Reading the book “The Trial of Tempel Anneke” raises interesting questions, and details the clashing of anxieties that took place within Early Modern German communities, both in economic and religious justification. Some central questions posed by myself is proposed below.
How can the anxieties brought on by loss of livelihood disproportionately affect women similar to Tempel Anneke? In extending this question, why would someone put themselves in a position where being accused of witchcraft would be more likely?
Primary Source Analysis
Morton, Peter Alan, and Barbara Dähms. The Trial of Tempel Anneke: Records of a Witchcraft Trial in Brunswick, Germany, 1663. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2006.
The Trial of Tempel Anneke presents
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Tempel Anneke, after losing her husband, is forced to operate as a connection between the legal and illegal worlds. She creates a business for herself by providing a wide array of services for her poor counterparts including administering medical services on people and livestock, the finding of stolen goods, and the increasing of revenues for local businesses through mystical means. By intentionally creating a reputation that demanded both fear and notoriety, Tempel Anneke could scrounge together a measly living by moving back and forth between towns taking contracts from desperate customers. Most of her work consisted of issuing home remedies containing of mixes of herbs and other organics, to either sick children or livestock, however; often she would act as a connection between the legal and illegal world, tracking stolen property using a series of developed connections. To attain success using this type of contract work, Tempel Anneke intentionally creates notoriety of herself by pushing the boundaries of moral and religious acceptability at the time. It isn’t until Tempel Anneke notoriety reaches the legal authorities that the grey market she operated in is closed shut, even though the court records show her peers willingness time and time again to hire …show more content…
Author Hartmut Lehmann attributes much of the witchcraft crazes in Germany to the attempted restoration of religious harmony within the world. The dominant view of the time, held by both the Catholics and newly reformed Protestants of Germany, was that God brought an equilibrium and order to the world, diminishing the evils of the world and bringing a balanced order. This harmony brought by God also extended to peasant interpretations of life, as “farmers had been given the means to produce enough food, artisans the ability to produce all other necessary goods, and merchants the capability to provide everyone with what he or she needed.” The bliss of the mid 16th century and the apparent bounty God provided to all ended, following a series of cold winters, poor harvests, and the resulting famines beginning in the 1570s. The ‘mini ice-age’ greatly affected agricultural productivity, first in mountainous areas where agricultural productivity was already in lower, but eventually came to affect even the most productive of lands within Germany. Thus, a correlation can be created between the decrease in crop production which led to the decrease in economic condition of peasantry, and the rise of witch trials in 16th and 17th century Germany. Harsh winters forced common folk and intellectuals to develop new ways of
This period of time was known as the “Little Ice Age”. Emily Oster writes it is possible that the temperature may be a factor in the growth of the witch trials. Emily Oster has collected data regarding the relation between the weather and witch trials between 1520 and 1770. The results showed that while temperatures decreased by one standard deviation, it led to a.20 standard deviation increase in witch trials. Oster provides evidence to support her claim, making her theory seem plausible.
The historical analysis of the “History of Germany” reveals many hidden facts including the complex issues such as fighting against homosexuality, Hitler’s racial ideology and the ecclesiastical Christian Church movements that needed to be appropriately addressed and rectified. This analytical paper aims to analyze the History of Germany by assessing two articles that are; “Combating homosexuality as a political task” and “Who can resist temptation?” to analyze the situation of Germany through historical documents.
Sebald, Hans, Ph.D. Witch-Children: from Salem Witch-Hunts to Modern Courtrooms. New York: Prometheus Books, 1995.
