The Witches of Bergheim - True History or Legend?

You may have admired its medieval ramparts, its centuries-old linden tree, its half-timbered houses covered in geraniums. Bergheim, voted France's Favourite Village in 2022, is one of the quiet jewels of the Alsace Wine Route. But this village hides a far darker history than its flower-adorned facades suggest. A story of women, fear, injustice and pyres.

Myth or reality? - The answer is: reality

The witches of Bergheim are no legend. The witchcraft trials in Bergheim are documented for the period between 1582 and 1683. Over this entire period, forty women were burned alive. A peak occurred in 1630 with twenty-two women executed in Bergheim within five months between July and November.

These are not fairy-tale creatures. They are real women - neighbours, mothers, midwives, elderly ladies - whose names appear in court records that can still be consulted today. The Bergheim Historical Society published a compelling work in 2022 on these witchcraft trials between 1582 and 1683, transcribed and translated from Old German.

The context - an era of terror

Witch-hunting in Western Europe increased sharply at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, in the context of the Counter-Reformation. In Alsace, the oldest recorded witchcraft trial is that of Tyne de Richeshochven, tried in Sélestat in 1403. In total, more than 1,600 Alsatian victims of witchcraft trials have been identified, 80% of them women.

Heinrich Kramer from Sélestat, a papal inquisitor, and Jacob Sprenger, a Dominican friar in Basel, wrote the "Hammer of Witches" - Malleus Maleficarum - in Strasbourg in 1486, published in 30,000 copies. This book claims that women, because of their weakness and inferior intelligence, are by nature predisposed to yielding to Satan's temptations. A manual of hatred, produced at the very heart of Rhineland humanism.

Who were these women?

These women were denounced anonymously for trivial reasons. A pig that suddenly died as she walked by. A woman who was too pretty, too desirable. Accusations spread like contagion - each tortured woman was compelled to denounce her accomplices, fuelling an endless spiral.

Midwives were most at risk of being accused because they were seen as responsible for the deaths of newborns at whose births they assisted.

Anna Wickenzipfel was accused of using a magic wand not only to strike with illness those against whom she was angry, but also as a mount to travel through the air to witches' gatherings, taking her sister-in-law and a neighbour pillion behind her. Confessions extorted under torture, absurd accusations - and yet the pyre.

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The last victim - Ursule Semler, aged 73

Despite the royal ordinance of 1682 rejecting the crime of witchcraft, the last trial of 1683 still saw the death sentence passed on Ursule Semler, aged 73. A 73-year-old woman, burned alive, one year after Louis XIV had officially put an end to such trials in France. Injustice had its own timetable.

The House of Witches - S'Haxahus

Today, Bergheim has chosen not to forget. The scenography of the House of Witches - S'Haxahus - tells the story of the trials of witches judged in Bergheim from 1582 to 1683 through images, engravings, documentary films and archive documents. The trail is punctuated with short texts in French and German. A sober and powerful place of remembrance, inviting reflection on intolerance, fear of the other and the mechanisms of the scapegoat.

The witch in Alsatian imagination

Paradoxically, the witch has become one of Alsace's most popular symbols. She can be found everywhere - at Christmas markets, in souvenir shops, on Soufflenheim pottery. Smiling, riding her broomstick, wearing her pointed hat - she has transformed from a figure of terror into a benevolent regional icon. A symbolic reversal that reconciles history with life.

Today's Alsatian witch is no longer the one they burned. She is the one you give as a gift, hang on your door to protect the house, place on your shelf to remind - with a smile - that free women have always frightened narrow minds.

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Discover our selection of Alsatian witches - figurines, decorations, pottery - on decoalsace.fr - delivery across Europe.