Rebekka Lemp
Rebekka Lemp (also Rebecca Lemp) (* around 1550 in Nördlingen ; † September 9, 1590 ibid.) Was an early victim of the witch hunt in Nördlingen .
Life
Rebekka Lemp was born around 1550 as the daughter of linen weaver Hans Dehler in the imperial city of Nördlingen, where the Reformation was introduced in 1555 . In her neighborhood lived Peter Lemp (1552-1630), her future husband, whom she had known since childhood. Peter Lemp took over the position of the city paymaster from his father Johann Lemp († 1580). They married around 1570 and in 1590 had three sons (Peter, Johann Konrad, Samuel) and three daughters (Rebekka, Anna Maria, Maria Salome) between the ages of 19 and 6 years. Despite owning their own house in Nördlingen, the family lived in the official apartment in the large pay house on the Weinmarkt. She was one of the city's distinguished families.
On June 1, 1590 Rebekah was arrested at the age of 40, interrogated for weeks, tortured and finally on September 9, 1590 after 100 days in custody, together with four other women, was publicly executed for alleged witchcraft. In the correspondence between Rebekah and her husband and children that has survived from her imprisonment, the personal suffering of the pious woman, the man who is convinced of her innocence and the anxiously worried children becomes clearly understandable.
Witch trial
On Monday June 1st, Jul. / June 11th 1590 greg. While her husband was on a multi-day trip in the service of the city, Rebekka Lemp was arrested in Nördlingen on the basis of denunciations on suspicion of witchcraft. Five other women in the city were arrested with her that day for the same reason: the midwife Barbara Lierheimer , Margarethe Frickinger, the wife of the town hall administrator Christoph Frickinger, Margaretha Hummel, Katharina Keßler, the pregnant wife of the furrier Jörg Keßler and the very wealthy mayor's widow Barbara Worlin.
When Rebekah was interrogated for the first time the next day, she called on God and protested her innocence. After her husband returned from his trip a few days later, he immediately took steps to obtain his wife's release. On July 6, Rebekah was confronted with Apollonia Aißlinger and the councilor widow Maria Schöpperlin, both of whom had been arrested before her on suspicion of witchcraft. Both claimed to have seen her at witch meetings. On July 10th, these two women were executed together with the angel landlady Anna Koch without having revoked their incriminating testimony. Thereupon Rebekka's husband turned to the city council with another petition, but again without success.
After almost two months in detention, the council decided one last amicable questioning for the Lemp and the Wörlin (widow of the mayor), but then to proceed with them as with everyone else. On July 29th, Rebekka was " embarrassedly questioned " for the first time with thumbscrews and " Spanish boots ". The torture continued the next morning, but Rebekah stayed true to her testimony and continued to declare her innocence. In the afternoon, she was subjected to the " empty sucking " torture method. For this purpose, the hands were tied behind the back and the body was pulled up without any additional weights (empty). In the midst of this pain, she confessed to the charges of the devil's allegiance and pact with the devil . In further interrogations, she was made to admit the flight of witches and the magic of harm . She mentioned the names of alleged accomplices, exclusively women from her close circle of acquaintances, women of mayors, councilors and officials. She stated that the meetings of the "witches" always took place in the official buildings of the city.
After the interrogation on August 2, Rebekah fell into deep despair because her confession meant for her a painful death by burning and a revocation of new tortures. In addition, she had incriminated innocent people through the denunciation and sinned thereby. In a letter to her husband, she asked him for poison ("Send me something") to take her own life. During interrogation the next day, she confessed that she intended to commit suicide. “God will forgive her. She only did it to spare her children the shame of their shameful death. ”She confessed to everything anyone wanted to hear from her and was so weak that she could barely speak and had to be carried to her prison.
Around August 10th, Peter Lemp managed to get to his wife. Then she revoked everything and brought the most serious charges against the city council. However, after being tortured again, she withdrew her revocation and also confessed to eating dead children. On August 21, she even admitted to some murders that Ursula Haider had already faced, who had been burned as an alleged witch in Nördlingen on May 15, 1590.
Rebekah's death sentence was announced on September 2nd and July 9th on Wednesday, September 9th . / September 19, 1590 greg. carried out. Rebekka Lemp and Anna Seng (arrested on March 30, 1590) and the women Margarethe Frickinger, Margaretha Hummel and Barbara Wörlin who were arrested with her were burned in public at the place of execution on the Henkelberg. It was the third burning of witches in Nördlingen since the mayor of the city, Johannes Pferdeinger, who started the persecution.
