Station: [301] Hexenprozesse

Witch trials Already in the late Middle Ages (15th century) it came to the first witch trials in Switzerland, the European witchcraft reached its greatest extent, however, in the early modern period (1500-1789). People did not have the same collateral, protection and technology we have today. They were exposed to external influences such as forces of nature or epidemics and could rationally explain them neither as rationally as personal strokes of fate. Major catastrophes include the so-called Little Ice Age (between 1570-1630), the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and the plague waves.