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A Demon-Haunted Land: Witches, Wonder Doctors, and the Ghosts of the Past in Post-WWII Germany
A revelatory counterhistory of postwar Germany, not as a reborn democracy but as a nation convulsed by apocalyptic visions, witchcraft fears, and supernatural obsessions
In the aftermath of World War II, a succession of mass supernatural events swept through war-torn Germany. A messianic faith healer rose to extraordinary fame; enormous crowds traveled to witness apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Most strikingly, scores of people accused their neighbors of witchcraft, and found themselves in turn hauled into court in turn on charges of defamation, assault, and even murder.
While many histories emphasize Germany's rapid transition from genocidal dictatorship to liberal democracy, A Demon-Haunted Land places in full view the toxic mistrust and spiritual malaise that unfolded alongside the economic miracle. Drawing on previously unpublished archival materials, acclaimed historian Monica Black argues that the surge of supernatural obsessions stemmed from the unspoken guilt and shame of a nation remarkably silent about what was euphemistically called "the most recent past." This shadow history irrevocably changes our view of postwar Germany, revealing the cost of trying to bury a horrific legacy.
In the aftermath of World War II, a succession of mass supernatural events swept through war-torn Germany. A messianic faith healer rose to extraordinary fame; enormous crowds traveled to witness apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Most strikingly, scores of people accused their neighbors of witchcraft, and found themselves in turn hauled into court in turn on charges of defamation, assault, and even murder.
While many histories emphasize Germany's rapid transition from genocidal dictatorship to liberal democracy, A Demon-Haunted Land places in full view the toxic mistrust and spiritual malaise that unfolded alongside the economic miracle. Drawing on previously unpublished archival materials, acclaimed historian Monica Black argues that the surge of supernatural obsessions stemmed from the unspoken guilt and shame of a nation remarkably silent about what was euphemistically called "the most recent past." This shadow history irrevocably changes our view of postwar Germany, revealing the cost of trying to bury a horrific legacy.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 6, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
December 14, 2020
Interesting and well-researched, but not what I was expecting based on the title. It’s more a look at faith healers in post-WWII Germany. The trauma of the war and a collective guilt and fear of divine retribution is noted as the cause for hope in more faith-based treatments. Much of the book is also focused on a particular faith healer.
November 24, 2024
Tej historii Niemiec nie znałam, więc dobrze było nareszcie sięgnąć po książkę, choć ma swoje (literackie) wady.
May 26, 2020
I enjoyed this! It was definitely different than what I originally had expected but was really good. It amazes me the lengths and what people would go through to get past WWII. It was kind of a different perspective on like faith healing and what people believed that witchcraft could do for them. Then all the misguided faith in what would help the people in regards to their grief, guilt and any kind of wound physical or mental. Definitely a book I want to revist and a book that when reading don't expect to fly through it. There is a lot of detailed information and its very eye opening to the beliefs at that time.
August 13, 2020
#ADemonHauntedLand #NetGalley
This book was absolutely fascinating from beginning to end. Occasionally during my research of WWII, I enjoy looking at the periods before and after the war. This book gives the reader a glimpse of German life and beliefs that many other books do not. The author has done an incredible job of writing a book that is both informative and exciting for the reader.
I found the sections of the book dealing with Bruno Groning particularly interesting. This author delved deep into the ideals of mysticism in the German lands and allowed the reader to explore how the belief systems in said country changed after the war.
The depictions of faith healing in front of enormous crowds were particularly fascinating since it hadn't been many years before that large crowds were gathering in rural areas and cities in Germany for a different reason. This book really highlights the sense of desperation and hope that people have even during the worst of times.
This is one of my favourite non-fiction books of the year, and I would be remiss if I did not recommend it to others.
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
This book was absolutely fascinating from beginning to end. Occasionally during my research of WWII, I enjoy looking at the periods before and after the war. This book gives the reader a glimpse of German life and beliefs that many other books do not. The author has done an incredible job of writing a book that is both informative and exciting for the reader.
