The Pins by Anna Göldi: the story of the last beheaded witch in Europe


The Pins by Anna Göldi: the story of the last beheaded witch in Europe

Kilkenny, Ireland, 1324: Petronilla de Meath is burned at the stake accused of being a "witch". The woman may not know, but the trail of blood that traces her innocent death will continue for another 458 years, until 1782. In that year Anna Göldi, the last witch killed in Europe, dies.

The story of Anna Göldi

Anna was born in Sennwald, Switzerland, in 1734, the fourth of eight children, into a wealthy family. His father was the grandson of a prestigious local judge, from whom he inherits his own seal. Due to disagreements with the mayor of the town regarding land and direct aggression, the family falls into ruin, forcing the eight brothers to find jobs in more affluent homes.

Anna changes city, probably to avoid the ridicule of her fellow villagers, and goes to Maienfeld, in the Canton of Grisons, where she becomes the servant of Mayor Enderlin. She then moved to Sax to work as a baker's maid, and in 1762 to Sennwald, in the Canton of St. Gallen, where she became the local shepherd's maid. Here she meets Jakob Rhoduner, who leaves her pregnant and runs away as soon as he learns of the pregnancy.

In 1765 Anna gives birth to a son who dies in unknown circumstances.

Infant mortality was very common in Europe at that time, but Anna was convicted of infanticide, and was forced to house arrest at her sister's home for 6 years. Escaped from arrest by changing canton (where another jurisdiction was in force), she worked from 1765 to 1768 in the Landaman Heers, then took up service with the pastor of Mollis, in the Canton of Glarus, Johann Heinrich Zwicky. A few years later she has a relationship with Melchior, the shepherd's son, with whom she conceives a son, born in 1775, whose traces have been lost in history.

After becoming a mother again she leaves the Zwicky family, it is not known for what precise reason. He returned to the Canton of Glarus and took up service with a bookbinder, a certain Tinner, and remained there until 1780.

Anna and "her" Pins

Anna Göldi is now 46 years old, and Johann Jakob Tschudi-Elmer hires her as a maid and nanny for her 7-year-old daughter Anna Maria. For a while, things went well, but a year later, in September 1781, the situation worsened. Anna Maria accompanies Göldi on her visits to Steinmüller friends, and at their home she eats a Basler Läckerli, a hard biscuit originally from Basel.

About a month later, in October, Anna Maria finds (?) A pin in her cup.

Anna is immediately suspected of having bewitched the biscuit and cast a spell, precisely an evil eye, on the little Tschudi-Elmer. On 25 October 1781 she was removed from her master's house and took refuge first with her friends, the Steinmüllers, and then with her sister in Sax.

But little Anna Maria continues to find the pins in the cup, and her sister begins with her.

The authorities of the Canton of Glarus, at the request of the powerful Johann Jakob Tschudi-Elmer, issue an arrest warrant for Anna Göldi, promising a reward of 100 crowns (an astronomical sum) for her capture while alive.

Anna is hunted down, escapes through the Rhine Valley and finds refuge in Herisau in the Canton of Appenzell and then in Degersheim in the Canton of St. Gallen. Here she needs to work, and finds a job as a waitress, but the escape will last very little. The news of the reward spreads, and Anna is not long in being suspected.

On February 21, 1782, she was arrested and taken to Glarus.

On March 15 she visits little Anna Maria, and the authorities ask her to remove the evil eye that had thrown against her. After a quick massage, the girl immediately recovers, and as if by magic (!) The pins disappear from plates and cups for the dishes.

Anna is a witch.

This is the opinion of the judges of the evangelical council of Glarus, who at Tschudi-Elmer's request mercilessly torture the woman, who confesses to dialogue with the devil who manifests himself in the form of a black dog. Anna signs the confession and is convicted of poisoning, then passing the sentence (with 32 votes in favor and 30 against) of death.

On June 13, 1782, Anna Göldi's head was cut off cleanly by an ax from the executioner of the Canton of Glarus.

Why was Anna killed?

Although 1782 may today seem a relatively distant date, in reality the flame that led to the Illuminist revolutions and to the victory of reason over superstition had already flared up for some time. It was over thirty years earlier, in 1751, that the first volume of the Encyclopedia or Reasoned Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Crafts was published, and the witch hunt was over for a long time, with the last fires set in the early '700.

The trial and conviction of Anna Göldi should instead be placed in the context of the murder. Only the high social position of the accuser, Johann Jakob Tschudi-Elmer father of Anna-Maria, allowed such an anachronistic injustice. The man probably wanted to cover up his relationship with Anna, still very attractive and very free for his time, and decided to try the witchcraft card, which would have allowed him to avoid a devastating scandal. Anna's destiny was to end up on the gallows, but her fault was quite different from the witchcraft she was accused of ...

The injustice of Anna's death inspired the creation of a museum dedicated to Glarus, and her life has been told in numerous plays, as well as in a 1991 German film.

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