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Torture and the Witchcraze of Early Modern Europe: Continued

© Michelle Powell-Smith

While the primary message of the Pappenheimer trial was one of triumph, there were many other messages sent as well. For a moment, the church and Duke Maximilian had triumphed over evil, and good was winning. The modern reader cannot help but question how such a horrid display could be deemed "good". This spectacle sent a multitude of messages, however, and not all of them were merely signs of religious and political triumph. The public torture of the convicted witches served as far more than punishment. It served to change their place within the community and to change perceptions about their status as individuals, and in fact as humans. They were dehumanized by the torture, particularly mastectomy and impalement. "Ripping" the flesh with hot pincers and breaking on the wheel were relatively common punishments in Germany; however, impalement and mastectomy were far more unusual.

In the case of mastectomy the symbolism is clear. Breasts were symbolic not only of sexuality, but of motherhood. The act of cutting off Anna Pappenheimer's breasts clearly devalued her role as mother. This is further emphasized by the fact that her breasts were then rubbed against the mouths of her grown sons, whom she had once nursed. Mastectomy served to desecrate the only role which provided status to the majority of women, that of mother. Mastectomy was rarely used in most of Europe; however, in the Holy Roman Empire it was rather common. Mastectomy as a punishment for women is frequently found as a form of torture, often public torture, in martyrdom stories of the early Christian era. Moreover, it further lessened the status of the old woman, by subjecting her to something akin to what occurred daily in the butcher's shop. Even today, the impact of mastectomy for medical reasons is psychologically significant. We can only imagine how disturbing such a sight must have been to the audience, particularly the women in the audience.

The second act of gender specific public torture in the Pappenheimer case is the impalement of Paulus. The act of impalement served not only to torture Paulus, but also to brand him as a sodomite. Paulus' impalement served to effectively remove what status his gender provided within his society. Just as mastectomy destroyed Anna Pappenheimer's womanhood, impalement destroyed Paulus' manhood.

While the entire audience would have been impacted by this spectacle, we can imagine that many of the men in the audience were able to distance themselves from it. They did not particularly identify with Paulus, by then branded not only a criminal and a witch, but also a homosexual. The women in the audience, on the other hand, must have identified with Anna Pappenheimer. She was a mother, like most of the women who witnessed her death. She was, by the time of her death, no longer a young woman, yet the message sent by her death would likely have impacted women both young and old in the audience.

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