Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany: Crime, Sin and Salvation

World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence

by Kathy Stuart

Suicide by Proxy became a major societal problem after 1650. Suicidal people committed capital crimes with the explicit goal of “earning” their executions, as a short-cut to their salvation. Desiring to die repentantly at the hands of divinely-instituted government, perpetrators hoped to escape eternal damnation that befell direct suicides. Kathy Stuart shows how this crime emerged as an unintended consequence of aggressive social disciplining campaigns by confessional states. Paradoxically, suicide by proxy exposed the limits of early modern state power, as governments struggled unsuccessfully to suppress the tactic. Some perpetrators committed arson or blasphemy, or confessed to long-past crimes, usually infanticide, or bestiality. Most frequently, however, they murdered young children, believing that their innocent victims would also enter paradise. The crime had cross-confessional appeal, as illustrated in case studies of Lutheran Hamburg and Catholic Vienna.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Psychology

486 pages, Paperback

Published February 2, 2024

Reviews

[βαβυλών · Rating 3 out of 5]

I keep trying to tell people about this book and, thrice now this has happened to me, the person I'm talking to will ask me, why? And I would misunderstand and begin explaining, "well they believed suicide was the one sin that couldn't-" But they stop me to clarify, "no, why are you reading this book?" and, well, I don't have a ready answer for that one.

[Geertje · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grim but very interesting. Stuart has done here research well and written a thorough book on this topic for sure.