German Persecution of witches lasted from 1581 until 15-93.The Witch trials of Tier were considered to be the worst witch trials of that era in Germany. A third of the ‘witches’ executed were nobles and high standing members of society including Dietrich Flade, a Chief Judge on the electoral court and university rector (Alexander, 2015).
Flade opposed the trials, disagreeing with the torture methods used were ineffective. He was arrested and tortured, and ultimately died by being burned. After his example, there were no other vocal oppositions to the trials or the torture methods. Two villages were cleared out and killed, accused of witchcraft. One lone survivor was left from each village. Recorded, the death toll was 368, but historians put the number to be as great as 1000 for the Tier trials, alone (Alexander, 2015).
Some historians, however, put the beginning of the witch hunt mania at 1572. The first presumed witch was a woman named Eva, thought to have murdered a small child with witchcraft. She was tortured and eventually confessed and named two other women she claimed she was in league with. All three were burned at the stake. 500 people were murdered by the 1590s, out of a residential population of 2,200 (Guilford, 2018).
There are many theories as to why the executions were so voluminous. One theory explores the economics of the time period. Weather had taken a dramatic shift, assailing farmers with cold, wet weather, abnormal frosts, floods, hailstorms, plagues of critters such as mice and caterpillars; all disasters for the crops the farmers and residents depended on. This caused widespread famine, inflation, and disease. It was noticed by historians that the largest amount of witch hunts typically occurred at these times because when things started to go wrong, it seemed that witches were the easiest to blame (Guilford, 2018).
Another theory contends that witch hunts were perpetuated through the competition Protestant and Catholic churches. Each supplied a desired outcome eagerly sought by many; salvation. But the beliefs of the churches differed, and as the Protestant church was the first church to emerge as real competition to the Catholic church, problems arose (Guilford, 2018).
Churches began to move from spiritual services and begin to advertise salvation amongst the living rather than after death. Witch hunts became a satan fighting attraction that the followers of both the Protestant and Catholic churches. It appeased the masses and was used as a way to gain more followers, much like politics today. This theory goes far in explaining why Germany, in particular, was notorious for witch hunts (Guilford, 2018).
Witchcraft had been commonly accepted for centuries before this. Love charms and potions, spells to find lost things were all popularly bought by townsfolk. The Catholic church hadn’t bothered with the sellers until there was a reason to blame them for misfortunes. In the end, it is estimated that more that 43,000 people were prosecuted in approximately 11.000 separate trials across Germany. More than 40% of witches killed in Europe were in Germany alone (Guilford, 2018).
Learning Wicca and the Tradition of the Craft 