Devil’s Children: Witch Hunt and Social Stigmatization in Premodern Germany, 1601–1703

Devil’s children—this name was used for the descendants of ‘witch families’ in Fürstenberg, a commune that was part of the prince-bishopric of Paderborn. Supposedly tainted with ‘witch’s blood’, the devil’s children were stigmatized and formally and informally marginalized, with members of sixteen different families repeatedly accused of witchcraft over the course of five generations. So prolonged and effective was their labelling as witches, that some of the devil’s children embraced their designation, an internalization that could be deadly. Using numerous and varied sources, the article constructs and probes the ‘witch existence’ of these families and individuals.