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Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night (Studies in Early Modern German History) | 
 enlarge | Author: Wolfgang Behringer
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Category: Book
List Price: $21.50
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 244808
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 201
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0813918537
Dewey Decimal Number: 943
EAN: 9780813918532
ASIN: 0813918537
Publication Date: July 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
This is the story of a 16th-century mountain village caught in a panic of its own making. Four hundred years ago, the Bavarian alpine town of Oberstdorf, surrounded by the towering peaks of the Vorarlberg, was awash in legends and rumours of prophets and healers, of spirits and spectres, of witches and soothsayers. The book focuses on the life of a horse wrangler named Chonrad Stoeckhlin (1549-1587), whose extraordinary visions of the afterlife and enthusiastic practice of the occult eventually led to his death - and to the death of a number of village women - for crimes of witchcraft. In addition to recounting Stoeckhlin's tale, this book examines the larger world of alpine myths concerning ghosts and other spirits of the night, documenting how these myths have been abused by German political movements over the years.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Shaman of Oberstdorf March 27, 2001
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Chonrad Stoeckhlin, a stall boy (and the main character of this book), made an agreement with his good friend, the oxherd Jacob Walch, in 1578. According to this agreement, he who died first would return to tell about life in the hereafter. And no more than a few days after the pact was agreed upon, Jacob suddenly died. He kept to his word with his friend though and appeared before Chonrad five whole times. Since I have no intentions to ruin the reader's experience, I will not divulge what Jacob had to tell about life in the hereafter or how Chonrad reacted to what he heard. But after some years the judicial authorities took notice of the stall boy's strange and suspicious tales about contacts with the other world. And in 1587 the stall boy from the Bavarian alpine town of Oberstdorf was executed for witchcraft. Stoeckhlin had to answer 146 various questions during the legal proceedings. Based upon the profuse 1586 sources, the German historian expands his story to delve into topics such as fortune telling, shamanism, witch sabbaths, and the interplay between popular and learned culture. This is a fascinating book, even though Behringer occasionally has a tendency to waver some distance from Chonrad's story. But, certainly, the stall boy story from Oberstdorf is fascinating reading and a work of eminent scholarship.
 Interesting glimpse of 16th century life March 26, 1999
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
The horse wrangler Chonrad Stoeckhlin was burned after accusations of witchcraft in 1587. Taking this as his starting point, the author discusses withcraft, local history, pre-christian religion and more. Much more! And that may be my main objection to this book: The reader gets intriguing bits of information that merrits books on their own.
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