Susanne Weber
Susanne Weber (* 1614 in Wildungen ; † October 18, 1656 in Wildungen ) was a victim of the witch hunts in Wildungen.
Life
Susanne Weber was the daughter of the master baker and councilor Curt Rörig and his wife Maria Rörig. Susanne was married to Heinrich Weber, a 90-year-old citizen of Wildung.
Witch trials against members of the Wildung council family Rörig
The number of victims who were related to one another is startling. The defendants came from a few families, so that the witch persecution resulted in real family tragedies. The judges assumed that susceptibility to the temptations of the devil was hereditary. Blood relatives of people who were accused of witchcraft were particularly at risk of ending up at the stake.
The Wildung council family Rörig was particularly affected by witch trials.
Witch trial against Maria Rörig
Maria Rörig, daughter of the rich mayor Wilhelm Gerhard from Fritzlar, was the wife of the master baker and councilor Curt Rörig from a wealthy and respected family in Wildung. He had donated one of the gilded council cups and lived in the house at number 18 at Brunnenstrasse. In September 1630 the witches' court arrested Maria Rörig for witchcraft. Her two daughters Anna Margaretha and Susanne Weber were also questioned by the court. Her husband and four brothers, who were lawyers, tried unsuccessfully to obtain her release. Maria Rörig was tortured with leg and arm screws. She endured the torture steadfastly until May 1631: "The good Lord received her in prison, she would remain loyal to him, she was innocent like Jesus Christ." She was not convicted and Count Christian I. von Waldeck ordered her release. But "the stately beautiful woman" [note from the clerk] remained under suspicion.
Witch trial against Ursula Jostin
Maria Rörig's sister Ursula Jostin b. Gerhard, was married to the wealthy businessman Johann Jost. Because of his evangelical faith, he moved from Fritzlar to Nieder-Wildungen in 1617 . Before the interrogation, Ursula Jostin fell ill and died on February 10, 1631 in the detention room of the town hall.
Witch trials against Maria Magdalena Hartwig and Margaretha Rhodin
The other two sisters of Maria Rörig were also brought to justice. Maria Magdalena Hartwig, b. Gerhard was not convicted. The other sister Margaretha Rhodin, b. Gerhard, was able to escape in time, but had to leave her children behind.
Witch trial against Anna Margaretha Gesner
Maria Rörig's daughter Anna Margaretha, sister of Susanne Weber, was married to the surgeon Hans Gesner. After a quarrel with the wife of the city school teacher Valentin, she was arrested in the spring of 1654 and died of severe abuse in prison. The executioner brought her to Tall Rod and buried her on the "witches' meadow". Several executed women were buried here. A defendant had signed this meadow over to the church in 1650 to be buried there. The deanery, the Protestant church authority, is located on this plot of land at 19 Langen Rod. There is no plaque there.
Witch trial against Peter Rörig
Maria Rörig's 70-year-old brother-in-law Peter Rörig, master baker and alderman, confessed under torture to the devil's allegiance and transformation into wolf form and was beheaded as a magician and werewolf on November 20, 1655 and burned on Galgenberg. His daughter had died under torture a year earlier.
Witch trial against Susanne Weber
In August 1656 the court bailiff brought Susanne Weber, daughter of Maria Rörig, to the “Embarrassing Court” under the chairmanship of the town councilor Adam Valentin and charged her with witchcraft. She had been "denounced" as a sorceress under torture by 18 people who had already been executed. Susanne replies that these people who were executed as witches were probably attacked by the devil. One accusation of harmful wizardry was that she had given a woman poisoned milk to make a porridge. The child was sick and a dog (which ate the rest of the porridge) died. She was accused of fornication several times with a quartered lieutenant, a potter and an already executed master baker. Since she was 48 years younger than her husband, she had gotten into people's talk. She caused the death of her maid by magic and stole meat and milk from her neighbor's house by magic. It could not do well that she always had meat in the house and could sell a lot of butter. These charges show the envy and resentment of the neighbors.
On September 7, Heinrich Weber, the defendant's husband, asked for the trial against his wife to be carried out quickly. As a ninety-year-old man he suffered a lot and could not pay the court's meals and the fees for the proceedings. The court bills should be sent to the wife's relatives.
Susanne Weber protested in court that she was innocent and that her good conscience should help her. When the husband was asked whether he could put forward anything in defense of his wife, he said: “He could well think that no innocent person would be brought to the place, he would order the matter to God and the court” and asked “that the process would be accelerated and the same would be remedied ”.
The torture began on October 6, 1656, based on a legal opinion by the Count's office in Korbach. The clergyman opened the ordeal with a prayer and exhorted the accused to tell the truth and show repentance. Then the Wildung executioner master Michel Stolpen undressed and cut off her hair. Susanne Weber kept saying: "Oh Jesus don't leave me!" The executioner repeated the torture with the leg screws until she could no longer bear the pain. She confessed to the devil's pact and loyalty to Hans Fedderbusch , who was cold as ice, as well as magic and participation in the witches' Sabbath . The devil would have brought them under the linden tree at Reitzenhagener Tor.
The next day, October 7th, the judge read her the confession again. On October 18, 1656, the verdict was passed to "execute her with fire from life to death." By grace she was beheaded, the body then burned. Her final request to bury her body was not granted. The scene of many witch convictions in Wildungen was the court linden tree felled at the Lindentor in 1857 .
Commemoration
In 2004, the town of Bad Wildungen, the Protestant parishes, the adult education center and the Waldeck Historical Society held an extensive series of events from May to November. It ended on the day of penance and prayer in a service on the Wildung witch trials with a reading of the names of the 78 executed. The congregation planted a rose bush next to a memorial plaque at the entrance to the church and sent a request to the church administration for the official rehabilitation of the victims. At the meeting on November 29, 2006, the regional synod of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck welcomed “the work of remembrance in relation to the witch hunt”.
Web links
literature
- Gerhard Kessler: witch trial against Susanne Weber in 1656 . In: Waldeckischer Landeskalender, Volume 278 (2005), pp. 78-88, Korbach
- Karl Eichler: The Wildunger witch trials . History sheets for Waldeck and Pyrmont, No. 24, 1927, 103–126;
- Karl Eichler: Contributions to the history of the city of Bad Wildungen , Wilh. Bing Publishing House
- Without statement of responsibility: The notorious Wildung witch trials: burned alive; beheaded and buried; languished in dungeon for months . In: Mein Waldeck: Supplement to: Waldeckische Landeszeitung (1980) (No. 14 of August 30, 1980), p. 1
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Weber, Susanne |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Victims of the witch hunts in Bad Wildungen |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1614 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bad Wildungen |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 18, 1656 |
| Place of death | Bad Wildungen |