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Rothenburg was seen as a relatively restrained player in the witch trials of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. This was an autonomous city that answered only to the Holy Roman Empire.. In early modern Europe the two greatest societal fears became witchcraft and arson. Cities all around Rothenburg descended into a chaos with witch hunts, trials and executions gathered momentum quickly amidst an atmosphere of mistrust and fearmongering perpetuated by local witch hunting agencies. These homegrown witch hunting parties largely superseded local authority and operated their own form of criminal justice and became a way for many small towns and villages in Bavaria to express their independence from the regional government. Witchcraft was a disproportionately gendered “crime,” with most of the accused and condemned being women. Rothenburg burned over twenty suspected witches between 1578 and 1585. Judges commented that “if they continue burning witches at such a rate, there would soon be no women left in town.” These women were forced to name women with whom they conspired in devil worship and or witchcraft, creating a cascading effect of accusation, inquisition and execution leading to the torture and death of many innocent women across the region One 1652 Rothenburg witch trial concluded that if a woman did not cry, it was evidence that her heart had dried up, and she was therefore a witch. In 1587, Hans Gackstatt, a six year old boy with an overactive imagination told a wild story about himself and his mother flying through the night. This simple story resulted in a severe inquisition. His mother was physically tormented by local jurists before her eventual exoneration. The boy was remanded to the local hospital where he was subjected to torturous methods by clergymen to save his soul until his death 9 years later.

In 1692 the superintendent of the Rothenburg Church, Sebastian Kirchmeier began a witch hunt on a regional scale. Kirchmeier’s era of witch hunting and hysteria is an example of how these trials were used tactically in power struggles between the powerful ruling class of Rothenburg.

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