The Bürgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town

by Steven E. Ozment

In an era when women were supposed to be disciplined and obedient, Anna proved to be neither. Defying 16th-century social mores, she was the frequent subject of gossip because of her immodest dress and flirtatious behavior. When her wealthy father discovered that she was having secret, simultaneous affairs with a young nobleman and a cavalryman, he turned her out of the house in rage, but when she sued him for financial support, he had her captured, returned home and chained to a table as punishment. Anna eventually escaped and continued her suit against her father, her siblings and her home town in a bitter legal battle that was to last 30 years and end only upon her death. Drawn from her surviving love letters and court records, The Burgermeister's Daughter is a fascinating examination of the politics of sexuality, gender and family in the 16th century, and a powerful testament to the courage and tenacity of a woman who defied the inequalities of this distant age.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Germany, 16th Century, European History, Womens

227 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

A specialist in early modern and modern Germany, the European family, and the Protestant Reformation., Steven Ozment was the McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History emeritus at Harvard University.

Reviews

[Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was rummaging through the shelves and came upon this book - and stopped because I can not remember where it came from. It could have been bought in a used bookstore binge years ago (I guess that because it's hardcover) - or I could have "borrowed" it from my father, who has a similar relationship with the used bookstore. Well, however it managed to get here, it's now on the to read pile. (Humorously my father can't remember buying it either.)

What I immediately liked in the first chapter was that there was no "we're only going to give vague hints out as to the plot, even though this is all past history." The idea of writing history as if it were a mystery novel works in some cases, but after a while it gets old - well, depending on the writer's skill I suppose. In any case, I'm certainly ok with hearing about the jist of the case before diving into the details.

p. 2 "...Anna was peculiarly vulnerable to such scrutiny. Both in her late teens and twenties, she had behaved in a manner scandalous to the society in which she lived. Her story is one of multiple collapsing relationships: between a daughter and a father, a sister and her siblings, a servant and her mistress, a woman and her lovers, a citizen and her town. Twice, in original and unforgettable ways, she brought shame and embarrassment to her family and the city of Hall: the first time, when she deceived her father and incurred his undying wrath, the second, twenty years later, when she defied the city council and provoked its retaliation."

I'm also fascinated with the idea that the reason we're able to get such a clear story out of this is because of the amount documentation thanks to the court case(s).

For instance, read this quote and imagine being able to read all these letters now, as they've all been preserved and still exist (imagine historians doing a gleeful dance over them):

p. 24 "...In the cache of Anna's letters through which her father now rummaged, there were no fewer than forty-two between Anna and Erasmus (eleven by Anna and thirty-one by Erasmus), written back and forth between 1520 and 1525, several containing frank talk about love and sex. In the same bundle were nineteen love letters from Daniel Treutwein, along with still other correspondence connected with the two affairs. Twenty-five years later, her brother Philip and sister Agatha would submit the entire collection to the imperial commissioners in an effort to discredit their sister's character and justify her disinheritance. At the time, the two described them as letters no honorable daughter or maiden would write, which was also their father's view of them on his first reading."

p. 26 "...If the letters to and from Erasmus and Daniel were not evidence enough of Anna's depravity for her father, their dates and contents further indicated to him that the affairs had gone on concurrently; Anna had been sexually active not with one man, but with two men simultaneously, one of whom, Erasmus, was a completely unrealistic marriage prospect, making that relationship an affair for its own sake. That was the bombshell that moved Hermann Buschler to describe his daughter as an "evil serpent," a phrase hereafter often used in referring to her, and to remove her from his house."

And this in a time period where women of her class did not do this sort of thing.

I should note here that Anna had been stealing items from her father's house in order to sell them for the money. Her overall complaint against her father was that he'd wasted a chunk of her life by not setting up a marriage for her, as most fathers would have by her age.

This is one of those stories where you know you're not going to like many of the main characters for multiple reasons.

...I'm adding this quote because 1) Faust reference, and I always enjoy that story, and 2) a lot of WTFery. (Also I want to remember that the story came from this book.)

p. 37-38 "One of the stories told about Dr. Faust during his stay describes the day the salt-makers challenged him to "conjure [literally shit] a devil." Accepting the challenge the famous doctor dropped his trousers and sent a great firey bolt into the Kocher River, while the salt-makers watched from a footbridge in disbelief. At the very spot where the flash entered the water, a coal-black man emerged and proceeded to attack the salt-makers, who in their panic jumped from the bridge into the river."

Really good background detail that surrounds the main story. All of this is meticulously footnoted, and most of the sources are in German.

...In case you were curious, the author does give you many, many excerpts from the letters, translated and with enough background information that you understand what's actually going on. Two that I can't resist quoting bits of:

p. 51-52, Anna to Erasmus, after Anna has been questioned by a lady (well, by flunkies of said lady) who is of the same rank as Erasmus and wants to know whether Erasmus is marriage material (Anna is not happy about this):

"...I was interviewed again, and this time asked if I could find out if your grace had any desire or interest in her, and, because Schenk Friedrich [of Speckfeld] is dead, if anyone wanted to discuss the matter. They also were concerned to know if your grace might be put off by the hump.

