Organized Arson as a Political Crime. The Construction of a «Terrorist» Menace in the Early Modern Period

Throughout the early modern period there were numerous rumors about organized arson. When the emerging administrations of the early modern states organized fire-fighting, policing, and measures against the homeless poor, they often did so under the assumption that they were threatened by incendiarists’ conspiracies. A critical look at the source materials makes it more than likely that the arsonist scare was a delusion comparable to the fear of witches, poisoners or Jewish plotters. Using a supposed peasant upheaval, the ‘Bundschuh’ rebellion of 1517 as an example, this article discusses how and why arsonist scares originated. There are parallels between modern terrorism and the imaginary organized arson of the early modern period: The conspiracy structure, the violent attacks against non-combatant targets carried out by non-soldiers in furtherance of political goals, the spread of insecurity and anxiety as an end in itself. Thus, terrorism as a concept was known to the early modern period and influenced processes of state building.Au début de l’époque moderne, circulaient de multiples rumeurs relatives à des incendies organisés. Lorsque les administrations émergentes des États de cette période entreprirent d’organiser la lutte contre l’incendie, la police et le contrôle des pauvres errants, elles le firent souvent parce qu’elles se voyaient sous la menace supposée d’une conspiration d’incendiaires. Un examen critique des sources donne clairement à penser que la peur de l’incendiaire était une illusion comparable à celle des sorcières, empoisonneurs ou comploteurs Juifs. À partir d’une prétendue révolte paysanne (la rébellion des «Bundschuh» de 1517), cet article examine les causes et les modes d’apparition de la peur des incendiaires. Il existe un parallèle entre le terrorisme moderne et l’incendie organisé imaginaire de l’époque moderne: la structure conspirative, l’attaque violente de cibles non-combattantes menée par des non-militaires poursuivant des buts politiques, la propagation comme une fin en soi de l’insécurité et de l’anxiété. En d’autres termes, le concept du terrorisme était connu dès l’époque moderne et a influencé le processus de construction de l’État

Germany: "The mother of the witches"

About half of all the women and men ever executed for witchcraft were German. Friedrich Spee, the great German opponent of the witch hunts, was right when he called Germany “the mother of so many the witches”. 1 Almost 25,000 people were executed for witchcraft in the German lands. Why about 50% of all the executions for witchcraft took place in Germany even though only about 20% of the total population of early modern Europe lived there is the basic question this chapter tries to answer. 2 An analysis of the catastrophic German witch hunts might help us to understand the basic patterns of witchcraft persecutions in general

Charms and the divining rod: Tradition and innovation in magic and pseudo-science, 15th to 21st centuries

The rise of treasure hunting as a typical element of popular magic in the 15th century coincided with the beginnings of dowsing. Treasure hunters did not rely on the divining rod exclusively, they also used a variety of charms addressing the spirit world. In contrast to that, miners who used the divining rod treated it more like a technical instrument in a modern sense. With the success of mining as a motor of technical and economical innovation, the divining rod enjoyed a breath-taking career. In the 18th century, it had become the divinatory object par excellence that could be used to find virtually anything. The 19th century witnessed the breakdown of the traditional magico-religious treasure hunt. Instead of trying to talk to the spirit world in order to find treasures, treasure hunters became interested in historical narratives that provided clues which helped to discover hidden or lost objects. Even though dowsing was eliminated from professional mining, it managed to survive. The very fact that dowsing was largely non-communicative – it was even claimed that the ability to dowse depended entirely on the individual, inner and non-transferable qualities of the dowser – seemed to be the key to its continuing success in the area of fringe science and fringe medicine. Only in recent years, the new interest in spirituality combined dowsing and the use of incantations again

Landschaft und Herrschaft in den gottorfisch-dänischen Gebieten

The article investigates a number of territories in today’s Schleswig-Holstein, which had belonged to Denmark or the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf until they were united under the Danish crown in 1773: Süderdithmarschen, Norderdithmarschen, Drei Lande (i.e. Eiderstedt, Everschop and Utholm.), Stapelholm, Heligoland, Pellworm, Nordstrand, Osterland Föhr, Sylt and Fehmarn. They deserve special attention because their rural population enjoyed the right of political representation during the early modern period. The village population of the Gottorf-Danish territories formed so called Landschaften i.e. organizations of self-government on the regional level. These Landschaften sent delegates to regional diets, where officials of the prince negotiated taxation and political questions with the representatives. However, administration was the main task of the diets. The political representation of the peasant population was extraordinary strong because in this area there were neither any privileged ecclesiastical institutions nor aristocratic dynasties nor cities with special rights. The spokespersons of the villages were the only partners the officials of the princely government negotiated with. After discussing the various communal and Landschaft offices, of which there were four types, it is suggested to see the office-holders as brokers who negotiated with both sides, the government and the rural population, but never totally identified with any of them. The officials of the communities and the Landschaften received their offices in a variety of ways, including co-option and elections. The election process was surprisingly sophisticated even though it was burdened with some practical difficulties. There was a complex system of written ballots. Some candidates ran election campaigns the leaders of the Landschaft frowned upon because, they suspected them – not without reason – to be actually attempts at bribery. Voting rights depended on property and standing in the community. In the long run, the office-holders of the rural population proved to be highly unreliable brokers. Corruption and simple incompetence began to damage the representative system as a whole. Village communities tried to out-manoeuvre their own office-holders by calling upon the authority of the prince