Dietrich Flade

Dietrich Flade (c. 1534 – 18 September 1589) was a German lawyer, political appointee, and judge who was the most prominent victim of the Trier witch trials. He presided over at least eight trials as a judge until he, too, was arrested and executed for witchcraft.

Early life and political career

Flade, born around 1534, was the son of Stadtschreiber (town clerk or secretary) Johann Flade and his wife, Margareta von Längenfeld. He studied law and married Barbara Reichwein, widow of Simon Reichwein, personal physician to Archbishops-Electors Johann III, Johann V of Isenburg-Grenzau, and Johann VI von der Leyen. Barbara (née Walther) was herself originally from an influential Augsburg patrician family and brought a sizeable dowry to the marriage. She predeceased Flade. By 1559, Flade was an electoral councillor (advisor) to the Electorate of Trier's government. That year saw Flade support the suppression of Trier's Protestant faction, led by Caspar Olevian, and their attempts to gain greater autonomy for Trier as a city.

In 1580, Trier's municipal government petitioned the Aulic Council to challenge the authority of Jakob von Eltz-Rübenach, Archbishop-Elector of Trier. If successful, the suit (with funds borrowed from Flade) would have resulted in Trier becoming an imperial city, thus gaining independence from its elector. Flade supported Eltz-Rübenach in challenging the expensive legal suit, which ended in the municipal government losing and entering a period of economic depression. Flade, however, was rewarded for his loyalty with appointments as a municipal judge and vice-governor of Trier. Trier's governor, Johann Zandt von Merl, quickly viewed Flade as a political rival.

During the early 1580s, Flade used his wealth to loan money to peasant farmers who had experienced crop failures. He subsequently developed a reputation for profiteering from the poverty of those who borrowed from him, and was described as "notoriously avaricious" by Johann von Schönenberg, who succeeded Jakob von Eltz-Rübenach as Trier's elector. In 1586, he became rector of the University of Trier.

Accusations of witchcraft

Trier experienced financial troubles in the early 1580s, partly due to crop failures and partly due to expenses incurred by the municipality during its suit against Archbishop-Elector Eltz-Rübenach. During this period of unrest, the city hosted successive witch hunts from 1581 to 1593, known as the Trier witch trials.

In early 1587, a teenage boy named Matthias underwent an exorcism after confessing to sorcery. According to Trier's governor Zandt, Matthias described encountering Flade at a Witches' Sabbath. Between July and October of that year, at least three different accused witches made similar accusations against Flade. It is possible these allegations were encouraged by Governor Zandt, owing to the power struggle between the two men.

Some historians posited that Flade was accused of witchcraft because, leery of the witch hysteria and of confessions obtained through torture, he had imposed more moderate sentences on accused witches than Zandt would have preferred. However, in the 1990s, historian Johannes Dillinger found records of trials over which Flade had presided which suggest, rather, that he had been a "keen witch hunter" who treated defendants severely. Surviving records suggest he sentenced at least eight women to death for witchcraft, and attempted to force the women to confess.

Rumours of Flade's alleged involvement in witchcraft spread throughout Trier but Flade did not act until April 1588 when a woman named Margarethe von Euren similarly testified that she had encountered him at a Witch's Sabbath. She alleged he had beaten her for refusing to participate in cursing local crops. Flade sought permission from Governor Zandt to send three friends to question von Euren but she maintained her story so strongly that one of his friends was unwilling to dismiss her entirely, stating: "[It] seemed as if the Devil spoke out of her".

Arrest, trial, and execution

By September 1588, Flade was the subject of twenty allegations. Among his accusers were alleged witches who also owed Flade money. Flade attempted to flee Trier in October but was prevented from doing so by local authorities. A second attempt to flee (with Johann von Eltz, the commander of the Teutonic Knights in Trier) was thwarted when a mob followed and the commander returned Flade, forcing the latter to seek refuge in Trier's cathedral. While in hiding, he made a written appeal to Archbishop-Elector Johann von Schönenberg, offering to donate his property and to enter monastic life.

