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cahnMore diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!
January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
Re: Peter Hagendorf: Diary of a Mercenary from the 30-Years-War - I
Date: 2022-08-09 02:20 pm (UTC)That is indeed awesome, but in the case of the paper, it helped that it was a water signature. Even Jan Peters' first edition background text when he didn't yet know Hagendorf's name has the information that the paper came from the paper mill Ronsberg in southern Bavaria, which used a water sign (the capital letter R with a crown on top) in 1649 (we have other exemples dating from that year) and probably a few years earlier than that. Since according to the diary the diary writer was in Braunau and Altheim in September 1647, and then in Memmingen, he would have been within the distribution range of this paper mill. Hagendorf bought at least twelve sheets, sowed them together himself and wrote on avarage twelve lines per page, with the handwriting fluent, i.e. not that of a man newly taught but experienced in writing.
When did they start making these, do you know?
Alas no, I have no idea. I'll have to check the preface to Lehndorff's first diary volume again so see whether Schmidt-Lötzen mentions what material Lehndorff uses, i.e. sheets or a book with blank pages.
I knew it was witch burning time (I'm sure the war contributed to the cycle of trauma), but that is a lot! Good lord.
Indeed. It was the worst of three persecution waves, from 1626 to 1631, finally stopping when the Swedes entered the city. That's the era the letter of mayor Junius is from (one of the many victims - the victims in Bamberg came from all stages of society, not just as the cliché has it from the poor) to his daughter is from, which is one of the few documents written by not the perpetrators but one of the victims who already had been tortured and had thus confessed but tried to smuggle a letter to his daughter to tell her he was innocent, which was intercepted, which is why we still have it. One of the most moving and shattering documents I've read outside of the 20th century.
But the Magdeburg sack was big enough that I remember it even from the one book I read on the Thirty Years' War, and I remember telling my wife about it right after I finished that section--mostly the insane death toll.
Yes, it even became proverbial for a time, until later atrocities competed. But there were a lot of pamphlets all over Europe describing the horror of it. Magdeburg never really recovered from it; it had been one of the wealthiest German cities, starting from when Otto I. made it a favored place of residence. (He and his first wife are also buried there.)
Perhaps they were also providing goods and services to the soldiers, like laundry? I know that this was a common way to make a living when an army was on the move in those days.
Yes, that makes sense. In Brecht's Mother Courage which itself is based on Grimmelshausen's novel written during the 30 Years War, the (anti)heroine and her entire family work for the army in various capacities.
Re: Peter Hagendorf: Diary of a Mercenary from the 30-Years-War - I
Date: 2022-08-09 02:47 pm (UTC)Alas no, I have no idea.
Well, good, at least you won't thrown out of the story by the egregious lack of realism! ;)
One of the most moving and shattering documents I've read outside of the 20th century.
I have just read it, and yiiiiikes, yes. And I can see why the 20th century is the obvious comparison.
Yes, that makes sense. In Brecht's Mother Courage which itself is based on Grimmelshausen's novel written during the 30 Years War, the (anti)heroine and her entire family work for the army in various capacities.
Without knowing the details, it would make sense to me if the whole family had been following the army providing services of whatever kind, and that was how Hagendorf and Anna Maria met.
Mayor Junius
Date: 2022-08-13 05:13 am (UTC)I have just read it, and yiiiiikes, yes. And I can see why the 20th century is the obvious comparison.
Yiiiikes indeed. Thank you for the link, Mildred. And to think of the letter being written in the handwriting of someone who had been subject to the thumb-screws...
Selena, you said it was intercepted? So she never got it? But then why didn't the people who intercepted it destroy it? And were the jailers beheaded like he said they would be?
Re: Mayor Junius
Date: 2022-08-13 02:59 pm (UTC)English wiki claims the letter reached Veronica, but as far as I recall this isn't the case, which is why we still have it. It was filed with the rest of the trial records. Now the reason why a lot of the Bamberg witch trial material survives is nothing short of miraculous. When Bamberg, which wasn't just the seat of a bishop but a prince bishop, got secularized and became a part of Bavaria courtesy of Napoleon in 1806, a lot of the church archives got dissolved, were sold or what not. Some years later, a man who just bought some new screws and bolts sees they got wrapped in very old looking paper, checks out the paper, sees it consists of trial records, goes to the ironmonger who sold him the bolts who says yes, he just bought a cellar full of wrapping paper cheaply, and lo, it were most of the 1626 - 1631 witch persecution files. Who this history-conscious buyer immediately bought from the iron monger and thus rescued for posterity.
