Book pressure as a curse: How new ideas sparked the witch hunt

Book pressure as a curse: How new ideas sparked the witch hunt

The witch hunts, a dark chapter in European history, were influenced by various social and technological factors. One of the most surprising knowledge comes from a team of American sociologists who, in a study, indicate the invention of book pressure in the 15th century. This technological progress, they argue, played an important role in the massive distribution and brutality of witch hunting in Europe.

The study published in the “Theory and Society” journal describes that between 1450 and 1750 an estimated 90,000 people were pursued due to witchcraft and around 45,000 were executed. It is striking that the striking and brutal occurrence of the witch hunt seemed to be relatively abrupt, although belief in witchcraft in Europe has been present for centuries.

The influence of book pressure

A massive influence of the spread of knowledge through the book pressure was particularly visible through specific publications. One of the most influential was "Malleus Maleficarum" or "Hexenhammer", a manual by the German Dominican Heinrich Kramer, which was published in the late 1480s at the time of the highlight of the witch hunt. This book combined elements of theory and practical guidance for witch persecution and spread rapidly. Its quantitative effects were tangible until the 17th century, when dozens of publication were to be circulated and direct influences on witch trials across Europe were determined.

The authors of the study emphasize that the printing pressure is not directly the causes of witch hunt, but the ideas and practices of the witch hunt embedded there spread from small circles and thus raised the persecution into a new, brutal dimension. "Due to the art of printing, these practices found a wide audience and created new opportunities to mobilize power," explain the sociologists.

A remarkable example of this dynamic was Trier in the early 1580s, where the local authorities explicitly referred to the manual to legitimize their witch trials. Other cities such as Würzburg, Bamberg and Osnabrück also followed this example, which resulted in a domino effect that influenced the behavior of entire communities.

The spread of such ideas was not limited to past times, as Doten-Snitker emphasizes. Even in today's world, new social networks ensure that emerging ideas can gain effect rapidly and cause great social changes.

The last person who was sentenced to death as a "witch" in Germany was Anna Maria Schwägelin. In April 1775 it was to be executed in the Kempten forth ink, but her fate changed when the privacy caused a postponement. In 1781 she finally died in prison. Their history only became publicly known through the research of the historian Wolfgang Petz, who points out that local conditions played a role in their fate.

Anna Maria Schwägelin's case is an impressive example of the complex social and cultural mechanisms that accompanied the witch hunts. In Kempten, a stele is reminiscent of the tragic history of the maid of service, the fate of which is a reflection for many other victims of this dark era in human history.

dpa/SK