In 1615 Katharina Kepler, illiterate mother of the astronomer Johannes Kepler, was accused of being a witch.
At that time in Germany, there was a witch ‘craze’. Over half of the c.50,000 executions in Europe for witchcraft between 1500 and 1700 took place in Germany. During the next 6 years Katharina fought her accusation.
The astronomer took over her legal defence in 1620. This lecture explores this astonishing story, and asks how the witch craze affected people’s lives.
Ulinka is a German historian and academic and is a professor in early modern European history and a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge.
She is the founder of the Cambridge History for Schools outreach programme and a co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies.
Her book Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Early Modern Europe was winner of the Bainton Book Prize in 2011.
