Derenburg witch trials

The Derenburg witch trials took place in the County of Regenstein in the Holy Roman Empire in present day Germany on the 1st of October 1555.

[1] There are no official records and little documentation of the trials and burnings, but they were made famous in contemporary Germany by a well-known popular print, in which they were illustrated and described.

The print, which is a typical example of so-called 'witch newspapers' or pamphlets found in Southern Germany during the height of its witch-hunting craze, tells of two women Gröbische, and Gißlersche, who were executed by burning in October 1555 for witchcraft.

The print also claims they pushed Gißler's husband out the door of his house so roughly that he fell to his death in front of his neighbours.

Two days later another woman, Serckschen, was executed later in October for having made a man lame and given him fever by burying a toad beneath his doorway.