Barbara Lierheimer died in custody on July 23. Katharina Keßler, who was pregnant when she was arrested, was executed eight months later, on May 5, 1591.
Letters
- Letter from the children to their mother Rebekka Lemp dated June 2, 1590, the day after their arrest:
“Our friendly, childlike greeting, dear mother. We'll let you know we're doing fine. So you also told us that you were well and we think that the Father will come today, God willing. So we want to let you know when he's coming. May almighty God grant you his grace and holy spirit that you may come to us again with joy and a healthy body. Amen.
Dear mother, let us buy you beer and let us bake you small fishes and let us fetch you a chicken. And if you need money, have it fetched. You have it in your bag. Be good, my dear mother. You are not allowed to worry about housekeeping until you come to us. God give you a good night a thousand times.
Rebekka Lempin, your dear daughter
Anna Maria Lempin, your dear daughter
Maria Salome Lempin, your dear daughter
Joannes Conradus Lempius, tuum amantissime filius
Samuel "
- Letter from Rebekka Lemp to her husband from prison, around July 10, 1590:
“My dear darling, don't worry. If a thousand of them professed me [accused me of witchcraft], then I am innocent or all the devils will come and tear me apart. And whether I should be asked strictly [torture], I could not confess anything, [even] if I was torn into 1000 pieces. Just don't worry, I'm innocent on my soul. If I am tortured, I will not believe it, because I am absolutely fair. Father, if I am guilty of the thing [offense], do not let God come before his face [forever]. If you don't believe me, God the Most High will see in it and do a sign. Because if I have to get stuck in trouble, there is no god in heaven. Guarantee a lot for me. You can hear my innocence. For God's sake, don't let me get stuck in trouble. "
- Petition from Peter Lemp to the City Council on July 13, 1590:
“Honorable, considerate, honorable, wise, generous, commanding gentlemen! I hope and believe and consider it certain that my wife never thought of anything she is accused of, much less than that she should ever have done so in the slightest with words and in fact ... For I testify with my conscience and many good, honest people that, as far as I and others could notice, they have always been godly, decent, honorable, domestic and pious, but always averse and hostile to evil. As her dear landlord, she also kept me honest for the time of her life, so that I was satisfied for my part. She also taught and instructed her dear little children, as it is due and due to a faithful housemother, alongside and with me, faithfully and diligently, not only in their catechism, but also in the holy Biblia, but especially in Davidi's dear psalms, so that, praise be to God and without boasting, I have no child who does not know by heart several of Davidi's psalms and could relate them. In addition, no one can justifiably claim that she once caused a single damage to a person's body or elsewhere ... For this reason, it is my and my dear little children that I (God be always praise) have six in number, submissive and humble supplication and for the sake of God and the Last Judgment, in which Jesus Christ, the righteous judge, will appear, an official request, [that] your honorable and far-sighted wisdom as our ordinary authorities hereby have a gracious understanding towards our dear mother and bear them again let us get there ... "
- Last letter from Rebekka Lemp to her husband on August 2, 1590:
“Oh you my chosen darling, should I have to divorce you so innocently! Let God be complained about forever and ever. We are urged, we have to talk, I have been tortured. I am as innocent as God in heaven. If I only knew one point about such matters [witchcraft], I would like God to deny me heaven. O my dear darling, what happens to my heart. Oh woe, oh woe, my poor orphans. Father, send me some [poison], otherwise I will have to despair of the torture. If you can't do it today, do it tomorrow. Write to me immediately.
Wear the ring for me. Make the Father [necklace] in 6 pieces. Let our children carry it on their hands all their lives. O darling, your innocent Magelona , I am being taken from you by force. How can God suffer? If I am a fiend [a witch], God have no mercy on me. Injustice after injustice happens to me. Why doesn't God want to hear me? Send me something or I'll have to talk wrong. Otherwise I would like to weigh down my soul [with sins]. "
literature
- Eva Maria, Wilhelm Lienert: The desecrated honor of Rebekka L. or: A completely normal witch trial. In: Praxis Geschichte, Heft 4 (1991), pp. 32–37 ( online version at historicum.net ).
- Hermann Lemp : The son of the witch Rebecca. The adventurous life of Johann Conrad Lemp from Nördlingen. Unverhau, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-920530-52-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Transcription and translation according to Lienert: The desecrated honor of Rebekka L.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lemp, Rebekah |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German witch trial victim |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 16th Century |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nordlingen |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 9, 1590 |
| Place of death | Nordlingen |