Beginning with the economic level of analysis, Smith points out how accusations regarding the Jews concerning the murder of Ernst Winter generally had a common trait in that several of the accusers had either “worked for the Jews they accused or had been in close business relationships with them” (Smith 2002, 139). Smith goes on to note that these accusers often came from low-class or low-middle class citizens and consisted of “unskilled workers, day laborers, masons and a civil servant, a prison guard and a night watchman, a poor farmer and his family, a handful of apprentices, and a large number of servant girls” (Smith 2002, 139). Unsurprisingly, Smith explains that the result of such noticeable differences in the possession of wealth between Konitz citizens led to poorer Christians seeking to place blame on Jews of middle-class status; thereby creating a “rudimentary form of economic or class protest” (Smith 2002, 140). However, Helmut Walser Smith is quick to indicate that this form of analysis cannot solely provide an answer to the rise of anti-Semitic sentiment in Imperial Germany. This explanation, Smith says, is rather simple; although it is true that Christians were perhaps motivated to falsely accuse their Jewish neighbors due to their social and economic trials, not all Konitz-residing Christians were disadvantaged and not all Konitz Jews
Hagen W (2012). ‘German History in Modern Times: Four Lives of the Nation’. Published by Cambridge University Press (13 Feb 2012)
Witchfinders is a book by Malcolm Gaskill that looks upon strategies that were employed by two Christian crusaders in their quest to mitigate witches in England. The book explores England’s important story and the biggest witch hunt. In the book, Gaskill brings out issues relating to religious and social lives in a very fascinating way. The whole book brings to right ways that witch-finders used to support their brutality and bloodshed in the ancient England notably through biblical justifications. In the book either, the author brings out the demonic ways of the 1640s in East Anglia and through keen analyzes of the factors that are being stipulated in the book one can factor out the rotten society in the time and to some degree relate this to the current society and religious behaviors. The current paper looks upon the short and long term factors
The Witch of Wapping was a notorious case in its time. Similar to many trials of witches in the 1600’s, this one has an underlying belief that it was based on revenge and cynicism rather than on a firm belief that the accused was actually practicing some form of witchcraft. Joan Peterson lived in East London and was tried and convicted of witchcraft in 1652, she was sentenced to be hanged in Tyburn that same year. Though it seems to be a straightforward case of witchcraft, suspicion looms around the details and the motives the accusers had when seeing to her imprisonment and eventual death. Though this case has not been extensively researched the pamphlet published shortly after the death of Peterson can shed light on the views of witches
The epoch of Medieval European history concerning the vast and complicated witch hunts spanning from 1450 to 1750 is demonstrative of the socioeconomic, religious, and cultural changes that were occurring within a population that was unprepared for the reconstruction of society. Though numerous conclusions concerning the witch trials, why they occurred, and who was prosecuted have been found within agreement, there remain interpretations that expand on the central beliefs. Through examining multiple arguments, a greater understanding of this period can be observed as there remains a staggering amount of catalysts and consequences that emerged. In the pursuit of a greater understanding, three different interpretations will be presented. These interpretations, which involve Brian Levack’s “The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe,” Eric Boss’s “Syphilis, Misogyny, and Witchcraft in 16th-Century Europe,” and Nachman Ben-Yehuda’s “The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th centuries:
Toivo, Raisa M. ‘Women at Stake. Interpretations of Women’s Role in Witchcraft and Witch-Hunts since the early 20th century to the present’ Australia: University of New South Wales, 2005.
A second characteristic of witches - and what witches are most commonly known for - is that they cause horrible misfortune to their neighbors and others close to them. Death, sickness, and weather disasters are examples of natural occurrences that witches cause are often blamed for, especially when the occurrences seem strange or out of the ordinary. They can cause this harm simply by willing it to happen. "The witch only has to wish you harm, and the harm is as good as done" (Mayer 56). In Slovakia, Mramuch, who killed his neighbor Anna Tomkova, did so because he suspected the woman of casting a spell on his granddaughter. It was the only answer Mramuch had to counter his granddaughter's sudden suffering of epileptic seizures (Whitmore). In South Africa, Mmatiou Thantsa was accused of witchcraft and summoning lightning (Keller).
...they don’t understand. Reactions of witch-hunts were based on misconceived panic and anxiety of anything outside of the common religious beliefs. Because of poor record keeping, the exact numbers of men and women persecuted on the account of being witches may never be accurate enough to decide if it was an issue of misogyny.
John M. Murrin’s essay Coming to Terms with the Salem Witch Trials helps detail the events of these trials and explains why they might have occurred. The witch trials happened during a “particularly turbulent time in the history of colonial Massachusetts and the early modern atlantic world” (Murrin, 339). Salem came to be in 1629 and less than seventy years later found itself in a mess of witch craft.
By it’s end, over 8,000,000 europeans had been killed in the conflict. Most of these death were Germans making the Thirty Years’ War the deadliest German conflict in history until World War II. Perhaps 20 percent of Germany’s total population perished during the war, with losses of up to 50 percent along a corridor running from Pomerania in the Baltic to the Black Forest. Villages suffered worse than towns, but many towns and cities also saw their populations, manufacture, and trade decline substantially (Cowley and Parker, 1996). Most countries waged war between 1618 and 1648 with financial resources that were grossly inadequate. I the end, the result of the war was not worth the price. However, some good came out of the War. European’s for the first time have come together and agreed that fighting wars of religion are stupid and that it’s time that Europe moves pass the Protestant Reformation. This make the Thirty Years’ War the last major religious war in Europe (Richey, 2014).
The witch is both vulnerable and a powerful figure. The resulting tension between power and powerlessness as a response to laws created by those in power, rather institutionalised power: men, can be seen as expressed through such binary metaphors as that of physical strength and beauty versus weakness and ugliness, kn...
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969. Kitchen, Martin. A History of Modern Germany: 1800-2000. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. Sprout, Otto.