A Demon-Haunted Land
Witches, Wonder Doctors, and the Ghosts of the Past in Post-WWII Germany
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“A Demon-Haunted Land is absorbing, gripping, and utterly fascinating... Beautifully written, without even a hint of jargon or pretension, it casts a significant and unexpected new light on the early phase of the Federal Republic of Germany’s history. Black’s analysis of the copious, largely unknown archival sources on which the book is based is unfailingly subtle and intelligent.”
—Richard J. Evans, The New Republic
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, prayer groups performed exorcisms, and 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 on charges of defamation, assault, and even murder. What linked these events, in the wake of an annihilationist war and the Holocaust, was a widespread preoccupation with evil.
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, profound bitterness, 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 Drawing on previously unpublished archival materials, acclaimed historian Monica Black argues that the surge of supernatural obsessions stemmed from the unspoken guilt and shame of a nation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 country’s fraught emotional life, deep moral disquiet, and the cost of trying to bury a horrific legacy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
University of Tennessee history professor Black (Death in Berlin) delivers a fascinating, richly detailed look at the origins of "mass supernatural events" that occurred in West Germany after WWII. Black focuses primarily on the rise of faith healer Bruno Gr ning, and on the scores of "witchcraft trials" that took place across the country from 1947 to 1965. Gr ning, who believed that "evil people... stopped good people from being well," lectured to large crowds before authorities cracked down on him for violating a law against treating the sick without a license. He was eventually convicted of negligent homicide in the case of a young girl who stopped her tuberculosis treatments while under his care. Gr ning's "obsession with evil," Black writes, links him to the country's simultaneous "witchcraft scare," in which neighbors took each other to court for spreading rumors of spell casting and evildoing. Black suggests numerous sources for these phenomena, including guilt and shame over the Holocaust, trauma caused by the large numbers of Germans killed or displaced in the final months of the war, and the residual influence of anti-Semitism. Vivid character sketches and keen psychological insights enrich her impressive historical research. The result is an arresting portrait of an unexplored chapter in German history.