I found the sections of the book dealing with Bruno Groning particularly interesting. This author delved deep into the ideals of mysticism in the German lands and allowed the reader to explore how the belief systems in said country changed after the war.
The depictions of faith healing in front of enormous crowds were particularly fascinating since it hadn't been many years before that large crowds were gathering in rural areas and cities in Germany for a different reason. This book really highlights the sense of desperation and hope that people have even during the worst of times.
This is one of my favourite non-fiction books of the year, and I would be remiss if I did not recommend it to others.
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
February 6, 2021
This book wasn't what I expected it to be. I thought we will get a general story of post WWII 'supernatural' occurences, but instead we got a biography of one Wunderdoktor (more or less). Nevertheless, it was an interesting read I would recommend. The Gröning story is quite interesting, and in some cases it makes you wonder if he was trying to become a new national figure who is in a way simillar to THE führer.
'The past refuses to be denied. History has ways of making itself felt no matter how sharply rebuffed, how studiously disavowed.'
'Sometimes, we just have to listen for what the ghosts have to tell.'
'The past refuses to be denied. History has ways of making itself felt no matter how sharply rebuffed, how studiously disavowed.'
'Sometimes, we just have to listen for what the ghosts have to tell.'
April 6, 2022
Nope. Начала за здравие, но до конца "упокоя" я даже не добралась.
Начало обещало глубокий анализ того, как немцы и немецкое гражданское общество справлялись с кризисом после второй мировой войны: как находили себе место после третьего рейха, как переживали денацификацию, справлялись со стрессом и стыдом. Первые главы в этом плане очень интересны, дают новый perspective и перекликаются с моими текущими мыслями. Духоподьемная хтонь.
Но как только заканчивается вводная часть, все сводится к повествованию с точки зрения одного примера "колдуна" той эпохи и манера повествования заставляет сомневаться в достоверности источников. Все ещё можно вычленить описание более общей картины, но это крупицы, а я уже не доверяю написанному.
Начало обещало глубокий анализ того, как немцы и немецкое гражданское общество справлялись с кризисом после второй мировой войны: как находили себе место после третьего рейха, как переживали денацификацию, справлялись со стрессом и стыдом. Первые главы в этом плане очень интересны, дают новый perspective и перекликаются с моими текущими мыслями. Духоподьемная хтонь.
Но как только заканчивается вводная часть, все сводится к повествованию с точки зрения одного примера "колдуна" той эпохи и манера повествования заставляет сомневаться в достоверности источников. Все ещё можно вычленить описание более общей картины, но это крупицы, а я уже не доверяю написанному.
December 5, 2024
Very interesting topic, but the book is surprisingly repetitive. I really wish it didn't focus as much on one particular healer, as important as he was - I was much more interested in the discussion of collective guilt, shame and processing war crimes through a turn towards the supernatural and continued denial. It seemed to promise a much deeper analysis of how everyday Germans coped with WWII and the war crimes the country was responsible for, which would have been fascinating, but this was never explored in-depth, beyond broad statements. It's still a fairly thought-provoking book, but I expected a lot more - it peaks in the first couple of chapters.
May 6, 2023
This book should come with a Deceptive Title Warning. There are no witches in this book. No ghosts of the past and no wonder doctors. This whole book is a hidden biography about just one wonder doctor, one pseudo healer who had 3 different identities. And, on top of it all, this book is so repetitive. The same opinions and facts and repeated over and over again making it too long to read for nothing. So disappointing. If I would have know, I would have never bought this book. Now I need to find another book about witches in post WWII Germany...
June 18, 2021
Not what I was expecting at all. I can tell this is very researched but just did not hold enough to keep my attention. I love the ghost stories, witchcraft etc. But I jumped around and skipped pages.
December 22, 2020
More a biography of the mystic Bruno Gröning than a catchall of German marginal personalities of the immediate post-war period.
Black's reading of Gröning is more vulgar freudo-marxist/cultural materialism than an elegant investigation of German mysticism as a consequence of failure in their political and war efforts.
