History podcast: The witch trial - how the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler saved his mother

She is said to have walked through closed doors, brewed ominous tinctures that spread disease, even wine is said to have bewitched her - that's what neighbors claimed about Katharina Kepler in 1615.

It could have been a witch trial like many others at the time, had it not happened that the son of the accused was Johannes Kepler, one of the most famous astronomers in world history.

And he personally took over his mother's defense: in an amazing, most impressive way.

For a year, Kepler took a year off from research to study the allegations against his mother, become acquainted with the accusers, and seek legal advice. With strictly rational arguments he tried to challenge the credibility of the accusation - even if some of his supposedly strictly scientific thoughts seem no less strange than the belief in witches from today's perspective: For example, the scientist discredited a prosecutor by saying that she had suppressed her menstrual bleeding, causing blood to flow out to evaporate from her body, creating confusion in her mind.

"This theory was up to date," says history professor Ulinka Rublack in the podcast interview, "Kepler even sought advice in order to be medically up to date." However, Kepler was smart enough, no "reality fetishism «, the historian goes on to explain: »He was smart enough to think about where the questions of what is rational and what is belief can also become blurred.« For example, in his extensive written defense Kepler never questioned the belief in witches that was widespread at the time .

With success: in the end, Katharina Kepler was actually to escape torture or even execution - albeit in a different way than her son had intended.

About the podcast

Every two weeks there is a selected historical article and the story behind it - told by the authors and the editors of SPIEGEL History.

You can also listen to a detailed discussion on the cover topic of every new issue of SPIEGEL History.

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