On 14 January 1589, Archbishop-Elector Johann von Schönenberg consulted the University of Trier's theological faculty regarding the accusations made against Flade. He believed Flade had only offered to donate his assets due to a guilty conscience. By this time, twenty-three people who had been executed for witchcraft by various regional courts had named Flade as a witch. The theological faculty evaluated the case and ultimately concurred with von Schönenberg's assessment.

Flade was arrested in April 1589, and his trial began in August. He confessed to the charges against him after being tortured, and was subsequently sentenced to death. He was publicly executed on 18 September 1589 by strangulation, after which his body was burnt and his ashes scattered far and wide.

Fortune

Flade's fortune was so large that, during his time as mayor, the city of Trier borrowed 4,000 gold guilders from him to finance a lawsuit for imperial immediacy. The city lost but, after Flade's execution, the Archbishop-Elector revoked the promissory note. He obligated the city to henceforth pay the interest to the five inner-city parishes – “to supplement the pastors' salaries.” In mid-March 2024, interest payments were finally stopped after 435 years.

References

  1. ↑ Der Fall des Trier Stadtschultheißen Dr. Dietrich Flade: Vom Hexenrichter zum Hexenmeister. In: Damals. Das Magazin für Geschichte und Kultur 6, 2002
  2. ↑ Adams, Herbert B. (1890). Secretary's Report of the Proceedings at the Sixth Annual Meeting: Washington, D.C. December 28-31, 1889. London. p. 59.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Golden, Richard M. (2006-01-30). Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition [4 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 378. ISBN 978-1-85109-512-4.
  4. ↑ Berthold Seewald. "An diesem Hexenmord verdient die Kirche noch heute". welt.de. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Walinski-Kiehl, Robert (2000). "Review of 'Boese Leute': Hexenverfolgungen in Schwaebisch-Oesterreich und Kurtrier im Vergleich (Evil People: Witchcraft Persecutions in Swabian Austria and the Electorate of Trier in Comparative Perspective)". Social History. 25 (3). Taylor & Francis, Ltd.: 346–348. ISSN 0307-1022. JSTOR 4286684.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Chang, Gordon C. (2023), Chang, Gordon C. (ed.), "Building Internal Coherence", Revolution and Witchcraft: The Code of Ideology in Unsettled Times, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 65–92, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-17682-1_3, ISBN 978-3-031-17681-4, retrieved 2026-08-29{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Hoyt, Charles Alva (1989). Witchcraft. SIU Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 978-0-8093-1544-4.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kors, Alan Charles; Peters, Edward (2000-12-27). Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 309–313. ISBN 978-0-8122-3585-2.
  9. ↑ Robbins, Rossell Hope (2022-03-29). The Encyclopedia Of Witchcraft & Demonology. Echo Point Books & Media. p. 201.
  10. 1 2 3 Sebald, Hans (1995-03-01). Witch-Children: From Salem Witch-Hunts to Modern Courtrooms. Globe Pequot Publishing. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-87975-965-0.
  11. 1 2 Netzley, Patricia D. (2009-06-25). Witchcraft. Greenhaven Publishing LLC. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-7377-4638-9.
  12. ↑ Trevor-Roper, Hugh Redwald (1990). The European Witch-craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Penguin. pp. 76–77.
  13. ↑ Voltmer, Rita (2019-11-26). "Debating the Devil's Clergy. Demonology and the Media in Dialogue with Trials (14th to 17th Century)". Religions. 10 (12): 648. doi:10.3390/rel10120648.
  14. 1 2 3 Johnstone, Nathan (2018-06-11). The New Atheism, Myth, and History: The Black Legends of Contemporary Anti-Religion. Springer. pp. 164–165. ISBN 978-3-319-89456-0.
  15. ↑ White, Andrew Dickson (1896). A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom. Macmillan. p. 357.
  16. ↑ Pavlac, Brian A. (2009-02-17). Witch Hunts in the Western World: Persecution and Punishment from the Inquisition through the Salem Trials. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-313-34874-7.
  17. ↑ Witchcraft Reimagined (2026-02-02). He Was the Judge… Until They Wanted His Money (Dietrich Flade). Retrieved 2026-10-03 – via YouTube.
  18. ↑ Zimmermann, Steffen. "Warum die Kirche nach 435 Jahren auf Zinsen eines "Hexers" verzichtet". Retrieved 2024-04-08.