Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Key Topic 3: The Great Witch-Hunt in Bamberg, Germany, 1623-32 - Coggle…

- - - - Principality of Bamberg
        
        To aid the spread of Christianity in Germany
        
        From 1242, its bishops became prince-bishops
        
        Became an important centre of the Roman Catholic Church
    - - Gained followers back for the Catholic faith
      - Led by zealous prince-bishops from across the HRE
      - Gained momentum through the influence of the recently established Jesuit order
        
        Founded in cities like Munich
        
        Message from the clergy was fiercely anti-Protestant
    - - Members of the Roman Catholic religious order, the Society of Jesus
      - Founded in 1534
      - Approved by the Pope in 1540
    - - Suffered resistance
      - In Markzeulh, controlled by the bishop of Bamberg, the parishioners of the local Protestant church refused to renounce their fait, despite enormous pressure
      - Catholic authorities attempted to place new ministers in office, but were chased out of the area
      - Von Aschhausen appointed prince-bishop of Bamberg in 1609; he prioritised conversion back to Catholicism
      - Resentment grew
      - Protestants could face imprisonment and persecutions
      - Protestant communities in Bamberg remained stubborn
    - - Founded Catholic schools
      - Sent uncooperative priests to 'priest vaults'
      - 1610: issued a new ordinance concerning witchcraft, ordering an investigation
      - Catholic troops quartered in Protestant villages
      - Supplies of wood to Protestant parishes were restricted
    - - A group of moderates on the local council
      - Claimed that with war breaking out in Bohemia, the authorities could not afford the luxury of chasing phantoms
  - - - HIgh levels of population
      - Affected by religious wars
      - Belief in diabolism was strong
      - Printing
      - Torture & the inquisitorial system of law
      - Loose political structure
      - Central authority could be weaker around borderland areas
      - Authorities actively encouraged witch-hunting
      - The Reformation and Counter-Reformation led to Germans fearing the Devil's world all around them
      - Social and economic conditions made worse by the Thirty Years' War
      - Carolina Law Code 1532
        
        Justice should remain a local matter
        
        Death penalty for witchcraft
    - - Weakens central authority
      - Worsens social and economic conditions
      - Population of Germany fell 15-30%
      - Disrupted trade
      - Crops ruined/ taken
      - Famine
      - Refugees: overcrowding and pressure on resources
    - - 1618-48
      - Lay in religious divisions in Northern Europe and ambitions of the Habsburg monarchy
      - Habsburgs were concerned with enhancing their territory (often through marriage)
        
        Bohemia: Protestants became bitter as a result of Counter-Reformation policies
        
        Prague: Defenestration carried out on representatives of the Emperor
      - Protestants in Bohemia raised armies in support of Fredrick V
  - - - Witch trials peaked in 1629, the same year frost destroyed the wine crop
      - 1620s: wet and cold
      - 1628: 'a year without summer'
      - 1560-1660: 'Little Ice Age' in Europe
      - Combined with debts from the Thirty years' War, crop failure amounted to a crisis for the state
        
        Debts increasing to 800,000 florins by its end
      - A number of witch trials (1623-32) make reference to weather and poor harvest
        
        Lorentz Kempffen Seebouer's wife 1629
        
        Caused frost to ruin the harvest
        
        Katherina Marckhlerin 1626
        
        Plot to freeze and destroy all Bamberg's crops
    - - Supply of money in general was an issue
        
        Silver from America imports started to decline from 160
      - Gold florin had reduced in gold content from 79% (early c15th) to 77% in 1626
      - Inflation = decrease in real value of money + less food resource
      - Many blamed the crisis on magic/witchcraft
        
        In confessions, economic causes are mentioned
        
        Margaretha Eissmennir
        
        Forced to turn to the devil after extensive coin clipping which made money lose its value
        
        Kunlgudta Rindterrin
        
        Entered into a relationship with a man in order to avoid poverty (interpreted as a pact with the devil)
        
