The investigation was first prompted by rumours that Els had become pregnant by a customer, and had subsequently been forced by the brothel madam to finish her pregnancy by means of a herbal abortifacient.
[2] Els's story has been the subject of several book chapters, [3] [4] magazine articles,[5][6] a TV documentary,[7] and a theatrical production,[8] and has been the focus of modern research into prostitution in medieval Europe.
[9][10][11] Public brothels of the kind that Els von Eystett worked in were a common feature in towns across much of western Europe in the period ca.
These documents frequently also contained 'house rules' specifying the behaviour forbidden in brothels (such as drunkenness and blasphemy) and governing the relations between prostitutes and the brothel-keeper.
[18] Prostitutes themselves typically lived in the brothel, and as well as paying for board and lodging were required to give the brothel-keeper a certain amount of the money they received from clients.
[20] The transcriptions produced from the testimony of Els von Eystett and the other women of Nördlingen's brothel form the primary source of information about the investigation.
[22] Proceedings were made more complex by the fact that three of the women who had witnessed events surrounding the alleged abortion had left Nördlingen by the time the investigation began.
Each woman working there at the time of the investigation was first asked a set of questions pertaining to how they had been treated by Lienhart and Barbara, and whether they had experienced specific abuses at their hands.
[29] Lienhart was dismissed from his post as brothel-keeper and forced to swear an oath (the Urfehde) in which he renounced the right to take vengeance and acknowledged his own banishment from the town.
[30] In 1472, a new ordinance (Frauenhausordnung) was drawn up for the running of Nördlingen's brothel containing a number of provisions intended to prevent abuses of the kind reported by the women at the investigation.