Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Germany: Courts and Adjudicatory Practices in Frankfurt am Main, 1562-1696

Description

First published 2013 by Ashgate Publishing. Frankfurt am Main, in common with other imperial German cities, enjoyed a large degree of legal autonomy during the early modern period, and produced a unique and rich body of criminal archives. In particular, Frankfurt’s Strafenbuch, which records all criminal sentences between 1562 and 1696, provides a fascinating insight into contemporary penal trends. Drawing on this and other rich resources, Dr. Boes reveals shifting and fluid attitudes towards crime and punishment and how these were conditioned by issues of gender, class, and social standing within the city’s establishment. She attributes a significant role in this process to the steady proliferation of municipal advocates, jurists trained in Roman Law, who wielded growing legal and penal prerogatives. Over the course of the book, it is demonstrated how the courts took an increasingly hard line with select groups of people accused of criminal behavior, and the open manner with which advocates exercised cultural, religious, racial, gender, and sexual-orientation repressions. Parallel with this, however, is identified a trend of marked leniency towards soldiers who enjoyed an increasingly privileged place within the judicial system. In light of this discrepancy between the treatment of civilians and soldiers, the advocates’ actions highlight the emergence and spread of a distinct military judicial culture and Frankfurt’s city council’s contribution to the quasi-militarization of a civilian court. By highlighting the polarized and changing ways the courts dealt with civilian and military criminals, a fuller picture is presented not just of Frankfurt’s sentencing and penal practices, but of broader attitudes within early modern Germany to issues of social position and cultural identity. List of Figures and Tables vii Preface and Acknowledgments ix Part I: The City’s Profile 1. Socio-Economic and Religious Background 3 2. Legal/Judicial Setting 25 Part II: Criminal Detection Methods 3. Public Appearance and Criminal Judicial Practices in Early Modern Germany 53 Part III: Cultural and Religious/Racial Impediments 4. On Cultural Crossroads: Gypsies on Trial 71 5. Targeted Twice: Jews as Individual Criminal and Judicial Victims 93 6. Enough is Enough: Two Jewish Resistance Trials 113 Part IV: Gender Issues 7. Women and the Penal System in Frankfurt am Main, 1562–1696 135 8. Women Bonding: Collaborative Infanticide 145 9. Choosing Death Over Shame: Unwed Mothers and Infanticide 165 Part V: Sexual Behavior 10. On Trial for Sodomy in Early Modern Germany 183 Part VI: Military Ascendancy 11. Judicial Treatment of Soldiers for Killings Unrelated to the Battlefield 205 Part VII: Desperate Acts 12. Escapes from Judgment: Self-Inflicted Deaths of Criminal Suspects 237 Conclusion 267 Index 275