The Middle Ages are often portrayed in books and films as a dark age in which tyrannical aristocrats and bloodthirsty robber knights oppressed drab, mouse‑grey‑clad peasants, and women were burned at the stake as witches without trial. This depiction bears no resemblance to historical reality. The Middle Ages were neither a colourless era nor one characterised by lawlessness and arbitrariness. Nor were they the great age of large‑scale witch burnings. This dark episode would not begin until the sixteenth century. This grim chapter of history had its beginnings in 1485, at the threshold of the Early Modern period, partly in Innsbruck. The economic and social conditions in cities such as pre‑modern Innsbruck provided fertile ground for witch trials. Cities were growing at an above‑average rate. Officials, court servants, entertainers, soldiers, traders, and other “foreign folk” stirred insecurity and mistrust. Mortality among children under the age of ten was close to 50 per cent. There were no weather forecasts by which farmers could have planned their work. Food supplies were permanently scarce, leading to an increased incidence of disease and deformities of all kinds. Medicine and science were not yet advanced enough to explain these phenomena. As a result, much was attributed to supernatural forces. Saints were invoked for assistance. Processions and prayers were intended to help people escape the devil and damnation in the afterlife. Harmful objects such as bone fragments from unbaptised deceased children or pieces of wood from a gallows were believed to bring misfortune, while relics were highly prized artefacts thought to offer protection. Even the smallest particles of a saint’s body were believed to possess powers capable of performing miracles. On the opposing side were love and illness spells, curses, and the worship of the devil.

The central figure of the Innsbruck witch trial was Heinrich Kramer, the author of the influential work Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches). Kramer was a misogynistic, superstitious religious zealot, driven by belief in the devil and the apocalypse and, unfortunately, equipped by the Pope with extraordinary authority to pursue witches. He exploited this situation to his own advantage. Like a showman, he travelled through the land as an inquisitor and arrived in Innsbruck in 1485. His arguments and sermons on magic and witchcraft fell on fertile ground there. Kramer encouraged his audience to report individuals suspected of witchcraft, an invitation that was readily taken up. Envy and resentment were part of everyday life within the urban community, and some citizens willingly used denunciation as a means of resolving disputes. Fifty people—most of them women—came under suspicion of witchcraft following denunciations by fellow citizens on charges of heresy. After arrests and interrogations, seven individuals were formally charged. The reasons for the accusations were manifold. One woman, Helene Scheuberin, for example, was accused of having magically poisoned the knight Jörg Spiess.

It was the Bishop of Brixen, Golser, who doubted Kramer’s account and intervened. His representative identified serious procedural flaws. A lawyer was appointed to represent all seven accused women in court. Ultimately, all suspects were released. The bishop ordered Kramer to leave Tyrol. “In practice, his foolishness became apparent, for he assumed much that had not been proven,” Golser wrote in a letter. For Kramer, this disappointing trial marked the starting point of a dubious career, as he felt his honour had been affronted. Following this episode, he composed The Hammer of Witches. He even introduced it with explicit reference to Innsbruck: “But what if I were to report all the cases found in that one city alone? One would have to write a book.” Kramer’s work became the standard manual for inquisitors across Europe. Almost simultaneously, around 1500, the printing press experienced its major breakthrough, greatly facilitating the dissemination of this guide to witch‑hunting and witch trials. It should be noted that most witch trials were not conducted before ecclesiastical courts. Heresy was a secular crime, for which—at least on paper—guidelines existed. Torture was regulated, which did not make it any less terrifying, but did somewhat limit arbitrariness. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 people in Europe died as heretics, witches, and sorcerers. The victims included members of the elite who aroused envy, as well as Protestants, marginalised groups, and the socially disadvantaged, who served as scapegoats for storms, disease, and other misfortunes. The ratio of women to men was approximately 3:1. After 1485, Innsbruck was spared further waves of witch persecution. The intervention of Golser and the actions of parts of the Innsbruck population played a decisive role in this outcome.