Evil People: A Comparative Study of Witch Hunts in Swabian Austria and the Electorate of Trier (review)

Over the last few decades, there have been a number of excellent concentrated studies on aspects of the German witch-hunting experience, such as H. C. Erik Midelfort’s work on south-west Germany, Wolfgang Behringer’s studies of Bavaria, Lyndal Roper’s investigations into the role of gender, and Alison Rowlands’s examination of the town records of Rothenburg. Johannes Dillinger introduces a different approach from the others in that he adopts a comparative method that engages two specific regions, Swabian Austria and the Electorate of Trier. First published as BöseLeute: Hexenverfolgungen in Schwäbisch-Österreich und KurtierimVergleich (1999), the book was awarded the Freidrich Spee Award as an outstanding contribution to witchcraft historiography. Some ten years on, and well translated by Laura Stokes, Evil People is now, thankfully, available to English-reading audiences.

Dillinger posits that the “holistic” comparative method is particularly well suited to witchcraft studies, and especially so within the German heartland of the witch hunts, though one could easily imagine his methodology carried out on other European countries or regions, such as France, Spain, or Scotland. Taking account of anthropological, folkloristic, social, economic, and political aspects, Dillinger has produced a highly comprehensive and sophisticated explanation of how the tensions between the power of the state and ordinary people determined the course and development of these two regional witch hunts, which, combined, claimed approximately 1,323 lives. His study reveals that any number of conflicts could generate a suspicion of witchcraft, the “evil people principle” that acted as a general precondition to the witch persecutions. Furthermore, he detects that both regions were characterized by an underlying tension between the ordinary people, who were a major driving force behind the witch trials, and the territorial lord, who was often hesitant to respond to local demands.

The book is exceptionally well structured and follows a logical progression. Chapter 1 methodically sets out the administrative structures and social contexts of Swabian Austria and the Electorate of Trier, with detailed explanations of the legal and political systems. Chapter 2, my particular favorite, tackles the problematic terminologies, definitions, and wider concepts and ideas surrounding witchcraft, demonology, and folk belief. The range of crimes of which witches were typically accused is delineated, such as weather magic, as well as motifs that were less typical or scarce in the evidence, such as shape-shifting or night flight. There is also here a fascinating subsection on the interface between popular magic and church magic. Chapter 3 charts the root causes and genesis of witchcraft allegations and is, perhaps, the most ambitious and daring, picking apart aspects of community structures, social situations, and everyday conflicts. Chapter 4 examines the structure and management of the witch trials and charts the “grapevine” along which suspicions of witchcraft traveled and were transmitted. There is much of interest in this chapter, not least the issues surrounding agrarian crisis, the impact of torture, and the sobering conclusion that while economic distress may have provoked witch hunts, the expense involved in conducting such trials could also set limitations upon them. Chapter 5 widens out to look at the impact of the trials in Swabian Austria and the Electorate of Trier upon their neighboring territories, while Chapter 6 traces the decline in witch-hunting activity, actively brought to an end by the authorities, in both of the studied regions, as a consequence of changing governmental structures and consolidation of territorial rule. The witch hunts did not cease, it would seem, because of a diminished belief in witches, or a lack in demand from the people at large who continued to perceive witchcraft as a threat, or because of drastic intellectual or theological change, but rather as a result of administrative restructuring.

This is a well-crafted book with a carefully constructed argument and...