Witchcraft Narratives in Germany

Alison Rowlands is Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of Essex

‘This book remains a masterpiece in its combination of close source readings and excellent microanalysis. It corrects the popular misconception of a widespread witch craze in Europe and offers deep insights into the history of witchcraft and gender relations using the case study of early modern Rothenburg ob der Tauber.’—Professor Rita Voltmer, University of Trier, Germany‘Historians of witchcraft often investigate the rise of persecution. This book explores the opposite, untold story of how rumours of witchcraft were stopped from becoming witch trials, and how witch trials were prevented from escalating into witch hunts. Its approach is both brilliantly innovative and tragically useful for modern readers!’—Professor Raisa Toivo, University of Tampere, Finland

• AcknowledgementsMapIntroduction1. ‘An honourable man should not talk about that which he cannot prove’: slander and speech about witchcraft2. The devil’s power to delude: elite beliefs about witchcraft and magic3. ‘One cannot … hope to obtain the slightest certainty from him’: the first child-witch in Rothenburg, 15874. ‘When will the burning start here?’: the Catholic challenge during the Thirty Years’ War5. Posion, seduction and magical theft: gender and contemporary fantasies of witchcraft6. ‘God will punish both poor and rich’: the idioms and risks of defiance in the trial of Margaretha Horn, 1652ConclusionAppendix: Trials for witchcraft in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 1549-1709BibliographyIndex