As for why it didn't get destroyed, well, never underestimate the thoroughness of bureaucrats. It wasn't proof of his innocence to them, just additional material of him being unlawful, trying to smuggle out a letter.
Re: Mayor Junius
Date: 2022-08-14 05:09 pm (UTC)I live close enough to Salem these days that I would have gone to see the museums by now, if not for the pandemic. One day! (At least it wasn't 1/8th of the population killed, I still can hardly conceive of that!)
Re: Mayor Junius
Date: 2022-08-15 01:02 pm (UTC)“Es sei weltbekannt und werde wohl aus dem, zu Regensburg überreichten, Verzeichniss aller Eingefangenen Bericht darüber erstattet worden sein, wie blutgierig, unchristlich und unbarmherzig die fürstlich Bambergischen Hexen-Commissäre in so kurzer Zeit eine so grosse Menge von sechshundert Personen, vornehme und geringe, junge und alte, mit Schwert und Feuer, unter Einziehung ihres Vermögens, ohne ordentliche Rechtsprechung, in Folge eines verwirrten Processes hätten hinrichten lassen.
Die hochbedrängten armen Leute, welche gegenwärtig den kaiserlichen Schutz anriefen, seien theilweise ein, zwei und drei Jahre an den genannten Orten, mit harten, schweren Banden und Ketten, unschuldig eingeschlossen, des Sonnen-Lichtes beraubt und, abgesehen von Hunger und Durst, harrten sie, nach Erduldung verschiedenartiger Folterqualen, im grössten Elend geduldig und standhaft aus, um ihre Unschuld zu beweisen.
Bis zur Stunde müssten sie - Gott möge sich darüber erbarmen! - ohne allen menschlichen Trost, oder Hoffnung auf Erlösung armselig leben. Deshalb seien sie genöthigt, dem Kaiser, als dem Vater aller Armen und dem Oberhaupt der Christenheit, ihre höchste Beschwerde, Angst und Nothlage vorzutragen, welcher in seiner Gerechtigkeit sie nicht trostlos lassen werde. Um der Bande Jesu Christi willen flehten sie die kaiserliche Majestät an, dass von derselben den bezeichneten Hexen-Commissären bei strenger Strafe befohlen werde, die wegen angeblicher Hexerei Gefangenen, die meistentheils wohlvermögend, unter Bürgschaftsleistung mit Hab und Gut, aus solch ungeheuerlichem, abscheulichem Gefängniss und solcher, durch Würmer und Ungeziefer drohenden Todesgefahr zu entlassen und ihnen zu gestatten, dass ein Rechtsanwalt vor einer unparteiischen Commission ihre Unschuld ans Licht bringe.
Für den Fall, dass in Folge rechter Untersuchung ihres Handels und Wandels, sowohl vor, als nach ihrer schweren Gefangenschaft, etwas Erhebliches wider sie mit Wahrheit erwiesen werden sollte, verpflichteten sie sich, wie es billig sei, sich vor Gericht zu stellen. Durch Gewährung dieser Bitte erweise der Kaiser die Gerechtigkeit, wie der Liebe Gottes und des Nächsten einen grossen Dienst. Die armen Gefangenen aber würden ihre Dankbarkeit durch inbrünstiges Gebet für seine zeitliche nnd ewige Wohlfahrt erzeigen.”
Emperor Ferdinand among other things forbade the way the fortune of the accused was just kept by the Prince Bishop. Which, wouldn't you know, suddenly reduced the number of accusations. By the time the Swedes entered the town, there were still some left in the prison specifically built for the "witches", though, which were then freed.
Re: Mayor Junius
Date: 2022-08-16 04:51 am (UTC)Ouuuuch. I'm glad he was able to put a stop to it :(
Re: Mayor Junius
Date: 2022-08-16 09:51 pm (UTC)Omgggg. I had no idea. Well, no WONDER the rash of accusations hit the more prosperous classes as well, aka "die meistentheils wohlvermögend." "You won't get off even if you're an earl." You won't get off ESPECIALLY if you're an earl, I see!
I don't suppose this was applied retroactively and the Prince Bishop had to give up the property he'd already confiscated?
