Johannes Dillinger

Jürgen Michael Schmidt

Dieter R. Bauer

Hexenprozess und Staatsbildung

The Forefathers of Terrorism investigates the beginnings of organized political crime. Ever since the beginnings of the modern state in the late Middle Ages, the state has been challenged by terrorist violence. This book explores the origins and development of two essential forms of terrorism, the assassination of rulers and attacks on the civilian population, explaining how the fight against political crime helped to shape the modern state itself. From the 13th century onward, the seemingly modern crime of terrorism featured under various guises in the legal traditions of Britain and Continental Europe, including High Treason, Conspiracy and Laesae Majestatis. In a series of cases studies the book discusses failed and successful assassinations of early modern rulers, including Elizabeth I, Cromwell, George III, Henry IV and Louis XV of France, and attacks on the civilian population, such as mass poisoning and arson. Via these studies, Johannes Dillinger demonstrates that the fear of terrorist violence is as old as the Western state itself.

Violent Crime in Politics, 1300-1800

The Forefathers of Terrorism

Inspired by recent efforts to understand the dynamics of the early modern witch hunt, Johannes Dillinger has produced a powerful synthesis based on careful comparisons. Narrowing his focus to two specific regions—Swabian Austria and the Electorate of Trier—he provides a nuanced explanation of how the tensions between state power and communalism determined the course of witch hunts that claimed over 1,300 lives in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Germany. Dillinger finds that, far from representing the centralizing aggression of emerging early states against local cultures, witch hunts were almost always driven by members of the middling and lower classes in cities and villages, and they were stopped only when early modern states acquired the power to control their localities. Situating his study in the context of a pervasive magical worldview that embraced both orthodox Christianity and folk belief, Dillinger shows that, in some cases, witch trials themselves were used as magical instruments, designed to avert threats of impending divine wrath. "Evil People" describes a two-century evolution in which witch hunters who liberally bestowed the label "evil people" on others turned into modern images of evil themselves. In the original German, "Evil People" won the Friedrich Spee Award as an outstanding contribution to the history of witchcraft.

A Comparative Study of Witch Hunts in Swabian Austria and the Electorate of Trier

"Evil People"

The Routledge History of Witchcraft is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary study of the belief in witches from antiquity to the present day, providing both an introduction to the subject of witchcraft and an overview of the on-going debates. This extensive collection covers the entire breadth of the history of witchcraft, from the witches of Ancient Greece and medieval demonology through to the victims of the witch hunts, and onwards to children’s books, horror films, and modern pagans. Drawing on the knowledge and expertise of an international team of authors, the book examines differing concepts of witchcraft that still exist in society and explains their historical, literary, religious, and anthropological origin and development, including the reflections and adaptions of this belief in art and popular culture. The volume is divided into four chronological parts, beginning with Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Part One, Early Modern witch hunts in Part Two, modern concepts of witchcraft in Part Three, and ending with an examination of witchcraft and the arts in Part Four. Each chapter offers a glimpse of a different version of the witch, introducing the reader to the diversity of witches that have existed in different contexts throughout history. Exploring a wealth of texts and case studies and offering a broad geographical scope for examining this fascinating subject, The Routledge History of Witchcraft is essential reading for students and academics interested in the history of witchcraft.

The Routledge History of Witchcraft

Thomas Fritz

Wolfgang Mährle

Die abendl�ndische Hexenverfolgung gilt als Inbegriff von tausendfachem Justizmord, Frauendiskriminierung und Fanatismus. Um ihren komplexen Mechanismen und Hintergruenden auf die Spur zu kommen, hat sich in der modernen historischen Forschung die vergleichende Regionalstudie als besonders fruchtbar erwiesen: In einem klar abgegrenzten Raum k�nnen politische, rechtliche, wirtschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle, aber auch demographische und siedlungsgeographische Faktoren der Hexenverfolgung am intensivsten beleuchtet werden. Der vorliegende Band umfa�t drei solcher Studien zu suedwestdeutschen Territorien, die besonders markante Verfolgungen erlebten: Im vorder�sterreichischen Hohenberg kam es unter dem Einflu� von Wirtschaftskrisen und innerst�dtischen Konflikten zur schweren Verfolgung, Reutlingen erlebte im Zusammenhang von Ratsneuwahlen mehrere Proze�serien, w�hrend Ellwangen zeitweilig geradezu zu einem Verfolgungszentrum und Vorbild fuer die gr��ten Verfolgungen ueberhaupt wurde. "Die hier versammelten Arbeiten fuehren nicht nur Midelforts Forschungen mit betr�chtlichem Erkenntnisgewinn in die regionale Tiefe, sondern sie fuegen auch unserer Anschauung von der Verklammerung der Verfolgungen mit politischen Strukturen wichtige Bausteine hinzu." Zeitschrift fuer Historische Forschung.

Johannes Dillinger

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