Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night

Studies in Early Modern German History

by Wolfgang Behringer, H. C. Erik Midelfort (Translator)

Shaman of Oberstdorf tells the fascinating story of a sixteenth-century mountain village caught in a panic of its own making. Four hundred years ago the Bavarian alpine town of Oberstdorf, surrounded by the towering peaks of the Vorarlberg, was awash in legends and rumors of prophets and healers, of spirits and specters, of witches and soothsayers. The book focuses on the life of a horse wrangler named Chonrad Stoeckhlin [1549-1587], whose extraordinary visions of the afterlife and enthusiastic practice of the occult eventually led to his death--and to the death of a number of village women--for crimes of witchcraft.

In addition to recounting Stoeckhlin's tale, this book examines the larger world of alpine myths concerning ghosts and other spirits of the night, documenting how these myths have been abused by German political movements over the years. As an introduction to modern German witchcraft research, as a study of the local impact of the Counter Reformation, and as a historical investigation into popular culture, Behringer's book has the advantage of telling a compelling individual story amidst larger discussions of peasant raptures, magical healing, and unfamiliar alpine notions such as the "furious army," the "wild hunt," popular bonfire festivals, and eerie echoes of pagan Wotan.

Wolfgang Behringer is one of the premier historians of German witchcraft, not only because of his mastery of the subject at the regional level, but because he also writes movingly, forcefully, and with an eye for the telling anecdote. Reminiscent of such classics as The Cheese and the Worms and The Return of Martin Guerre, Shaman of Oberstdorf is an unforgettable look at early modern German folklore and culture.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Folklore, Religion, Microhistory, Textbooks

203 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

Reviews

[Mesoscope · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Shaman of Oberstdorf" weaves a captivating and far-reaching historical analysis from the story of a horse-trader and folk healer named Chonrad Stoeckhlin who lived in Algäu in southern Germany in the late 16th century. According to his own account, preserved in the record of his subsequent trials, every Eventide, four times a year, Stoeckhlin fell into a trance and traveled out of his body, joining a spectral procession of wanderers called the "night horde" or Nachtscharr.

It all began with an agreement. One night our hero stayed up too late and drank too much with a friend, and they fell to speculating on the afterlife. They made a pact that whichever of them died first would come back and tell the other what it was like.

As it so happened, Schoeckhlin's friend died a few weeks later, and, as promised, returned to tell his friend that he should give up his wicked ways, as the afterlife was a terrible place of retribution for those who gave themselves over to debauch. Stoeckhlin took up a series of austerities to atone for his sinful nature, and after a few years was met by an angel, who appeared regularly and led him and a crowd of others to various places in the heavens and hell, where he saw many wonders.

Unfortunately, this story does not end well for our hero, who ran afoul of the local bishop, and his subsequent torture drove him under torment to confess to witchcraft, and to name many other fellow witches as well, many of whom were then arrested and tried, inaugurating the first great witch trial epidemic in German history in early Modern times.

Following the template of popular microhistory established by Carlo Ginzburg, Wolfgang Behringer, a truly terrific scholar of witch trials in Germany, uses this story as a frame tale that allows him to analyze this complex and compelling story from every angle, considering the proximity of Stoeckhlin's account to folk tales and myths, examining the nature of private ecstatic religious experience, reflecting on what we know and what we don't know about the continuity of such stories with pre-Christian traditions, looking more broadly at the history of witch trials in Europe, and offering a history of how these stories have been examined by scholars. This short book covers a lot of ground with confidence and care, and he makes his arguments well, with judicious reasoning and evidence.

My only disappointment is that Berhinger didn't do more to link the stories of the Night Horde to Alpine masked festivals and celebrations that occurred in the same region, and which are known to this day - especially those concerning Frau Percht, the Bright Lady, who clearly comes from the same reservoir of mythogemes as the Nachtscharr. These customs receive little more than a passing mention in his chapter on folk beliefs.

This book is an outstanding contribution to the scholarship of the history of religions.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although a little more cautious and tentative than Carlo Ginzburg is in his studies of similar topics--the remnants of what appears to be a prehistoric shamanic strain of folk knowledge and rite in Europe in the 16th century--it's still an awesome book nonetheless.
Behringer focuses on the interrogation/inquisiting of a common Alpine herdsmen, the titular Chonrad and shows that there were folk beliefs at play (the "good society", "the good wives", night flying and battling evil witches and sorcerers) in early modern times. Much too wealthy to reduce down to a review, demanding more a score of drink rounds in some basement cellar in Bavaria, suffice to say that anyone interested in folklore, primordial faiths, and the persistence of vernacular belief systems way post-Christianity, need look no further.

[Krystal Leonardo von Seyfried · Rating 5 out of 5]

really good !!! the author is amazing in his knowledge of folk customs of the age and does an amazing job tearing apart what happened. this book spurred me on to research more into the significance of horses in germanic folk religion, because they keep coming up.. from here, to germanic tribal pagan rites in germania's forest recorded by tacitus (white horses being sacred to their worship and ceremonies) and in die Merseburger Zaubersprüche (the merseburg charms, the only written germanic pagan charms that have survived, which tell the story of wuotan and bringing horses back from injury - like the miracle of the bones behringer mentions so often here)... cool stuff. this is a great, fun way to get your toes wet in german occult history. i read it slowly cause i read a million books at once, but it is fast moving and everything. very interesting and not sloggy.

great book, excited to dive into witchcraft persecutions of bavaria by the same author :) this is just a lil appetizer lol.

[Jessie Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clear and highly contextualized look at an early modern witch-hunt in the German Alps, as well as the milieu of social, political, mythic, and religious aspects that lead to and from its dramatic events. Overall an excellent summary of the many aspects at play in witch trials in Europe at the time.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Certainly worth reading today. The parallels with certain internet fringe groups are undeniable.

[Horatio · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Hailey Read]

sometimes people just have schizophrenia /j

[Eitan]

Chonrad and Jacob sound like absolute chillers

[James Euclid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vom Fall Chonrad Stoeckhlins ausgehend wirft Behringer Schlaglichter auf diverse geisteshistorische, antropologische, sozialgeschichtliche usw Schlaglichter in die Frühe Neuzeit, nur um aus seinem knappen Wust am Ende ein beeindruckendes Bild einer Zeitenwende zu machen.

[Yumi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best historical studies on folk belief and witchcraft that I've ever read. Behringer manages to recreate the spiritual and material worlds of Stoeckhlin and other villagers, giving us a full sense of why their beliefs were so powerful and moving, even though they may seem extremely foreign and impossible to us today--peasant raptures, phantoms of the night, magical healing, witch orgies.

[JaneJane)) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3-4*
Začátek mě upřímně docela vyděsil (nudné), ale postupně to bylo stále zajímavější a zajímavější čtení.))

[Matt Giebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for school