Witch Trials of Bamberg
Date: 2022-08-17 07:03 am (UTC)The other main culprit of that particular persecution wave, his sidekick Förner (who was the Weihbischof to Fuchs von Dornheim's Fürstbischof), had died a bit earlier than that, but not before between the two of them, they brought so many people to death. Förner was the one delivering the ideological foundation, so to speak, via his writings and preaching long before 1626. He also was a hardcore counter reformationist whose ideas of how to re Catholize the country included trying to starve Nuremberg (which was the larger city but belonged to the Bamberg bishopry, except by then it had already turned Lutheran, big time), and was most put out when being told besieging, sanctioning and starving Nuremberg really could not be done. This wiki article delivers a pretty good summary of how the witch trials started proceeded and ended. A good illustration of just how in-their-own-world the terror regime got is the case of Dorothea Flock, who was pregnant when denounced, arrested and tortured (this was against the Carolina, the legal code established during the reign of Charles V., which forgabe the torture of pregnant women), and when her husband managed to get an actual papal intervention for her - on April 20th, 1630, Pope Urban issued a decree in her favor in Rome - the Bamberg witch commissioners upon learning a papal decision was coming instead expedited her death sentence (by then her baby had been born) and had her executed on May 17th. Similarly, chancellor Georg Haan's attempt to stop the witch trials by denouncing the Prince Bishop to the Imperial diet instead resulted in nearly his entire family (including himself) getting wiped out, more here. Of course, the fact that there was a brutal long term war going on and accordingly central control of individual German realms was shaky at best didn't help.
Re: Witch Trials of Bamberg
Date: 2022-08-19 04:44 pm (UTC)Yeah, I figured retroactive reparations would be too much to ask. I am pleased to hear he died in 1632, at least! Those are some ill-gotten gains indeed.
the Bamberg witch commissioners upon learning a papal decision was coming instead expedited her death sentence
WTF??!! *speechless rage*
attempt to stop the witch trials by denouncing the Prince Bishop to the Imperial diet instead resulted in nearly his entire family (including himself) getting wiped out, more here.
To avoid an arrest, Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria attempted to save him by offering to employ him, but the messenger he sent to Bamberg to deliver this news was prevented from reaching the city.
ZOMG, this story keeps getting worse!
Re: Witch Trials of Bamberg
Date: 2022-08-20 01:26 pm (UTC)Now, whether Fuchs von Bornhelm (the evil Prince Bishop) would have had to face serious consequences if he'd lived longer, who knows. Sadly, I can't think of an example of someone in charge of witch persecutions to such a degree had to face even a little bit of justice for it later. (In neighboring Würzburg, where a similarly large scale wave of mass executions was going on at the same time, these only ended when their prince bishop died.) This really is a gigantic blood bath of an era as far as the German speaking territories were concerned, and that's why the docu drama miniseries Age of Iron impressed me so much by finding rl characters to follow who experienced tragedies but more or less made it out of the era alive and with some degree of happiness, like Peter Hagedorn. One of said characters, as a reminder, was the innkeeper Barbara Gsell, and the reason why we know a lot about her and her life during the war was that she was denounced as a witch, interrogated, tortured, but as one of the very very few NOT condemned to death but released again. I should have figured out that she'd be the character through which the series personalizes and illustrates the witch craze, but despite some build up - in earlier episodes, Barbara is nice to the town executioner when he visits her inn when everyone else is shunning him for social reasons and doesn't want to be seen near him, and this pays off in the episode where she gets arrested - it didn't dawn on me until the episode itself. (She didn't live in Bamberg, though. In Franconia, but not in Bamberg or Würzburg, which may have contributed to saving her life.)
Re: Witch Trials of Bamberg
Date: 2022-08-23 04:14 am (UTC)You say that not living in Bamberg may have contributed to saving her life -- is this because she wouldn't have been denounced by anyone from Bamberg? What else might have contributed to her being released instead of condemned?
Re: Witch Trials of Bamberg
Date: 2022-08-23 07:12 am (UTC)Quite, and as caught up, I suppose, as executing children. This was less a feature in Bamberg, where I think the youngest executed were 14 years old teenagers (though I could be wrong about this), and more in Würzburg at the same time, where the Chancellor of the Würzburg Prince Bishop wrote about the ongoing trials to a friend: To conclude this wretched matter, there are children of three and four years, to the number of three hundred, who are said to have had intercourse with the Devil. I have seen put to death children of seven, promising students of ten, twelve, fourteen, and fifteen. Of the nobles--but I cannot and must not write more of this misery. There are persons of yet higher rank, whom you know, and would marvel to hear of, nay, would scarcely believe it; let justice be done . . .
It's really as if everyone lost their collective minds/unleased their inner mass murderer, not stopping even with toddlers.