        Margaretha Gussbacharin
        
        Prostituted herself (interpreted as a diabolical pact )
- - - - Key figures
        
        From 1623-1632, 600-900 people were implicated and executed overall
        
        Women made up 72.7% of those brought to trial
        
        Zeil
        
        59 charged in 1626
        
        30 executed in 1629
        
        642 were brought to trial between 1623-1631, with all but 45 being executed
      - Key individuals
        
        Von Dornheim
        
        Supporter of the trials
        
        Allowed for the trials to become so widespread
      - Women significantly more likely to be accused
    - - Key figures
        
        Average age of women brought to trials of the 300 women was 33.5 years old
      - Key individuals
        
        Record of a 9 year old boy
        
        Unrecorded name
        
        Interrogated for weeks
        
        Confessed to an encounter with tan man called George
        
        Related to acts of maleficarum
      - The stereotype of old and poor women was rarely found in Bamberg
      - Majority of women were of marriageable age
      - Only a small number widowed
      - Most of the men were middle-aged
    - - Key figures
        
        Along the Lange Gasse, 17 different household became victims - all respectable
        
        As well as Langhaus, 10 other members of the town council/mayor's office were executed
        
        At least 20 relatives of town councillors were found guilty
      - Key individuals
        
        John Junius
        
        Hans Langhaus
        
        Albert Pfersmann
        
        Margarethe Weltz
      - Extensively targeted
      - Financial advantages for the prince-bishops
        
        Property confiscations
      - Anti-Protestant theme
        
        Officials examined individuals who failed to receive Catholic communion (1628)
    - - Key figures
        
        April 1627: Merklein's daughter, Christina, arrested
        
        4 days later, Orter's son-in-law is detained
        
        Christina executed
        
        Both sons with 2 servant girls from the household arrested
      - key individuals
        
        Georg Hann
        
        Made the mistake of questioning the trials
        
        Arrested following the execution of his wife and daughter in 1628
        
        Conrad Merklein and Conrad Orter
        
        Both executed 10th November 1626
        
        By 1629, both their families had been wiped out
      - In a number of cases, a pattern emerges whereby a father was initially accused and was executed along with his wife and daughter
        
        Sometimes the opposite pattern can be seen
    - - Bamberg region
      - Women
      - Marriageable age
      - Elites and higher social groups
      - Whole families (hereditary guilt)
  - - - Used extensively
      - Carolina Law Code 1532
        
        Allowed an extensive range of torture devices
      - With the judicial freedom of the prince-bishops, many confessions were extracted through torture
      - Network of informers were created
      - Witch-prison/ Drudenhaus
      - Confessions obtained under torture were permissible in court
      - Torture methods
        
        Thumbscrews
        
        Strappado
        
        Burning of women's hair
        
        Whipping
        
        Forced to kneel on a piece of wood covered with metal spikes for several hours
        
        Food containing excessive salt and pepper was given to victims, who were then deprived of water
        
        Room with spikes on the floor was used to prevent sleeping
      - Defendants were denied many basic legal rights
      - The case of John Junius
        
        Mayor for 20 years
        
        Arrested in June 1628
        
        Wife had been executed as a witch
        
        Implicated by Georg Hann and his family
        
        Junius was able to smuggle a letter out of prison to his daughter explaining he was entirely innocent, and it was torture that had forced him to confess
      - The content of confessions
        
        Typical elements
        
        Recounting how the accused had become involved with the devil
        
        Describe a death threat given to them by their demon/familiar in order to force cooperation
        
        Oath of loyalty/ mock baptism in the presence of demons/other initiates
        
        Confessions describing a baptism with the devil reported the receipt of a gift
        
        List of evil deeds committed
        
        Night-flight
        
        Authorities of Bamberg established a schedule of 101 questions to be asked during interrogation
    - - Law in Bamberg allowed for confiscation of witches' property
        
