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Child Witches in Renaissance Germany

Weber, Hartwig (1991). Kinderhexenprozesse. Frankfurt am Main, Leipzig: Insel. 354 pp. (Child Witch Lawsuits).
Weber, Hartwig (1996). "Von der verfŸhrten Kinder Zauberei": Hexenprozesse gegen Kinder im alten WŸrttemberg. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke. 274 pp. ("Of the Seduced Children's Magic": Witch Lawsuits against Children in the Old WŸrttemberg).

Reviewed by Ralph Frenken
University of Frankfurt
Volume 26, Number 4, Spring 1999

Witch lawsuits against children is the topic of two books by Hartwig Weber, who explains that he is not delivering a study concerning the history of ideas or a worked out explanation of the witch trial phenomenon at large, but an examination of the fate and the reality of children, their relations, fantasies and their social surroundings.1 Weber stresses that children always played an important role in the belief systems around witches and magic. Witches were supposed, for instance, to sacrifice, eat and cook children. The same fantasies were projected onto pagans, Jews and heretics. Weber examines the connection between two aspects of the witch phenomenon: the ideological background of witchcraft and its development on the one side; and the circumstances, psyches and fantasies of real people, that were suspected to be witches, on the other.

In his examination of archive material, the first part of Child Witch Lawsuits, Weber concentrates on concrete cases in a region and a certain epoch: the town Reutlingen (about 5000 inhabitants) in the 17th century. In this context Weber examines a Protestant region that prosecuted cases of witch magic against children who sometimes were four years old or even younger when thrown into jail on suspicion of witchcraft.2 I shall limit the review largely to his examinations of single cases, although his books contain more aspects. Children were supposed to be witches and were prosecuted and executed from the 16th century in many European countries. In some parts of Germany, twenty-five percent of the persecuted victims were children.3 The second part of the book deals with the contents of the magical belief system. Here he discusses the fantasies connected with the image of the witch. In the third part, Weber draws a picture of the history of child witch prosecutions.

Weber's source material for reconstructing single and concrete cases are court documents. They contain something like protocols of children's expressions, recording their "deeds" and their imaginings about their social surroundings. Weber is astonished how detailed the knowledge of these children sometimes was concerning the witch belief systems. In interpretative approaches, he tries to separate the common pattern of witchcraft descriptions from singular, individualistic traits of the historic child. Weber works out a picture that shows children as victims of the belief systems and of the adults, but also as aggressors, who often turned into persecutors by denouncing themselves and adults in their social surroundings. These denunciations show extreme release of aggression and attacks by slander, and gave the formerly helpless child an unexpected power through causing increasing prosecution of persons - and sometimes their death. Children in these days became socialized with knowledge of witchcraft. In churches and school they learned about this topic. Weber carves out the connection between these "public" belief systems and the private and familial relations of families that were tangled up in witch trials.

Weber starts his case studies with the family Fastnacht.4 The father Urban was accused, because he had touched the genitals of a craftsman who had worked for him. After this touching, the craftsman developed severe psychical disturbances and (psycho-) somatic illnesses (a swollen stomach and problems with walking). Fastnacht was supposed to have bewitched that man. Later, the craftsman admitted that he too had touched the genitals of Fastnacht - demonstrating his own wishes and his enormous defense against them. Later, a witness told the court that Urban had sex with a dog. In the prosecution against Urban because of homosexuality and sodomy, another witness testified about the 12-year-old son of Urban, named Hans Ulrich Fastnacht. The son was said to have committed sexual actions with an 8-year-old girl, and also sodomitic acts. Hans Ulrich became imprisoned and admitted the deeds. When asked why he had committed them, he answered that he did all this because his father Urban had told him to. His father confirmed his son's statements, but blamed his wife, who would not allow him intercourse anymore so he was looking for other ways of satisfaction. Because of the craftsman's illnesses, the court asked for the "magical" background of these deeds and applied torture. The stories soon changed, and Urban at least admitted that he had a pact with the devil who had appeared to him fifteen years before in the figure of a woman, with whom he had sex. The pact against God, he told the court, was signed with his own blood. The continuing inquisition of Hans Ulrich revealed that his father took him once to the witch dance at the gallows, where he subscribed his son also to the devil. During a visit in the jail, the son clearly did not know anymore if that man was his father or the devil. The father, Urban, later was executed. Because of new reasons, the son also was executed six years later at the age of 18.

In his second book about child witch prosecutions, Weber expands the range of his study: from the town Reutlingen to the region of the old WŸrttemberg. Weber works out further case descriptions of child witches, and thus shows again that the witch phenomenon was closely connected with familial object relations, conflicts and traditions (Weber writes of witch families). Weber discusses the role of sexual abuse more directly in these case studies concerning the content and the dynamic of the prosecutions he reconstructed by the court documents.5 He concludes from the details the children knew, according to the court documents, that there were several real events connected with child abuse and which were later imaginatively enriched and changed. An 8-year-old boy who ran away, for example, talked about a "black man" in a barn, who wanted to urinate into the mouth of the boy. The boy refused, but the man seduced him by offering money. Later the man threatened him not to say anything, or otherwise he would throw him against the wall, "so that his brain would fall out".6 The historical justices in the courts did not draw the conclusions of suspected sexual abuse, but attributed demonological explanations.

Weber sees various hints of sexual experiences of these children, some of the events more infantile and harmless, others connected with adult violence. About a quarter of the examined 39 cases of child witches (21 female, 18 male) delivered quite clear hints of sexual abuse; about twice as many might have something to do with abuse.7 In the documents, in which sexual abuse was told (open or covert, convincing or doubtful) the children named the father, the devil, or persons from the nearby surroundings as the perpetrator.

Weber has written two detailed books about a chapter of the history of childhood, with new facts from the transcriptions of court documents. He discusses familial conditions and theological works, the social relationships in the neighbourhood, and political circumstances as parts of the witch prosecutions. The books give new insights concerning the witch phenomena, especially concerning the participating children; the rich documentation makes the books valuable contributions on the road to an adequate explanation.

1. See Weber (1991), p. 27.
2. See Weber (1991), p. 136.
3. See Weber (1991), p. 211.
4. See Weber (1991), p. 41.
5. See Weber (1996), p. 176 ff.
6. See Weber (1996), p. 179.
7. See Weber (1996), p. 186.

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