Death’s Whore 2
[5-20-14]
Death’s Whore
The gore covered crow
Shifts through the coils of her blonde tresses
His beak strips her lips
Till Soft blight creep up, and Gathers flies
~
Susanna Margaretha Brandt (* February 8 1746 in Frankfurt am Main , † January 14 1772 executed) was one of Frankfurt's maid who killed her newborn child
The orphaned maid [link] (German Wikipedia entry), not yet 26, given birth to a child by a passing goldsmith who had drugged and seduced/raped her.
Brandt got rid of the child, and was summarily captured by the authority. Though many had pitied her circumstance, the council nonetheless decided to rip out her breasts with hot pincers, behead her and stick her head on a post outside a nun's cloister, where all young girls could see.
On the day of her execution she was flogged then led to the square where three communities waited. The council eventually decided not to pinch her breasts but to stick up her head, though they didn't tell her before she was beheaded.
"She died graciously."
Affecting as Brandt’s small tragedy might be, she is remembered today not in her own right but because of her proximity to a young 22-year-old lawyer living a few hundred yards from her cell: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Germany's greatest author; who had seen her, treated her medical condition and conversed with her throughout the ordeal, including lying to her about "not" having her head stuck on the pole.
Several of Goethe’s family and friends were directly involved in Brandt’s case, and her death through seduction and infanticide are widely taken to have inspired the character Gretchen in Goethe’s Faust.
The writer 11 years later found himself in the court of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in position to help decide whether another infanticide should live or die.
Goethe voted for Johanna Catharina Höhn’s beheading.
The gore covered crow
Shifts through the coils of her blonde tresses
His beak strips her lips
Till Soft blight creep up, and Gathers flies
~
Susanna Margaretha Brandt (* February 8 1746 in Frankfurt am Main , † January 14 1772 executed) was one of Frankfurt's maid who killed her newborn child
The orphaned maid [link] (German Wikipedia entry), not yet 26, given birth to a child by a passing goldsmith who had drugged and seduced/raped her.
Brandt got rid of the child, and was summarily captured by the authority. Though many had pitied her circumstance, the council nonetheless decided to rip out her breasts with hot pincers, behead her and stick her head on a post outside a nun's cloister, where all young girls could see.
On the day of her execution she was flogged then led to the square where three communities waited. The council eventually decided not to pinch her breasts but to stick up her head, though they didn't tell her before she was beheaded.
"She died graciously."
Affecting as Brandt’s small tragedy might be, she is remembered today not in her own right but because of her proximity to a young 22-year-old lawyer living a few hundred yards from her cell: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Germany's greatest author; who had seen her, treated her medical condition and conversed with her throughout the ordeal, including lying to her about "not" having her head stuck on the pole.
Several of Goethe’s family and friends were directly involved in Brandt’s case, and her death through seduction and infanticide are widely taken to have inspired the character Gretchen in Goethe’s Faust.
The writer 11 years later found himself in the court of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in position to help decide whether another infanticide should live or die.
Goethe voted for Johanna Catharina Höhn’s beheading.
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