Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany - Stuart, Kathy
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Suicide by Proxy became a major societal problem after 1650. Suicidal people committed capital crimes with the explicit goal of "earning" their executions, as a short-cut to their salvation. Desiring to die repentantly at the hands of divinely-instituted government, perpetrators hoped to escape eternal damnation that befell direct suicides. Kathy Stuart shows how this crime emerged as an unintended consequence of aggressive social disciplining campaigns by confessional states. Paradoxically, suicide by proxy exposed the limits of early modern state power, as governments struggled…mehr

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Produktbeschreibung
Suicide by Proxy became a major societal problem after 1650. Suicidal people committed capital crimes with the explicit goal of "earning" their executions, as a short-cut to their salvation. Desiring to die repentantly at the hands of divinely-instituted government, perpetrators hoped to escape eternal damnation that befell direct suicides. Kathy Stuart shows how this crime emerged as an unintended consequence of aggressive social disciplining campaigns by confessional states. Paradoxically, suicide by proxy exposed the limits of early modern state power, as governments struggled unsuccessfully to suppress the tactic. Some perpetrators committed arson or blasphemy, or confessed to long-past crimes, usually infanticide, or bestiality. Most frequently, however, they murdered young children, believing that their innocent victims would also enter paradise. The crime had cross-confessional appeal, as illustrated in case studies of Lutheran Hamburg and Catholic Vienna.

Autorenporträt
Kathy Stuart is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Davis, USA.
Rezensionen
"Kathy Stuart has written an excellent study of suicide by proxy, a term she uses to refer to people who committed crimes, usually the killing of young children, with the intention of being executed. ... Stuart's most important contribution is her linking suicides by proxy to social discipline, which, historians agree, greatly increased among both Protestants and Catholics during the Reformation era. ... Stuart has ... produced an excellent piece of scholarship." (Jeffrey R. Watt, Austrian History Yearbook, March 11, 2024)