin Gerhardt-Lorenz, Johann Ernsting 1655 condemned as a witcher
  8. ↑ Stefan Meyer, Adelheid Sieveking (1600-1654): a death at the stake . In: Geschichte Schaumburger Women (2000), pp. 222–232.
  9. ↑ The Eulenburg. University and City Museum Rinteln: Stations of the witch trial against Maria Schnökel in 1654 .
  10. ^ Karl Heinz Spielmann: Witch Trials in Kurhessen, NG Elwert Verlag, Marburg, 1932
personal data
SURNAME Schnökel, Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German witch trial victim
DATE OF BIRTH around 1600
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1654
Place of death Rinteln