The biggest problem for this book is the argument does not hold together, or convince the reader. Specifically, the argument that the psychic trauma left behind by the national socialists was channeled into occult subversion and repression. This would work if the occult was not a subset of German culture back into the 19th Century. Occult mania in Germany was a powerful influence before the war, during it, and for nearly a decade afterward. When this exhausted itself, the German people turned to materialism, capitalism, and futurism as a way to distance themselves from the trauma of their haunted past.
The extended biography, most of the book is consumed by this, of Bruno Gröning, is interesting but it does not save Black's argument.
Rating 2 out of 5 Stars
Most may safely give this book a pass.
Black's reading of Gröning is more vulgar freudo-marxist/cultural materialism than an elegant investigation of German mysticism as a consequence of failure in their political and war efforts.
The biggest problem for this book is the argument does not hold together, or convince the reader. Specifically, the argument that the psychic trauma left behind by the national socialists was channeled into occult subversion and repression. This would work if the occult was not a subset of German culture back into the 19th Century. Occult mania in Germany was a powerful influence before the war, during it, and for nearly a decade afterward. When this exhausted itself, the German people turned to materialism, capitalism, and futurism as a way to distance themselves from the trauma of their haunted past.
The extended biography, most of the book is consumed by this, of Bruno Gröning, is interesting but it does not save Black's argument.
Rating 2 out of 5 Stars
Most may safely give this book a pass.
May 5, 2021
This book is basically the story of faith healers in Western Germany after the war, especially one called Bruno Groning who became very populair in the late 40s. Faith healers are universal as are incidents of -assumed- witchcraft or exorcism but Black tries to tie them all together as a direct result of the state the nation and its people were in after the Nazi's were defeated and is not very convincing in this. There may well has been a greater need for figures like Groning to bring comfort and make sense of it all but the claim that the whole nation was swept away by Witches and Wonder healers -as is written on the cover- is not even clear from Blacks own account of the facts. Too bad, really, because she could have written an interesting story about the state of mind of the Germans after World War II but she gets stuck in a often too detailed mix of sensationalism and speculation.
November 14, 2022
Inevitably something of a work of supposition and speculation, the author takes an interesting angle on how the social strains of post-1945 Germany led to an embrace of supposedly supernatural folk belief. Most of this book focuses on the phenomena of the faith healer Bruno Groning, or a wave of lawsuits and trials relating to the practice of witchcraft (usually instigated by the accused "witches"), and what it says about all the issues in the wake of the Third Reich that "couldn't" be talked about, in terms of just recompense and just retribution, when so many hands were dirty, and imaginations failed at how this abyss of human behavior had been reached. I have to admit that the overall impact is a little slighter than I thought it might be, but I was still happy to learn about some history which I was totally ignorant of.
Actual rating: The all-purpose 3.5 stars.
Actual rating: The all-purpose 3.5 stars.
January 29, 2021
This was an interesting book, but in a quieter way than I feel like the marketing promised.
Very in-depth and thorough, it was clearly well researched and the author knows the source material, but at times I did struggle to hold on to the narrative thread.
If you're looking for a light, pop-history type book (which I admit, I was) this is not the book for you. If you lean more towards the scholarly and academic, though, it might be, especially if you're interested in post WWII European history.
Very in-depth and thorough, it was clearly well researched and the author knows the source material, but at times I did struggle to hold on to the narrative thread.
If you're looking for a light, pop-history type book (which I admit, I was) this is not the book for you. If you lean more towards the scholarly and academic, though, it might be, especially if you're interested in post WWII European history.
August 21, 2022
I don’t know; but I don’t think Monica Black quite knows either… hmmm…
My Full Review →
My Full Review →
June 17, 2022
The premise of Monica Black's book is that post-WWII Germany was in a state of paranoia, collective guilt, and desperation. The weight of Nazi Germany's atrocities and crimes had broken the national spirit. The author presents this canvas as the perfect setting for what came next - social, spiritual, and moral disorder and chaos. The author is meticulous in capturing events, national sentiment, and influential people who brought on this period of pervading evil in a country given over to evil by the Nazis. She covers the malaise and desperation which gripped Germany from 1945 into the 1960s.
