- Katharina Kepler
Katharina Kepler (1546 –
13 April 1621 ) was an alleged Germanwitch fromLeonberg , Württemberg, and the mother of the famous astronomerJohannes Kepler .Katharina Kepler was married to Heinrich Kepler and had one daughter and three sons; one of them the famous Johannes Kepler. In 1615, Katharina Kepler visited
Württemberg . In 1615, a well known witch trial was held held in the city, and Kepler had came because her aunt was one of the accused and later burned in the process. During the reign of Einhorn (1613-1629), 15 women were accused of sorcery and 8 were executed. He acted in accordance with the will of the government and the public, which had asked for an investigation of sorcery, and issued for an arrest of Katharina Kepler in 1615. Ursula Reinbold accused Kepler of giving them a potion after an argument, which had made them sick. Johannes Kepler defended his mother himself, with the assistance of his university in Tübingen university, which was unusual, and one of his student friends,Christopher Besoldus , assisted her juridically.Her son took her away to
Linz in December 1616. When she returned to Leonberg in the summer of 1620, she was arrested and imprisoned for fourteen months. She was tortured, but refused to confess.In October 1620, shortly before the
Battle of White Mountain , Kepler was able to effect her release. Katharina Kepler died the following year.See also
*
Walpurga Hausmannin
*Merga Bien
*Katharina Henot
*Pappenheimer Family References
* [http://www.sfn.uni-muenchen.de/hexenverfolgung/frame_lexikon.html?art853.htm Artikel „Württemberg, Herzogtum - Hexenverfolgungen”]
* [http://www.listserv.dfn.de/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0209&L=hexenforschung&O=D&F=&S=&P=8110 Diskussionsbeitrag aus der Mailingliste Hexenforschung mit weiteren Links]
* [http://www.landesarchiv-bw.de/hstas/dauerausstellung/kapitel_objekte.php?kapid=8&objektid=47 Abbildung des Aktenauszugs aus dem Prozess]
* Kurt Baschwitz: "Hexen und Hexenprozesse", Bertelsmann Verlag, München, 1990, S. 252 - 260
* Berthold Sutter: "Der Hexenprozeß gegen Katharina Kepler", Weil der Stadt, Kepler-Ges., 1979
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
