Christoph Gerst
Hexenverfolgung als juristischer Prozess
Das Fürstentum Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel im 17. Jahrhundert
1. Edition 2012
333 pages
ISBN 978-3-89971-970-3
V&R unipress
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Book
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There are a lot of books about the witch hunts in 17th century Germany. But the legal process behind those incidents has never been described in a more precise manner than it is done in this book. The history told here is the one of the princedom of Brunswig-Wolfenbuettel (today the south eastern part of Lower Saxony) during the 17th century. The events are told according to the court records of that time which are broadly examined for the first time by the author. The main thesis which will be affirmed during the study is that the witch hunts were mainly seen as a judicial problem and a judicial process. Therefore they should be treated as such by modern historians, too. The author links his judicial experience with his historical expertise and by doing that reaches a synthesis of both disciplines never achieved before. This enables him to break loose the chains of canonized thoughts about the history of the witch hunts.