Katharina Kepler

Katharina Kepler ( * 1546 in Eltingen in Leonberg, † April 13, 1622 ) was the mother of the imperial astronomer Johannes Kepler. She was indicted in 1615 during a witch hunt in one of the most famous witch trials Württemberg and last but not least acquitted through the efforts of its famous son in 1621.

Biography

Katharina Kepler, born Guldenmann, grew up in Eltingen. Her father was Melchior Guldermann host and mayor. She had an aunt who was later burned as a "witch". Catherine married on May 15, 1571 Heinrich Kepler, which she had probably met in the business of their father. Seven months after the wedding, she had her first child John. Between husband and wife there was always a strained relationship. The parents refused from Catherine; her father was mayor in Weil der Stadt and considered it as a bad match for his son.

In 1574, Henry was the first time in this tense atmosphere of it and became a mercenary in Belgium. In the summer of 1575 he traveled to Catherine. The two came back home and bought a house in Leonberg. In January 1589 Henry left after 18 years of marriage finally his family. He is said to have died at Augsburg a bad death. The 42 -year-old Catherine remained with their children Margaret and Christoph alone. Overall survived four of Catherine's children. My first-born John, Heinrich, Christoph later tinsmith in Leonberg was and her daughter Margaret, who married the pastor of Heumaden.

The Leonberger Vogt Lutherus unicorn rose during his tenure (1613-1629) against 15 women charged with Hexereiverdachts and let enforce against eight of them death sentences. He acted in accordance with the Leonberger city authorities and large sections of the population. They called for a relentless attack on witches. Einhorn initiated in 1615 the witchcraft trial against Katharina Kepler, the mother of the astronomer Johannes Kepler, which took place in Leonberg and Güglingen 1620/21. She narrowly escaped death by fire at the stake. The trial ended with an acquittal. After a business dispute with the wife of a glazier, Ursula Reinbold, accusing them Katharina Kepler, to have given her a bitter potion in which she was ill. Kepler took care of his mother's defense. It was unusual that in a witch trial defense counsel was allowed. Here he had an legal opinion of the University of Tübingen to help, which goes back well on his college friend Besold. Kepler took the meantime, in December 1616 after Linz in Upper Austria, but she returned and was arrested in the summer of 1620 in the rectory. It was connected in a room in the city gate to an iron chain. Two strong men guarded day and night dreiundsiebzigjährige woman. For the cost of the accused and their families had come up. 14 months she lay in chains, and the records of their trial piled up into mountains.

When she finally the torture instruments were shown to force a confession, she remained steadfast: " You said you do with it what you will, and if you would also pull out their every vein from the body, so she knew nothing to confess ... she wanted to die out, and God will reveal after her death, that their injustice and violence done ... ". In October 1621, her son Johannes Kepler was able to assert their release. Katharina Kepler died a year later, probably in Roßwälden. Your place of burial is documented not been established.

Aftermath

Katharina Kepler is one of the main characters in Paul Hindemith's opera Die Harmonie der Welt.