The Last Witch of Langenburg: Murder in a German Village - Softcover

Robisheaux, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393349683 ISBN 13: 9780393349689

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009

Synopsis

A young mother dies in agony. Was it a natural death, murder―or witchcraft?

On the night of the festive holiday of Shrove Tuesday in 1672 Anna Fessler died after eating one of her neighbor's buttery cakes. Could it have been poisoned? Drawing on vivid court documents, eyewitness accounts, and an early autopsy report, historian Thomas Robisheaux brings the story to life. Exploring one of Europe's last witch panics, he unravels why neighbors and the court magistrates became convinced that Fessler's neighbor Anna Schmieg was a witch―one of several in the area―ensnared by the devil. Once arrested, Schmieg, the wife of the local miller, and her daughter were caught up in a high-stakes drama that led to charges of sorcery and witchcraft against the entire family. Robisheaux shows how ordinary events became diabolical ones, leading magistrates to torture and turn a daughter against her mother. In so doing he portrays an entire world caught between superstition and modernity.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Robisheaux, a professor of history at Duke University, is the author of Rural Society and the Search for Order in Early Modern Germany. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

From Booklist:

By 1672, Count Heinrich Friedrich of Langenburg had restored order and prosperity to his southwest German domain, which had been ravaged by the Thirty Years' War. But a threat arose when a healthy young mother died suddenly, and suspicions fell on Anna Schmieg, a miller’s wife. Capitalizing on the meticulous record of Schmieg’s case, historian Robisheaux not only re-creates who Anna Schmieg was but also explores the confluence of social, legal, and religious streams that put her life in jeopardy. In literary terms, Robisheaux writes a courtroom drama that will hook readers and secure their attention until the last page through his perceptive portrayal of Schmieg’s personality, which was so disruptive that her altercations and tart tongue were seen in a diabolical light by villagers and the count’s officials alike. But burning Satan’s minions was no longer a summary affair: protomodern legal and medical procedures combined with the traditional fear of witchcraft to complicate the task of Schmieg’s inquisitors. With an incisive ability to view matters through the participants’ eyes, Robisheaux vividly brings this historical incident to life. --Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0393349683
• ISBN 13: 9780393349689
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 430