Merga Bien

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Merga Bien (* about the end of the 1560s -years; † in the fall of 1603 in Fulda ) was married in third marriage with Blasius Bien, was on 19 June 1603 for witchcraft arrested and in autumn 1603 during the witch hunts under Prince Abbot Balthasar von Dernbach on executed at the court in Fulda.

family

Merga Bien was probably born in Fulda in the late 1560s as the daughter of a tanner . She was married very early to an old widower (Wilhelm Franck), who died soon after the wedding. This first marriage was childless. Wilhelm Franck left her with a certain amount of cash and together with her dowry she now had 56 guilders . (This roughly corresponded to the annual salary of a Fulda city clerk at that time).

She married Christoph Orth for the second time. She had two children with him. But the husband and both children died in quick succession - presumably of the plague. From the witch trial files it is not clear whether she was already defamed as a poisoner in this context. Later in the trial, these deaths were a major charge.

Around 1588 she married for the third time, namely Blasius Bien, who was initially in the service of the mayor of Hünfeld and Michelsrombach . Finally he became mayor himself in Schlitz . After a dispute with the gentlemen von Schlitz (called von Görtz), he resigned from work there and returned to Fulda with his wife Merga. What occupation he pursued here is not recorded.

Witch trial

Hexenturm in Fulda, which served as a prison during the witch trials

About 250 people fell victim to the persecution of witches in the Fulda monastery. Merga Bien was one of the first women to be arrested by the centgrave and master of maleficence Balthasar Nuss as part of the witch hunts that began in 1603.

On June 19, 1603, she was arrested and locked in a dog cage because the prison in the castle was overcrowded. On the other hand, her husband Blasius Bien sued the Reich Chamber of Commerce in Speyer . A few weeks later a mandate came from there that she should be given better conditions of detention and that under no circumstances should she be tortured. It turned out that she was pregnant. According to the law in force at the time (according to the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina ), torture during pregnancy was prohibited.

Merga Bien was presumably released for a short time, but was interrogated again on August 4th. She was accused of poisoning her second husband and children, of inciting a nasty disease on the Junckers von Schlitz, of causing the death of the Michelsrombacher Schultheissen cows and of taking part in the Witches' Sabbath . She was also accused: Since her marriage to Blasius Bien had remained childless for 14 years, her current pregnancy could only be the work of the devil.

After 14 weeks of imprisonment, she finally admitted all accusations under torture with the words: "... oh God, that's how I want it to be" and was burned in the autumn of 1603 on the court in Fulda. For this, Blasius Bien had to pay the horrific sum of 91½ guilders as execution costs to Nuss. Merga's mother and sister had also been executed at the stake a few weeks earlier.

Local reception

Memorial to the persecution of witches on the old cathedral parish cemetery in Fulda

In Fulda, the “Frauenzentrum Fulda” development association has dealt extensively with the local witch hunts using the example of Merga Bien's fate. In 2006, under the patronage of Mayor Möller, the "Theater of all kinds" association performed the play "Scheiterpaufen" by Christine van Endert-Saillet.

On November 15, 2008 a memorial for the victims of the witch trials in Fulda was inaugurated.

In 2013 and 2016 the association "Virtuoso eV - Die Musicalfabrik" performed the musical "Merga Bien" in the Propsteihaus of the Petersberg community near Fulda.

literature

swell
  • City archive Fulda: Holdings XVI B 1/2: Kurtzer Sumarischerbericht 1618 (copy)
  • Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg: (copies)
    • Holdings 90a / 836: Embarrassing investigation against Balthasar Nusser ...
    • Stock 91/900: Balthasar Nuss trial
    • Inventory 255 (Reich Chamber of Commerce): B71 in the matter of Bien
literature
  • Ingrid Möller-Münch: … oh God, that's how I want it to be. The life of the Merga Bien. Contribution to the persecution of witches in the Hochstift Fulda (1603 - 1606) . Fulda 2008, 55 pages, ISBN 978-3-940266-99-6 .
  • Berthold Jäger : … the really big scorching and burning… . Fulda 2006.
  • Georg Joseph Malkmus : A witch judge . In: Georg Joseph Malkmus: Fuldaer Anekdotenbüchlein . Fulda 1875, pp. 101-151.
  • Peter Oestmann : witch trials at the Reich Chamber of Commerce . (= Sources and research on the highest jurisdiction in the Old Reich 31), Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1997.
  • Paul Wigand : The Reich Chamber of Commerce and the witch trials . In: Wetzlar'sche contributions for history and legal antiquities . Volume 3, 1851, pp. 73-79.
  • Guido Rohm : The ultimate truths: The only true story of the witch Merga Bien . CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013, ISBN 978-1482745719

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Berthold Jäger: On the history of the witch trials in Fulda Abbey. State of research - criticism - perspectives , in: Fuldaer Geschichtsblätter 73 (1997), pp. 7–64.
  2. ↑ Georg J. Malkmus: A witch judge . In: Georg J. Malkmus, Fuldaer Anekdotenbüchlein . Fulda 1875, pp. 101-151.
  3. ↑ Paul Wigand: The Reich Chamber of Commerce and the witch trials . In: Wetzlar's contributions for history and legal antiquities , Volume 3, 1851, pp. 73–79.
  4. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg (copies): Holdings 90a / 836: Embarrassing investigation against Balthasar Nusser ... / Holdings 91/900: Balthasar Nuss trial / Holdings 255 (Reich Chamber of Commerce ): B71 In the Bien case
  5. ↑ http://www.hexenforschung.historicum-archiv.net/etexte/fulda.html
  6. ↑ New performance in 2019 cf. Witches' fire in Fulda ...
  7. ↑ Fulda plaque on the memorial stone victims of the witch trials
  8. ↑ Musical about the life of Merga Bien
personal data
SURNAME Bien, Merga
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German woman, executed as a witch
DATE OF BIRTH between 1565 and 1570
PLACE OF BIRTH Fulda
DATE OF DEATH between September 1603 and December 1603
Place of death Fulda