- Anna Göldi
Anna Göldi (also Anna Göldin, ca. 1740–1782) is known as the "last
witch " inSwitzerland . She was executed for murder in June 1782 inGlarus .A native of
Sennwald , Anna Göldi arrived in Glarus in 1765. For seventeen years, she worked as a maidservant for Johann Jakob Tschudi, a physician. Tschudi reported her for having put needles in the bread and milk of one of his daughters, apparently through supernatural means. Göldi at first avoided arrest and the authorities of theCanton of Glarus advertised a reward for her capture in theZürcher Zeitung on9 February ,1782 . Göldi was arrested and undertorture admitted to being in a pact with theDevil , which had appeared to her as a black dog. She withdrew her confession after the torture ended, but was sentenced onJune 18 1782 to execution by decapitation. The charges were officially of "poisoning" rather than withcraft, even though the law at the time did not impose the death penalty for non-lethal poisoning.cite web
title='Last witch in Europe' cleared
url=http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news_digest/Last_witch_in_Europe_cleared.html?siteSect=104&sid=9619759&cKey=1219843577000&ty=nd
date=August 27 ,2008 ]During her trial, official allegations of witchcraft were avoided, and the court protocols were destroyed. The sentence does therefore not strictly qualify as that of a
witch trial . Still, because of the apparentwitchhunt that led to the sentence, the execution sparked outrage throughout Switzerland and theHoly Roman Empire .Exoneration
On 20th September 2007, the Swiss parliament decided to acknowledge Anna Göldi's case as a miscarriage of justice. Fritz Schiesser, as representative for Glarus in the Swiss parliament, called for Anna Göldi's exoneration which was granted on 28th August 2008 on the grounds that she had been subjected to an "illegal trial". A museum is open in Glarus dedicated to her.cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7003128.stm
title= Anna Goeldi's story and exoneration
work=Online edition of the BBC News
accessdate=2007-09-20]See also
*
Barbara Zdunk References
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