Ottilia Preussing

Ottilia Preussing (also: Preussing ) (* in Mörfelden ; † April 19, 1654 in Homburg vor der Höhe ) was the most prominent victim of the Bad Homburg witch hunt and was executed on April 19, 1654.

Life

Ottilia Preußing was the widow of the Bad Homburg Protestant pastor Lorenz Preußing, who died in 1645.

Witch trials Bad Homburg

In Office Homburg were I. Georg 1582-1590 20 people convicted of witchcraft. In Hessen-Homburg 1622–1656 over 70 people were executed as witches. Landgrave Wilhelm Christoph von Hessen-Homburg had over 53 people executed for witchcraft between 1650 and 1661 in the small Protestant Landgraviate, including some children.

Bad Homburg, town hall tower

In Homburg, the prisoners were imprisoned in what was then the town hall tower (Rathausgasse). The interrogations took place in the town hall, the condemnation on the market square in front of it, while the executions took place on the Platzenberg (today Leopoldsweg). 34 of the victims came from Seulberg , 21 from Homburg, ten from Köppern , six from Gonzenheim and four from Oberstedten .

Witches trial Ottilia Preussing

The most prominent victim was the Bad Homburg pastor's widow Ottilia Preussing. Already in the summer of 1652 she came under suspicion of witchcraft. In a witch trial, the accused Ms. Müller Els was tortured and forced to confess that she had seen Ottilia Preussing sitting at the upper table doing a witch's dance . As a pastor's widow, Ottilia Preussing initially enjoyed a certain protection against these accusations. In the course of numerous interrogations, however, 20 more denunciations were made in 1653. The suspect has been dubbed a colonel or queen of the witches, who drives to nightly witches' meetings with servants and a black carriage. On February 15, 1654, three Homburg aldermen put on record that the Inquisitess ... after her husband's death had gotten into angry ruff, because of magic. The judges still had scruples: The women led her life and walk stood in the way , it says in the appendix to the statements of the lay judges [the honorable life led by women and their way of life stand in the way of a conviction].

arrest

On April 6, 1654, Ottilia Preussing was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft and wondered about it with a smiling mouth, stating that she was wrong. She was interrogated on April 7th. The protocol now spoke disrespectfully of the fat pastor . Because of her heart's heart, one had to use torture on her. Thereupon she confessed to the devil's pact , devil baptisms and magic spells like the destruction of crops and cattle. She even poisoned the grandson of Landgravine Margarethe Elisabeth, who died in 1651, at Satan's behest.

Condemnation

On April 12, 1654 ratificirte (signed) to the minutes of their alleged crimes. Her will follows in the files on eleven pages, formulated in the most detailed and humble manner. In this, the apparently childless and wealthy pastor's widow a. a. 50 guilders each to the children of two Homburg clergy and another 800 guilders to churches, schools and retired pastors. In return, she asked for the grace that my deceased corpse should be buried in his little bed in accordance with Christian custom ... with the attitude of a spiritual sermon. The death sentence was carried out on April 19, 1654 and Ottilia Preussing and six other defendants were beheaded by the executioner. But a grace was granted to her: Her body was buried in the Georgenfriedhof. The Georgenfriedhof (located at the gates of the city by the small church of the same name) is no longer preserved. The only thing that remained of him is the field name Georgenfeld . Today this corridor is built on, and the name was incorporated into a street name that refers to the old cemetery of the dishonorable.

Rehabilitation and remembrance

A memorial plaque on the town hall tower in Bad Homburg has been pointing to the victims of the witch hunt since 2003. The erection of this memorial plaque goes back to a suggestion by Dagmar Scherf to the city parliament. The Bad Homburg studio stage and the Friedrichsdorf theater group performed the play “Homburg witch hunt” by Dagmar Scherf in 1996 about the fate of Ottilia Preussing. On April 1, 2012, the city council unanimously rehabilitated the victims of the witch trials for moral reasons.

literature

Dagmar Scherf: Homburg witch hunt or when is tomorrow , VAS Verlag Frankfurt a. M., 2000
Dagmar Scherf: Brought to death for witchcraft. The young Seulberg girl Kunigunde was executed 350 years ago . In: Frankfurter Rundschau, April 19, 2004, No. 91, p. 40
Rolf Hafner: Madness and superstition - work for the hangman. Witch madness and witch trials in the Landgraviate of Homburg vor der Höhe , in: Alt-Homburg, September 1992 – September 1993
Franz Luschberger: witch trials between Main and Taunus, protocol of revelations and cruelties , Hochheim am Main 1991
Hartmut Hegeler : Hexendenkmäler in Hessen , Unna 2013, pp. 10-13, ISBN 978-3-940266-15-6

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Names of the victims of the witch trials / witch persecution Bad Homburg (PDF; 141 kB), accessed on May 9, 2016.
↑ Thomas Lange: Witch persecution in Hessen , accessed on July 7, 2009.
^ Rolf Hafner: madness and superstition - work for the hangman. Witch mania and witch trials in the Landgraviate of Homburg vor der Höhe , in: Alt-Homburg, September 1992 - September 1993; Rudolf Kießling: The witch trials in the office of Bingenheim . In: Büdinger Geschichtsblätter, 3/4, 1959/60, pp. 129–135.
↑ Franz Lusch Berger: witch trials between Main and Taunus, Minutes of the revelations and horrors , Hochheim am Main in 1991; Dagmar Scherf: Homburg witch hunt or when is tomorrow? Facts and literary texts on the “witch hunt” in a Hessian county , Frankfurt am Main 2000.
↑ Dagmar Scherf: Brought to death for witchcraft. The young Seulberg girl Kunigunde was executed 350 years ago . In: Frankfurter Rundschau, April 19, 2004, No. 91, p. 40.
↑ Martina Propson-Hauck: Homburger witches rehabilitated . Ed .: Frankfurter Rundschau . February 24, 2012 ( Homburg Witches rehabilitated [accessed June 13, 2012]).

personal data
SURNAME	Preussing, Ottilia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Preussing, Ottilia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Victims of the witch trials in Bad Homburg
DATE OF BIRTH	17th century
PLACE OF BIRTH	Moerfelden
DATE OF DEATH	April 19, 1654
Place of death	Bad Homburg vor der Höhe

[1] Names of the victims of the witch trials / witch persecution Bad Homburg (PDF; 141 kB), accessed on May 9, 2016.

[2] Thomas Lange: Witch persecution in Hessen , accessed on July 7, 2009.

[3] Rolf Hafner: madness and superstition - work for the hangman. Witch mania and witch trials in the Landgraviate of Homburg vor der Höhe , in: Alt-Homburg, September 1992 - September 1993; Rudolf Kießling: The witch trials in the office of Bingenheim . In: Büdinger Geschichtsblätter, 3/4, 1959/60, pp. 129–135.

[4] Franz Lusch Berger: witch trials between Main and Taunus, Minutes of the revelations and horrors , Hochheim am Main in 1991; Dagmar Scherf: Homburg witch hunt or when is tomorrow? Facts and literary texts on the “witch hunt” in a Hessian county , Frankfurt am Main 2000.

[5] Dagmar Scherf: Brought to death for witchcraft. The young Seulberg girl Kunigunde was executed 350 years ago . In: Frankfurter Rundschau, April 19, 2004, No. 91, p. 40.

[6] Martina Propson-Hauck: Homburger witches rehabilitated . Ed .: Frankfurter Rundschau . February 24, 2012 ( Homburg Witches rehabilitated [accessed June 13, 2012]).