Barbara Gsell(er) (I've seen both versions of her name): well, first of all, she was one of the very few people tortured who did not confess under torture. This wasn't impossible, but it very rarely happened, for obvious reasons. Now, the Carolina, the laws as instituted by Charles V., say that if you don't confess under torture, torture is not allowed to be repeated, you have cleared yourself, God is obviously on your side. The way not just the Bamberg witch commissionaries but most of them got around this prohibition to repeat torture was by declaring the torturing hadn't been finished, only interrupted, and what was going on was still the original one and only torture session, with interruptions. BUT in the case of Barbara Gseller, who was accused by the local midwife (who'd been the previously tortured accused) in the late summer of 1648, the city council of Biberach (her hometown, where as the owner of a very popular innn she was a wealthy and respected citizen) decided to consult the legal scholars of the university of Ingolstadt as to whether continuing the torture was permissable or whether she had cleared herself by not confessing, and the Ingolstadt guys decided in her favor. Note another difference to the way witch trials were conducted in Bamberg between 1626 - 1631: because the Emperor in 1631 in no uncertain terms had said that keeping the money of the accused was a practice that was to stop and was illegal, the Biberach city council didn't have Barbara's wealth to gain by keeping up with the torture. And of course Team Prince Bishop of Bamberg wouldn't have dreamt of consulting an outside authority as to the legalities, on the contrary, it were the people trying to stop the proceedings who did that by petitioning the Imperial diet, the Emperor and the Pope.
I also wouldn't exclude the possibility that there were enough people in the city council in Biberach in 1648 who remembered how things had gone down in Bamberg and Würzburg twenty years earlier, how many people had died and how just about everyone of any age and station could be denounced as a witch, and thus decided to use the case of Barbara Gseller to put an end to the accused/torture/new denouncements/new torture/new accused/ etc chain.
Re: Witch Trials of Bamberg
Date: 2022-08-26 05:30 am (UTC)Oh noooooo. Like Mildred says, it just gets worse and worse!
the city council of Biberach (her hometown, where as the owner of a very popular innn she was a wealthy and respected citizen) decided to consult the legal scholars of the university of Ingolstadt as to whether continuing the torture was permissable or whether she had cleared herself by not confessing, and the Ingolstadt guys decided in her favor.
Oh yay! But also, of course, fascinating as to the differences that you note re: the lack of monetary motivation and the remembrance of what had happened before. People, man.
(But also, the logic about the torture session, aaaaaack.)
Re: Mayor Junius
Date: 2022-08-16 04:50 am (UTC)Yes, this! Wow!
Re: Peter Hagendorf: Diary of a Mercenary from the 30-Years-War - I
Date: 2022-09-03 07:20 pm (UTC)When did they start making these, do you know? I was assuming when betaing one of Cahn's fics that such a thing would be expensive but available to a crown prince with sugar daddies in the 1730s, but maybe I was wrong!
Alas no, I have no idea. I'll have to check the preface to Lehndorff's first diary volume again so see whether Schmidt-Lötzen mentions what material Lehndorff uses, i.e. sheets or a book with blank pages.
Our fic decision is VINDICATED! \o/
According to a book I'm reading/dipping into (same series as the Cunegonde book), Joseph Ryder, prosperous English cloth-maker of the 18th century, started his diary in 1733, and he was able to buy his blank books at the local bookstore in Leeds.
We can start with the concrete: what did Ryder's diary look like? Its bound octavo volumes came in two sizes, six and a half by eight inches and seven and a half by nine and a half inches. Virtually the only blank pages, besides those in his final volume that his death left unfinished, resulted from two pages apparently having been stuck together. The numbers also suggest that he grew more affectionate for writing over time. In mostly consistently sized handwriting, his first twenty volumes, which contain 5,578 pages, cover nineteen and a half years, while the second twenty volumes, 6,777, cover fifteen years. The two and a half million words he wrote (after we throw in thirty-five hundred more for the forty-first volume that he he had just begun before he died) amount to twelve times the total words in Moby Dick, more than three times the number in the King James Bible, and just less than three times the word count of Shakespeare's complex works.
Also,
The book plate advertisements in two of his own volumes...reveal that he bought at least some of his blank books from Samuel Howgate, whose store lay in the commercial center of the city. The fact that the bookplate ad for Howgate's Kirkgate bookshop grew more elaborate between the two volumes in which it was affixed indicates some measure of the store's prosperity. But judging by the content of both plates, this already seems to have been a place with varied consumer possibilities, selling "books in all faculties and sciences," maps, prints, parchment, paper, and at least one doctor's "elixir."
I don't promise a write-up of the book, especially as I'm not sure I'm going to read it beginning to end, but I'll try to at least do a paragraph or two to indicate what the book is *about*.