Anna Maria Schwägelin
Anna Maria Schwiigel(or Anna Maria Schwegelin) (d. 1781), was long considered the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Germany.
She came from Bavaria, were she had grown up in an orphanage. As an adult, she came to be in a workhouse, where she was mistreated so badly and had to work so hard that she openly said that she would rather love the Devil than remain in the care of the workhouse. She was then reported to the authorities, who judged her to be burned at the stake for witchcraft on the April 11 1775. It was long believed that this sentence was carried out, but later research has shown, that she was imprisoned and died in prison six years later.
Some accounts have described her as the last person to be executed for withcraft in Europe, but the very last was in fact Anna Göldi in Switzerland in 1782.
See also
References
- Wolfgang Petz: Die letzte Hexe. Das Schicksal der Anna Maria Schwägelin. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-593-38329-3
- Artikel "Anna Maria Schwägelin" im Lexikon zur Geschichte der Hexenverfolgung [1]
