Prosecuting Injuries in Early Modern Germany (ca. 1550–1650)

Abstract

On Saturday, September 4, 1610, an urgent message arrived at the criminal court (Zentgericht) of Remlingen from the nearby rural market of Neubrunn: a dangerous criminal by the name of Georg Schmid, alias “Baker Georg,” had been apprehended the previous day, and the officials of the Zentgericht should come and get him. The chief magistrate (Zentgraf) Johann Müller, together with the court clerk and one of the jurors, accordingly rode out to Neubrunn, where the prisoner was handed over, but with the condition, as Müller subsequently reported,that if the prisoner should be released alive, and if he should cause any harm to any members of the community of Neubrunn in either the village [itself] or its fields, that they would in every case seek to recover these [damages] from the Remlingen Zentgericht, and moreover, that if they had reason to believe that the evildoer would [in fact] escape in this way, they would prefer that he die in prison.