        Encouraged persecution of upper classes
      - Victims responsible for their own court costs
        
        Travel expenses of interrogators and torturers
        
        Paying extra staff or horses
        
        Execution itself
        
        Families of victims were charged for every element of the process (eg. rope, wood)
      - Developed an industry
        
        Local economy benefited
        
        Profits of people (eg. lawyers and rope-makers )
      - Towards the end of the persecution, April 1631, 22 inmates were still being held on charged of witchcraft
      - Property confiscations when first admitted to prison totalled 220,000 florins
      - 500,000 florins confiscated in total
      - 100,000 florins coming from Georg Neudecker, mayor of Bamberg
        
        He was imprisoned for 3 years
      - Wolfgag Hoffmeister, treasurer of Bamberg, had 50,000 florins confiscated
  - - - Founded Catholic schools
      - Sent uncooperative priests to 'priests vaults'
      - Had 300 suspected witches executed
      - 1610: issued a new ordinance, ordaining an investigation, whereby any person found practicing magic would be severely punished
      - Connection between Protestant and witch-craft
    - - Hexenbischof
      - Champion of the counter-reformation
      - Property confiscations benefited him
      - 1627 Drudenhaus built
    - - Vicar general and acted as deputy to von Dornheim
      - Strong advocate for the Counter-Reformation
      - A position of the seminary in bamberg 1609
      - Involved in witch-hunting before von Aschhausen became prince bishop in 1609
      - Blamed the rise of Protestantism for the Thirty years War
      - Published 25 sermons and witchcraft and magic in 1625
      - Believed both witches and Protestants undermine the entire social and political order by failing to respect the sacraments, reics, and festivals
      - Provided an intellectual framework for the witch-hunts that von Dornheim could not grasp as easily
    - - Von Dornheim's legal advisor
      - Often demanded of the suspect 100 names of their accomplices/ thoses seen as meetings
  - - - Wave of witch trials
      - 300 witches executed
      - These trials were brought to an end by a group of moderates on the local council
      - Under von Aschhausen
    - - Von Dornheim
        
        Prioritised conversion back to Catholicism
        
        Champion of the Counter-Reformation
        
        Tackling witchcraft was highly important
    - - Von Dornheim known as the Hexenbischof
      - 1623: few isolated trials until 1625
      - Frederick Forner (von Dornheim's vicar general) becomes highly important to him
      - 1625: Forner published 25 sermons on witchcraft and magic
    - - Mass trials
        
        59 people charged in the small town of Zeil
        
        At least 30 were executed/died in custody
      - Forner publishes Amaturae Dei (Armour of God)
        
        Provided the intellectual framework for the hunts in Bamberg
    - - 130 suspects from Zeil called before the court in Bamberg
      - Drudenhaus built
        
        Witch prison
        
        Contains 30-40 suspects at a time
        
        Torture (with von Dornheim's personal consent)
      - July: von Dornheim issued a proclamation
        
        Anyone giving false testimony at trials should be flogged
    - - Trials become more widespread
      - High status individuals accused
        
        John Junius
        
        Mayor of Bamberg for 20 years
        
        Accused and tortured
        
        Hans Langhans
        
        Mayor of Zeil
        
        Accused and tortured
      - Law allowed for confiscation of witches' property
      - Officials begin to examine parish records for individuals who fail to receive Catholic communion
      - The year without summer
    - - Trials peak
      - Emperor Ferdinand II issued the Edict of Restitution
        
        Calling for the conversion of Protestants to Catholicism
      - Frost destroyed the wine crop
    - - Imperial pressure reduces the witch-hunts
      - Ferdinand II is informed of events in bamberg by victim's family
        
        Asks for trial documents to be sent to him
      - Imperial Chamber Court gets involved
      - Forner dies
    - - Ferdinand II discovers that despite claims that the arrests ceaed in Bamberg, at least 25 people had been arrested
      - Relatives of victims in Zeil inform Ferdinand that commissioners continue to grow rich through property confiscations
        
