Otto Sigg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Otto Sigg (* 1943 in Seuzach ) is a Swiss historian .

Life

Growing up in Seuzach near Winterthur, Sigg received his doctorate in 1971 from the University of Zurich on the subject of Zurich finance in the early modern period. From 1969 he worked in the State Archives of the Canton of Zurich and was its director from 1983 to 2006.

His research and publications focus on the national and local history of the Canton of Zurich, with a thematic focus on social and agricultural history. Sigg is also the author of the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland (HLS) and publishes non-fiction books.

Witch trials in Zurich

Otto Sigg's preparation of original sources on the Zurich witch trials with death sentences was self- published in 2012 . A second edition was published the following year with Offizin Zürich Verlag . Sigg reconstructs the execution of a total of 75 women and four men between 1487 and 1701. Three executions occurred before the Reformation: Margreth Bucher from Oberwil, Dägerlen (1487), Älly Schnyder from Andelfingen (1493) and Itly am Hag Waedenswil (1518). The last classic witch trial in the city of Zurich, with an embarrassing questioning in the Wellenberg prison tower , took place in 1660 (Catharina Bumann from Maschwanden). Later cases concern Lorenz Nägele from Horgen (conviction for fornication with children, not for witchcraft, but the interrogators mention that Nägele "had some fellowship with the annoying Satan") as well as two witch trials in the Zurich countryside, 1666 the interrogation of Küngold Kern from Buch am Irchel by the court in Wülflingen (charges of infanticide, but the defendant also confessed to witchcraft) and in 1701 the last witch trial in Zurich, the Wasterking trial with the execution of eight people.

Sigg (p. 11) described these executions as judicial murders and demanded their rehabilitation and the installation of a memorial plaque at the Wasserkirche . Sigg refers to the memorial ceremony for the eight victims of the Wasterking witch trial, which was held in 2001 by the Evangelical Reformed Church and the cantonal government - " But that's it, " says Sigg, " since then, almost nothing has happened to come to terms with this dark chapter ." In 2020, the church council of the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zurich accepted Sigg's petition for a theological analysis of the Zurich witch murders .

Works

  • Witch trials with death sentence: judicial murders in the guild city of Zurich; of the evil spirit in the city and country of Zurich and in the Aargau basement office; Documentation on the 79 so-called witch trials in the territory of the city of Zurich, which ended with a death sentence, 1487 - 1701; based on sources from the Zurich State Archives . 2nd edition, Offizin, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-907496-79-4 . ( 1st edition, Frick 2012 , ISBN 978-3-9523685-8-9 )
  • Archive guide of the Zurich parishes and parishes as well as the urban suburbs before 1798: testimonies of Zurich parish, administrative and legal culture in the agrarian and ecclesiastical age . State Archives of the Canton of Zurich (ed.), Zurich 2006.
  • Federal tradition near the suburb of Zurich . Bank Sarasin, Basel. Basel 1990.
  • «Praise for efficiency». Small jog and Zurich agriculture on the eve of the industrial age. On the two hundredth anniversary of Gujer’s death, Kleinjogg (1716–1785) . With texts by Otto Sigg, Hans-Ulrich Pfister, Thomas Schärli, pictures by Werner Reich. State Archives of the Canton of Zurich, Zurich 1985.
  • Zwinglis Zurich (1484–1531). A publication from the Zurich State Archives . With texts by Otto Sigg, Thomas Schärli, Heinzpeter Stucki. Zurich 1984.
  • Zurich witch stories . In: Peter Niederhäuser (ed.): Persecuted, suppressed, forgotten? Shadow of the Reformation . Chronos Verlag, 2018, pp. 133–148

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Names of the victims of the witch trials / witch persecution Zurich (including Wasterkingen) pdf file
  2. ↑ "It was not only the last trial of this kind in the state of Zurich, but a person was burned alive again, namely the very elderly Elsbetha Rutschmann. This was because, in the course of the 17th century, the convicts were increasingly no longer alive but were beheaded beforehand. " Sigg (2012: 226).
  3. ↑ Helene Arnet, Memorial to the Zurich Victims of Witch Persecution , Tages-Anzeiger , November 5, 2013.
  4. ^ Church council of the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zurich, letter of July 4, 2020 pdf file
personal data
SURNAME Sigg, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss historian
DATE OF BIRTH 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Seuzach