If you go and walk around most major towns in Germany, there are literlaly dozens of memorial plagues....recognizing various parts of the past in that urbanized area. These reign from the revolutionary period the 1960s...going back to WW II, onto WW I, and hitting on points of the past 2,000 years.
This week, I noticed an event in Leipzig, Germany....where a new plague went up (MDR reported this story).
This plague covered a couple of years where witchcraft was a 'evil' deed, and various folks were rounded up to be tested or convicted. Local history says that roughly 250 individuals were hunted down in this period (actually convicted). The amount of court cases? Around 35 episodes. Executed? 72 total.
Most all of these witch episodes started up in the mid-1500s, and ended in the early 1700s.
You can find literally hundreds of villages and towns where this activity occurred, and it was a regular part of society....to engage in accusations. For some, I would imagine the public interest was mostly about entertainment, and the crowd running the 'show'....needed some type of Roman gladiator 'ending' to satisfy public beliefs that things were 'safe' once again.
It isn't exactly a topic that gets discussed much, and the plagues probably ensure some memory of events is retained.
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