To this day, researchers have been interested in the witch hunts of the Early Modern period, which have also long since found their way into popular culture. Less well known, however, is the fact that the persecution was a phenomenon that differed from region to region, for example. Not always was the persecution of the purported witches and sorcerers carried out solely by the authorities, and not always did a trial follow an accusation of being a witch. Dr Sarah Masiak, a former doctoral fellow of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, has therefore studied the persecution of witches in the Prince-Bishopric of Paderborn from a historical perspective. In doing so, amongst other things she was able to find out that it was almost always the same families who were accused of witchcraft. Furthermore, the so-called “devil’s children” were by no means members of the lower classes, nor did they allow themselves to be pushed to the margins of society. We asked the historian for an interview about her research and put specific questions to her about her findings.
The interview was originally published in German and translated due to great response.