The Last Witch of Langenburg

By Thomas Robisheaux

Subjects: Witchcraft, Murder, europe, Witchcraft--germany--langenburg--history, Germany, 133.10943/471, Murder--history, Witchcraft, europe, Murder, witchcraft, Murder--germany--langenburg--history, Bf1583 .r63 2009, History, Witchcraft--history, Criminal investigation

Description: The Last Witch of Langenburg tells the tale of Anna Schmieg, a cantankerous miller’s wife charged with witchcraft in 1672 after the mysterious death of a neighbor. The neighbor, a village woman who had recently given birth, died in agony on Shrove Tuesday after eating a cake baked by Schmieg. Suspected of witchcraft and poisoning, Schmieg, a quarrelsome and disreputable old woman, became the center of a dogged investigation. Robisheaux ably tells the twisting story of Schmieg’s contest with the local authorities, her community, and even her own family, uncovering the close relationships between supernatural belief and scientific knowledge, between court elites and rural villagers, and between witchcraft prosecution and political and religious order in early modern Germany. [source][1] [1]: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jih/summary/v041/41.2.coy.html