Steffen von Niederbergheim

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Steffen von Niederbergheim (* before 1590 in Niederbergheim ; † June 28, 1617 in Allagen ) was a German brewer and victim of the witch hunt in Hirschberg in the Sauerland . His son was an arbitrator in Paderborn. His sister was the Hirschberg citizen Gertrud Koch (Gertrud die Kochsche), who was convicted in Anröchte in 1628 and burned there by the witch commissioner Heinrich von Schultheiss .

Steffen von Niederbergheim, Hirschberg witch trial files (1)
Steffen von Niederbergheim, Hirschberg witch trial files (2)
Hirschberg Christoffelsberg Memorial Witch Trials

Witch trials in Hirschberg

Three periods of witch hunts are known from Hirschberg : In 1595 several men and women were executed for witchcraft. In 1616–1617, 13 people were charged as witches, and in 1628–1629, 12 people were killed in witch trials. We learn more from the writing of the Hirschberg pastor Michael Stappert , born probably around 1585/1590 in Meiste zu Rüthen , died 1663 in Grevenstein . Stappert originally demanded the extermination of witches in sermons . Conversations with accused in witch trials led him to change his mind, which he wrote down in 1628/1629. He now turned against torture and sentencing innocent people at the stake. He published a lost book ("Brillentraktat") against the trials. This writing is preserved in the book by Hermann Löher : Hochnötige Unterthanige Wemütige Klage Der Pious Invalid , 1676, and gives a shocking insight into individual fates from the Hirschberg witch trials.

Michael Stappert passed down some names of people who were executed in Hirschberg:

  • The Wintersche, 1616, under judge Heinrich Schultheiss
  • Wolraht (a man), 1616, under judge Heinrich Schultheiss
  • Bernhard Rham, 1617, under Commissioner Licentiate Höxter von Werl
  • Agatha Proppers, 1617
  • Johan Steineke, 1617
  • Ida Teipels (arrested with five other women), 1617
  • the Badersche, 1617
  • Agatha Kricks, 1617
  • A woman not named
  • Catharina Schutes
  • Eleven people to the festival Martini 1628, under commissioner LL Frenckhausen
  • Stapirius mentions that the Badersche accused Maria Böckers in 1617; this would have been burned in 1629 by the commissioner Frenkhausen.

Witch trial against Steffen von Niederbergheim

The Hirschberg pastor Michael Stapirius describes in his spectacles martial arts tract the fate of the brewer Steffen von Niederbergheim, who was executed in 1617 in Allagen in Westphalia. Stapirius was asked to accompany the condemned man on his last journey. Pastor Stapirius urged him to repent and urged that he should continue to stand by his confession of sorcery.

But Steffen spoke in the presence of his own son, who heard it and was an arbitrator in Paderborn at the time: ´Mr Michel, you know me. If you want to accompany me on the way to the fire, I am happy to agree. But don't tell me a word about sorcery, because I'm not a magician. The judges and lay judges as well as the [witch] commissioner [named Höxter] acted on me like villains and thieves. Because through unbearable agony and torture they forced me to say things that I never thought, let alone intended to do, and they forced me to say I was a wizard. But the Lord God is my witness and my firm certainty that I do not know what magic is. '

And he further said to his son: 'Son, I command you to avenge my innocent death; and if you have received an honest drop of blood from me, then avenge my death on judges, lay judges, court messengers and commissioners, on one villain as well as the other, as best as you can. I will soon have to confirm my confessions of lies in front of the judges, which the crooks force you to do. If I tell the truth and withdraw it, they will torture me again; and who can endure such torture, torture and torment again? '

Steffen von Niederbergheim affirmed and affirmed in court that the confessions he had made under torture were true. He was brought to the fire and died there.

The confessor was shocked: The reason for the actions of these [court] gentlemen is probably that such things do not fit their needs and do not serve their purse, that it brings no profit, does not give bread and does not support the state.

Memorial cross for victims of the witch persecution in Hirschberg

In 1986, in the Hirschberg district of Warstein, a memorial cross was erected for the victims of the witch trials at the former execution site, with text panels on the persecution of witches. It is on the Christoffelsberg street in Eskelle , a wooded area on the outskirts.

Sources and literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rainer Decker: The witch persecutions in the Duchy of Westphalia , p. 216
  2. ^ Alfred Gottschlich: From the history of Hirschberg , ed. Sauerländischer Gebirgsverein, Abt. Hirschberg, 1985, p. 51ff
  3. ^ Alfred Gottschlich: From the history of Hirschberg , ed. Sauerländischer Gebirgsverein, Abt. Hirschberg, 1985, pp. 96-101
personal data
SURNAME Niederbergheim, Steffen von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German brewer and victim of the witch hunt in Hirschberg
DATE OF BIRTH before 1590
PLACE OF BIRTH Niederbergheim
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1617
Place of death Allages