Katharina Henot or Henoth (1570 – 19 May 1627) was a German

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

and an alleged

witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...

, burned at the stake for sorcery in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. She is one of the best-known German victims of the witch hunt, and the best known case in Cologne. She was probably also the first female postmaster in Germany.

Biography

Katharina Henot was a well-known and influential citizen in Cologne, and was married to Heinrich Neuden. Together with her brother, Hartger Henot (1571–1637), she had inherited the postal office from her father Jacob and worked as perhaps the first female

in Germany. They were in a conflict in the Imperial court with Count Leonhard II von Taxis, who wished to create a central

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

. From 1626 to 1631, a great witch trial was held in the city of Cologne. In 1627, a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

in the convent in the city had become "obsessed". Rumors pointed out Henot, and the commission of the archbishop arrested both Henot and her brother in January 1627 and accused them of having caused several cases of death and sickness in the convent by use of magic. She was imprisoned and denied bail and protection. Henot refused to admit anything, even after being severely injured and sick from

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

. She was in spite of this judged guilty and sentenced to be burned alive at the stake for sorcery. Her brother Hartger Henot tried to get her freed by appealing directly to the Imperial court, but did not succeed. The trial against her is considered to have been juridically incorrect even according to the law of the time. Later research has established the opinion that Henot was the victim of a conspiracy by the authorities of the city. Her brother tried to get her name cleared after her execution, but in 1629, he was himself pointed out as a witch by Christina Plum, one of the victims of the 1626–31 Cologne witch trials. He was arrested in 1631 together with a number of other influential citizens, but the witch trial was interrupted soon after by intervention. The City Council of Cologne issued a resolution on 28 June 2012 to exonerate Katharina Henot and the other victims of the persecution of witches in Cologne.

References

* Engelbert Goller, Jakob Henot, Inaugural-Dissertation, Bonn 1910 * Friedrich Wilhelm Siebel, Die Hexenverfolgung in Köln, Juristische Dissertation, Bonn 1959 *
Artikel von Thomas Becker (Historicum.net)

Aufsatz von Gerd Schwerhoff
(MS Word)
Katharina Henoth wird als Hexe verbranntSendung "ZeitZeichen"
19 May 2007 auf den Seiten des

WDR 5 WDR 5 is a German public radio station owned and operated by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). History WDR 5 went on air on October 7, 1991 on the former frequencies of WDR 1 WDR 1 was a German public radio station owned and operated by the ...

weitere Darstellung

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henot, Katharina 1570 births Executed German people People executed for witchcraft People from Cologne Executed German women German postmasters 17th-century German people 1627 deaths 16th-century German people 16th-century German women 17th-century German women People executed in the Holy Roman Empire by burning Witch trials in Germany 17th-century executions in the Holy Roman Empire

Biography

See also

References