Ms. Black also writes extensively about a popular faith healer of the time. Bruno Groning. The 'wunderdoktor' defied tests and all attempts to discredit him and rode of popularity and success in the late-1940s and early-1950s. He was suspected of having supernatural powers by even the most skeptical of doubters. He was either an agent of the Lord or the devil. The country was also fixed on a Marian visions near Nuremberg from 1949 to1952. The author also shed a light on Waldemar Eberling, a Hexenbanner or witch banisher who operated in Germang during the 1940s into the 1950s. Like Groning. Eberling enjoyed a loyal following and harsh critics. His visions, cures. And spiritual battles with evil made him legendary among Germans. A lawsuit of fraud was brought against the ya healer but he was not convicted amidst claims of him being a watch. The paranoia was at a high level with these witch accusations and hunts. The comparison to the heinous scapegoating suffered by the Jewish people during the pre-WWII was unavoidable and cautionary. Still, the social upheaval continued.
The author also shed light on the noble crusade ofJohann Kruse. The former school teacher and small town mayor fought to stop the paranoia. While cabalistic and magic books were banned as a result, anti-semitism continued to flourish in Germany into the late-1950s. The blind faith of an afflcited Germany saw many former-Nazis and the general populaus embrace thes faith healers. Their deaths by the late-1950s reflected teh social and cultural death of Germany - hope replaced factual reliance. Post-war German society wanted a 'savior' and a movement ot a 'rebuilding' stage. The de-Nazification of Germany gave birth to the period of upheaval. The witch scares and mystical helaings raised questions of knowledge, ideas, and challenging the status quo.
While all these points and questions form the basis of many discussions, I must say that I was slightly disappointed with Monica Black's book. It started as a narrative about paranoai and fnaticism but ended up being a biographical accoint o Bruno Groning. Well done, but . . .
Ms. Black also writes extensively about a popular faith healer of the time. Bruno Groning. The 'wunderdoktor' defied tests and all attempts to discredit him and rode of popularity and success in the late-1940s and early-1950s. He was suspected of having supernatural powers by even the most skeptical of doubters. He was either an agent of the Lord or the devil. The country was also fixed on a Marian visions near Nuremberg from 1949 to1952. The author also shed a light on Waldemar Eberling, a Hexenbanner or witch banisher who operated in Germang during the 1940s into the 1950s. Like Groning. Eberling enjoyed a loyal following and harsh critics. His visions, cures. And spiritual battles with evil made him legendary among Germans. A lawsuit of fraud was brought against the ya healer but he was not convicted amidst claims of him being a watch. The paranoia was at a high level with these witch accusations and hunts. The comparison to the heinous scapegoating suffered by the Jewish people during the pre-WWII was unavoidable and cautionary. Still, the social upheaval continued.
The author also shed light on the noble crusade ofJohann Kruse. The former school teacher and small town mayor fought to stop the paranoia. While cabalistic and magic books were banned as a result, anti-semitism continued to flourish in Germany into the late-1950s. The blind faith of an afflcited Germany saw many former-Nazis and the general populaus embrace thes faith healers. Their deaths by the late-1950s reflected teh social and cultural death of Germany - hope replaced factual reliance. Post-war German society wanted a 'savior' and a movement ot a 'rebuilding' stage. The de-Nazification of Germany gave birth to the period of upheaval. The witch scares and mystical helaings raised questions of knowledge, ideas, and challenging the status quo.
While all these points and questions form the basis of many discussions, I must say that I was slightly disappointed with Monica Black's book. It started as a narrative about paranoai and fnaticism but ended up being a biographical accoint o Bruno Groning. Well done, but . . .
