Mergentheim witch trials
The Mergentheim witch trials took place in Mergentheim in Germany between 1628 and 1631. These witch trials resulted in the deaths of 126 people; there were 122 executions, and four died during torture. The trials belonged to the great wave of witch-hunting that took place in southwestern Germany during the Thirty Years' War. It is one of the best documented of the mass witch trials of southwestern Germany. Perhaps the best known victim of the Mergentheim witch trials was the innkeeper Thomas Schreiber, who had been vocal in opposition to the trials before his own arrest. In the 1620s, Mergentheim was ruled by the Catholic Teutonic Order. In 1627, a group of women were arrested and interrogated, but they were released, because there were no knowledge on how to conduct a witch trials in Mergentheim. In parallel, the gigantic Würzburg witch trials were taking place. Due to the witch trials in Würzberg, the Mergentheim official Bernhard Reichardt removed his son Johan Bernhard from the school in Würzburg, but in March 1628, the authorities of Würzburg demanded Johan Bernhard be returned because he had been charged with witchcraft in Würzburg. He was indeed returned to Würzburg and executed. The execution was