Talk:Gottfried Christian Voigt

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Untitled

it turns out that Voigt is mostly notable for the queer history of his witch execution estimates, so perhaps this article should be moved, to "nine million witches" or similar. --dab (𒁳) 14:23, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

133 witches

The alleged mass execution of 133 witches on a single day seems to be an interesting topic in its own right. Here is an archive of an online discussion on this, with numerous references. Apparently, there are 16th century sources that make such a claim:

Apparently, this originates with a fake headline of 1588, claiming 133 witches had been burned "in this year". This flyer was later reprinted, and the reprints always kept the headline as referring to the current year. The flyer of 1588 is apparently lost, but there is a surviving reprint of 1589 (claiming the execution occurred in 1589), and one of 1596 (claiming the execution occurred in 1596):

Dreyerley Warhaffte newe zeittung [...] ... Die dritte. Auß dem Landt Westuahlen, von der Statt Ossenbruckh, wie man auff einen Tag 133. Vnhulden verbren[n]t hat ... geschehen den 9. Aprilis diß 96. Jars. Erstlich Gedruckt zu Regenspurg, Anno 1596.

There are credible records of about 120 women burned in Osnabrück in the summer of 1583 (Pohl, p. 308). It seems there is a 1591 inscription in an Osnabruck church which claims that 165 witches were burned in the seven year period of 1583 to 1590, of which 121 were executed in 1583, which at the time was considered an extreme case of mass executions (figures for the other years of the period are between zero and 22). Perhaps the "mass execution of 133 on a single day" was an urban legend arising in 1588, ultimately based on the historical "mass execution of 121 in a single summer" in 1583. --dab (𒁳) 13:39, 23 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]