        Cost of trials was causing the town to go bankrupt
      - June: Ferdinand II announces he will punish those responsible for the Bamberg trials
      - Confiscation of property forbidden
      - Von Dornheim refused to cooperate or release those in custody
    - - 1632: Bamberg falls to the Swedish Army
      - Von Dornheim flees
        
        Loots the cathedral's treasure
        
        Flees to Austria
      - 1633: von Dornheim dies
- - - - 1627
        
        Complaints about innocent people being executed made to both religious and imperial courts
      - July 1627: von Dornheim issued a proclamation stating those who give false testimony at trials should be flogged
      - Von Dornheim's proclamation renewed In 1628
      - Series of accusations made agains Forner
    - - Bamberg councillor, Georg Flock accused in 1630
      - Flock fled to Nuremberg but his wife, Dorothea was arrested
      - Flock family wrote to Emperor Ferdinand II
      - Von Dornheim wrote he was following standard procedure
      - Renewed proceeding agains Dorothea (April 1630) led relatives appealing to the Pope and Emperor again
      - Pope and Ferdinand requested von Dornheim stop the trial and send related documents to the imperial Holfrat
      - Von Dornheim rushed the trial and executed Flock, May 17th
      - Renewed protests from family
      - Family questioned the proceedings
        
        Trial was conducted in secret
        
        Flock had no defense
        
        Carolina law Code 1532 required judges to establish credibility of witnesses
        
        Carolina Law Code 1532 stated confessions taken through torture should only be permissible if they were supported by other evidence
    - - Complaints reached
      - Von Dornheim's representatives reported back 2 escapees of the Drudenhsaus had complained to the emperor
        
        Com pelled von Dornheim to take immediate action
      - Von Dornheim sent 2 witch-commissioners to the Diet of Regensburg to present his defense
        
        Dr Hausse
        
        Dr Schwatzkanz
        
        Presented to the Aulic Council and through it went well
        
        High profile members were already sceptical and feared Ferdinand's position would be jeopardised if he tolerated the persecutions
      - 15th August: Ferdinand wrote to von Dornheim more forcefully
        
        Criticised the over-zealous use of torture
        
        Criticised the blatant disregard of imperial decree
        
        Demanded further trial documents
        
        Von Dornheim refused and instead attached to the transcripts a letter from the witch-commissioners of Bamberg, stating no one had been arrested since June 15=630
      - March 1631: Ferdinand discovered a minimum of 25 people had been arrested in the meantime
    - - Georg Wilhelm Dümler
        
        Former administrator of St Martin's Church in Bamberg
      - His letter may have been the final piece of evidence needed to convince Emperor Ferdinand II trials must be stopped
      - His letter
        
        Too many people had suffered torture due to false accusations
        
        No sufficient proof was ever presented at trials to find suspects guilty
        
        August 1628: his innocent pregnant wife was totrued, miscarried, and executed
        
        Carolina Law Code 1532 permitted the accused an advocate and this had been denied
        
        Cases of witchcraft should be heard in civil courts, which was not happening in Bamberg
      - 12 June 1631: Ferdinand announced he was to punish those responsible for the with trials in Bamberg
      - Ferdinand decreed future trails would be conducted according to the Carolina Law Code 1532
      - Property confiscation forbidden
      - Von Dornheim refused to release those still held in custody
        
        Advance of the Swedish Army encouraged him to flee
  - - - Took over the administration of Bamberg
      - Von Dornheim forced to flee
    - - Led to the downfall of von Dornheim
    - - Army took to plundering the countryside to maintain itself
  - - - Early 1627: complaints about innocent people being executed for witchcraft began to be made to both imperial and religious courts
      - 1627: von Dornheim issued a proclamation stating those who give false testimony at trials should be flogged