January 13, 2025
Um estudo acadêmico e social fascinante e assustador. "A Terra Assombrada por Demônios" de Monica Black é uma obra que mergulha nas complexidades do pós-guerra na Alemanha, explorando como o país lidou com os traumas e as cicatrizes deixadas pelo regime nazista. O livro examina a onda de misticismo, aparições de fantasmas e crenças no sobrenatural e no mágico que surgiram em meio à desilusão e ao tumulto social pós-Hitler. Black oferece uma análise perspicaz de como fantasmas e demônios, tanto literais quanto metafóricos, assombraram uma nação em reconstrução, destacando a luta entre a razão e o irracional num período de profundas transformações culturais e sociais. A edição de "A Terra Assombrada por Demônios" pela DarkSide Books é uma obra-prima visual, refletindo o cuidado e a atenção aos detalhes que são marcas registradas da editora. A DarkSide se destaca pelo capricho gráfico, com uma capa belíssima e intrigante que captura perfeitamente a atmosfera sombria e misteriosa do livro. O projeto gráfico interno complementa a experiência de leitura, com fotos e ilustrações que enriquecem a jornada do leitor.
March 20, 2025
Книга, которую когда то приобрела по восторженным отзывам. Выброшенное на ветер время и деньги..
Не смотря на захватывающую аннотация в основном сюжет - это в основном рассказ о деятельности шарлатана целителя Бруно Грёнинге, его становление популярной личностью, идолом, своего рода судом над ним и т.д. Другие примеры, как охота на ведьм, упомянуты лишь поверхностно.
Рассказано это в довольно скучной манере и так и не смогла определить - с какой целью? Почему послевоенная Германия, если примеры масштабного обмана лже-целителей можно встретить в любое время и даже сегодня? Даже если теперь фокус сдвинут с целительства тела на целительство души и достижения благосостояния с помощью рекомендаций от “просвещенных гуру”, которые научат как надо.
Людская наивность и необходимость верить в чудо - вечные спутники человеческой истории.
Не смотря на захватывающую аннотация в основном сюжет - это в основном рассказ о деятельности шарлатана целителя Бруно Грёнинге, его становление популярной личностью, идолом, своего рода судом над ним и т.д. Другие примеры, как охота на ведьм, упомянуты лишь поверхностно.
Рассказано это в довольно скучной манере и так и не смогла определить - с какой целью? Почему послевоенная Германия, если примеры масштабного обмана лже-целителей можно встретить в любое время и даже сегодня? Даже если теперь фокус сдвинут с целительства тела на целительство души и достижения благосостояния с помощью рекомендаций от “просвещенных гуру”, которые научат как надо.
Людская наивность и необходимость верить в чудо - вечные спутники человеческой истории.
November 11, 2022
Складно читати зараз про війну, колективну відповідальність, заперечення причетності до знищення людей з боку окупантів і не проектувати ці події на 2022 рік. Деякі цитати, мені здавалось, зовсім не про 1945, а про сьогодні. Тому книга мене дуже захопила.
Гіпотеза Блек у тому, що сплеск віри у відьом та поява купи цілителів, за якими ходили натовпи, очікуючи, що ті вилікують усе від параліча до депресії, у післявоєнні роки пов‘язана з непроговореною колективною провиною та непроговоренним колективним усвідомленням своєї причетності до війни та Голокосту. Чарівні зцілення болячок давало колишнім колаборантам або ж тодішнім «внєполітікі» ніби відпущення гріхів, дозвіл на те, щоб жити далі без вини й муки про скоєне або ж те, чому ти не запобіг(ла).
Цікаве й доволі детальне дослідження, загалом. На стику історичної антропології, історії релігії і медицини.
Гіпотеза Блек у тому, що сплеск віри у відьом та поява купи цілителів, за якими ходили натовпи, очікуючи, що ті вилікують усе від параліча до депресії, у післявоєнні роки пов‘язана з непроговореною колективною провиною та непроговоренним колективним усвідомленням своєї причетності до війни та Голокосту. Чарівні зцілення болячок давало колишнім колаборантам або ж тодішнім «внєполітікі» ніби відпущення гріхів, дозвіл на те, щоб жити далі без вини й муки про скоєне або ж те, чому ти не запобіг(ла).
Цікаве й доволі детальне дослідження, загалом. На стику історичної антропології, історії релігії і медицини.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 14, 2020
This book was fascinating, haunting, and utterly unforgettable. I will not forget this book in a hurry, and it has become an essential addition to my nonfiction collection. An excellent example of "liberal arts nonfiction," this book touches on everything through the dissection of an extremely niche chapter in world history.
