Martin Schickhard

Martin Schickhard the Younger (* after 1590 in Siegen ; † before February 26, 1657 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German bailiff , lawyer and witch commissioner .

Life

Martin Schickhard was the second son of Jacob Schickhart the elder . 1606–1609 he learned at the pedagogy in Siegen. He then studied law: at the High School in Herborn (1614) and from 1615 in Groningen , where his sister Magdalena and his brother-in-law Hermann Ravensberger lived. There he received his doctorate on February 4, 1620 as a doctor of both rights (i.e. of canonical and Roman law). Already in 1618 he married in Beilstein Anna Margareth Naurath († 1635), daughter of Martin Herborner Professores Naurath. After receiving his doctorate, he worked as a bailiff of Beilstein from November 4th 1620. His seal from 1625 showed a shield with a crossbar, above it two roses. In January 1626 was back in Groningen in connection with the death of his sister and brother-in-law to settle their affairs. His father-in-law proposed him to Nassau-Diezischen bailiff for Nassau in 1627, but he remained bailiff of Beilstein until 1634, when he and his family had to flee to Greifenstein because of the fighting .

At the end of 1634 he went to Frankfurt am Main, where he established himself as a lawyer and basically lived until his death. For a while he lived with his brother-in-law Johann Conrad Schefer in Löhnberg . In 1651 he was appointed witch commissioner and head of the Protestant Inquisition in Siegerland by Count Georg Friedrich von Nassau-Siegen . His duties included checking the denunciations through interrogation and preparing the trials. But he also took part in the trials as a judge. Apparently it did not bother him that he was defending an alleged witch in 1630 using a book by an opponent of witch persecution. He began questioning the suspects in Freudenberg in mid-July 1652 and worked as a witch commissioner and judge until 1653. As a man "of a quiet, pious, drawn-in nature", he played a key role in the largest wave of persecution in the region. He was soon dismissed because his practices were found to be untidy and unusual, and because he did not adhere to "fair and mild practice" standards.

Martin Schickhard had two children, a daughter born in Beilstein in 1621 and his son Martin, who was also born in Beilstein.

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ Horst Schmid-Schickhardt: The Siegener Schickhardt family ... , p. 22 and 23
2. ↑ Horst Schmid-Schickhardt: Die Siegener Schickhardt family ... , p. 22 and 33
3. ↑ Horst Schmid-Schickhardt: The Siegener Schickhardt family ... , p. 22
4. ↑ Horst Schmid-Schickhardt: The Siegener Schickhardt family ... , p. 23

See also

• Schickhardt family

literature

• Horst Schmid-Schickhardt : The Siegener Schickhardt family in the 15th to 17th centuries. Attempt of a partial genealogy , Baden-Baden: Schmid-Schickhardt 2008
• Bernd Plaum: witch hunt in Nassau-Siegen . In “Siegener Contributions. Yearbook for Regional History ”2004, p. 142
• Andrea father: witch hunt in Nassau counties , Marburg 1988
• Otto Kippling: witch trials in Siegerland . In: “Siegerland” 1973, pp. 85–88