Dr. Matern Eschbach, Witch-Hunter of Baden-Baden

A zealous witch eradicator, Dr. Matern Eschbach was one of the most important councillors of Baden-Baden in the early to mid-1600s. From September 16, 1627 to October 3, 1628, he ferreted out witches in the town of Baden. After building a reputation as a witch hunter,

he was called repeatedly, from October 3, 1628, through April 10, 1631, to the towns of Bühl and Steinbach as well as Baden, where he conducted examinations, advised on the amount of torture to apply, and heard ratifications of confessions (Besiebnungen). During this time, Eschbach and his colleagues established a fierce reputation as unrelenting tortureres and left a trail of some 200 reports by which we can at least gauge their activity.

In 1628, for example, Eschbach found 33 witches in Steinbach, nine of whom were men. One was even the Margrave's appointed supervisor (Stabhalter), Hans Heinz, in Steinbach, a man who became suspect after his mother and sisters were executed as witches. One can only speculate whether political or religious motives also played a part in the elimination of this government official. In addition, hundreds of denunciations were registered, the inevitable result of asking suspects under torture to name all persons they had seen at the witches' dance.

In Bühl, a short distance from Steinbach, Eschbach was even more successful. There during 1628 and 1629 he found at least 70 persons guilty of witchcraft, including the wife of a member of the Bühl district court. Twenty-three of the total executed, or one-third, were men. Denunciations during these trials implicated the local supervisor, the scribe's wife, the Spitalmeister in Baden (director of the city hospital, which usually served as a geriatric nursing home as well), the church superintendent of Baden, and other honored persons. The trials were noteworthy for bringing denunciations of children by their own parents, and of parents by their children, thus heralding the last phase of massive witch hunts in which children were common participants.

For the town of Baden itself, where Eschbach started, our secondary sources become unaccountably vague. By computation, however, it would seem that Baden tried 97 persons between 1627 and 1630 and executed some 90 of them. Baden was the only town of the three to conduct torture in such a way that at least six could withstand the repeated pain. Even so, an overall average of 3 per cent acquitted must be a near record for efficiency or brutality (Midelfort 132-133).

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Dr. Matern Eschbach, Witch-Hunter of Baden-Baden copyrighted 1996-1998 to Shantell Powell.