Read
February 2, 2021The introduction and first chapter are fascinating. However, I struggled to remain interested in the rest of the book, and I found its organization disjointed. The audiobook narration is also quite choppy, but this may be a side effect of attempting to adapt a quotation-heavy work of nonfiction.
The book is interesting as a case study, but also exhaustive as one, and I wanted more from the conclusion.
Personally, i was more interested in the psychology and culture of post-war Germany as a whole, and I will be seeking out further reading on these subjects.
The book is interesting as a case study, but also exhaustive as one, and I wanted more from the conclusion.
Personally, i was more interested in the psychology and culture of post-war Germany as a whole, and I will be seeking out further reading on these subjects.
January 11, 2023
This book is amazing. It’s dense, but it’s worth it. Don’t listen to the reviews that don’t understand what this book is about- that’s a reader problem. This is The Body Keeps The Score for historians.
This is about Germany after the Holocaust, before reconstruction. It is not about ghosts, it’s about trauma, it’s about a scandalized and violated nation, and it’s about history repeating itself- I’m not so many words
This is about Germany after the Holocaust, before reconstruction. It is not about ghosts, it’s about trauma, it’s about a scandalized and violated nation, and it’s about history repeating itself- I’m not so many words
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2025
資料仔細、時代剪影般的視角也珍貴。
內容是有趣的（提迷信/崇拜/獵巫。並強調戰後的疏離、躁動、發洩或渴望解脫，與在尋求奇蹟或社會產生猜疑之際，這種種情緒與戰時/戰前的連結），但案例有限。是很聚焦、專注於特定點的主題式敘述。
以及，作者想要從反向來詮釋（如何解讀沉默？空白表達了什麼？這些現狀象徵的因與果）時幾乎感到其觀點大於史料所呈現。看得到意義剪裁之後附著其上的痕跡……不過給出的聲音足夠豐富，所以同意與否就看個人吧
內容是有趣的（提迷信/崇拜/獵巫。並強調戰後的疏離、躁動、發洩或渴望解脫，與在尋求奇蹟或社會產生猜疑之際，這種種情緒與戰時/戰前的連結），但案例有限。是很聚焦、專注於特定點的主題式敘述。
以及，作者想要從反向來詮釋（如何解讀沉默？空白表達了什麼？這些現狀象徵的因與果）時幾乎感到其觀點大於史料所呈現。看得到意義剪裁之後附著其上的痕跡……不過給出的聲音足夠豐富，所以同意與否就看個人吧
December 20, 2020
This was interesting! I truly enjoyed this.
I'm wondering if anymore nonfiction is similar to A Demon-Haunted Land?
I'm wondering if anymore nonfiction is similar to A Demon-Haunted Land?
March 30, 2021
Ok book, it could have been shorter.
April 6, 2023
Довольно любопытное исследование того, как немцы на руинах своего Рейха пытались как-то справиться с отлетевшей кукухой. Что-то мне подсказывает, что нас скоро ждёт походая история.
June 11, 2024
Рассчитывал на какую-то более захватывающую историю, название интриговало. Но не хватило материала у автора или все оказалось немного прозаичнее - целители и всяческий оккультный шлак всплывают в неспокойные времена, неудивительно что в послевоенной Германии это и произошло, был там и свой Кашпировский, но с церковным уклоном - вот и вся идея книги.
December 19, 2025
Lengthy and a little too textbook like for me. I got bored.
March 26, 2022
Very insightful on West German history After WWII.
I learned a lot about the impact of denazification on people‘s everyday life.
From middle to the end of this Book I was struggling to read further. For My Guts it was overloaded with detailed descriptions of individual cases.
I learned a lot about the impact of denazification on people‘s everyday life.
From middle to the end of this Book I was struggling to read further. For My Guts it was overloaded with detailed descriptions of individual cases.
August 25, 2022
Отличная вводная часть про ментальное и психическое состояние немецкого общества в первые годы войны, мастрид. Основной материал книги — история целителей, которые в этом контексте выполняли определенную функцию для травмированного общества.
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