I did not have much to say in answer to these questions. ...Furthermore, I said that I did not know whether your grace knew that she had a hump. But should your grace meet with her, do take note of the high coat she wears."

and

p. 56-57, Erasmus to Anna, after a letter in which Anna has chastised him for his drinking and whoring:

"...I am not a little taken aback by the letter you have written, which I must assume you write in a whimsical mood. If the "Speckfeld pigs," as you call [me and my party], have made a lot of work for the maids [here], I believe they have more power to do so than the mother pigs of Hall [Anna and her suitors], who have also left quite a lot of work for the maids. So how dare they reproach us! Also, I have heard it said before that where drinking is held in honor, vomiting is no shame."

Must make note of and remember that bit on vomiting.

Quotes that make me wish I knew German:

p. 80 "...Duke Ulrich of Wurttemberg - a man of so many crimes and atrocities that it took his enemies a thousand lines to memorialize them in rhyme..."

And the footnote on that is for a text from 1520, in German. Sigh. For anyone else that can read/find it: "Ein Sundenregister Herzog Ulrichs, zur Warnung vor ihm aufgestellt," 1520, Steiff and Mehring, Geschichtliche Lieder, pp. 189-208. Because now of course I'm all curious to read about the atrocities in rhyme. In an English translation of course.

...Finished and if I am ever stingy with the stars in my ratings this was the time not to be. The final chapter gave us the answer of "why is this important and why did you feel compelled to tell us this bit of history?" Not to mention that in the rest of the book the author has managed to sum up some incredibly busy German history that I remember only from survey history classes as being incredibly politically tangled up. And he managed to do in briefly, and then get back to the meat of the story about the family and their tussles. Also he managed to wrap up what is mainly a sad story but show parts of it in a light that makes it not as depressing an end as I'd thought.

And thus I'm now off to find out what other books of his I may put on my To Read list.

[Diana Sandberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

History is so constrained by what people have chosen to set down and remember. This book is an interesting attempt to reach into 16th-century life through the examination of a bitter legal dispute that stretched over much of one woman's lifetime. Ozment does a good job of setting this personal struggle into its historical context. I wouldn't necessarily call this a page-turner, but I liked it.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book. IT's a really interesting subject told as objectively and dry as possible. I get increasingly annoyed wtih creative nonfiction, which adds psychology and thought to figures we only know through centuries old 1st or 2nd hand accounts. WE dont' know whether someone said something with conviction, or grimaced in thought. This is not creative nonfiction. But the fact that this was just told through legal proceedings, and is still able to make it compelling, show's the quality of Ozment's writing. At the same time, at times, i struggled through the chapters and the description of who got what gulden.

I liked looking into 15th century small towns, and how teenagers acted then, and their fathers. Anna's is an interesting story that deserves a good book, and got one.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ozment is an academic, and he writes like one--he writes good academic prose, but if you want a pacey, popular narrative history type of book, you will get frustrated with this. I enjoyed it. Anna spent her entire adulthood fighting like hell, using the legal mechanisms available to her to resist her father, the powerful people who ran her town, and later her siblings, who happily accommodated themselves to the existing power structures as Anna was unable or unwilling to do. Ozment puts this personal and familial struggle into the larger context of early-sixteenth-century Germany, with its complicated political and power structures and waves of religious reformation. In the last chapter he expresses great sympathy for this woman: "Although little note has been taken of Anna Büschler in history books and novels, and even that little bit has been unkind, in the inner battle for human dignity, which goes on in every individual life beneath the great wars and reforms of an age, Anna may have been more heroic than the bürgermeister of Hall and the Schenk of Limpurg." Her story would make a really interesting historical novel.

[Carla Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting very thorough history about 1500s Germany. I may have skimmed over some parts.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25/5 stars

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story takes readers back to sixteenth century Germany, a time when attitudes to women and their role in society were determined by a male dominated society. It tells the story of Anna Buschler who fought a legal battle with her wealthy prominent family over a thirty-year period in an attempt to obtain what she believed rightfully belonged to her.

The story is set in Schwabisch Hall, a town in Southern Germany. It was politically organized with a central body of twenty-four councilmen headed by Hermann Buschler the appointed Burgermeister and Anna’s father, who acted in a capacity similar to a mayor. Anna was almost thirty yet her father had not secured her an appropriate marriage. She blamed him for this failure and angry that he had kept her at home as a housekeeper, began acting out more and more, carrying on clandestine extramarital relationships with two men. When her father discovered she was having simultaneous affairs with Erasmus of Limburg a nobleman and Daniel Treutwein a cavalryman, he was furious that she had not considered the risk to her reputation or that of her family. He threw her out of the house, making it clear he took such action not because of her immodest dress, petty thievery or her poor housekeeping, but because of her sexual relations with men outside of wedlock. Anna reacted by suing her father for support. He then had her kidnapped and taken to his home where he punished her by chaining her to a table. She escaped and continued to fight against father, her brother Philip, her sister Agatha and the local government for financial compensation for the damage her father had done. This events all took place against the backdrop of a country driven by the Protestant Reformation, trying to cope with periodic recurrences of the Black Death and struggling to face the challenges presented by modern times.

There were several trials over the years as Anna fought endless battles to regain her inheritance, but she was up against men who were wealthy, power-hungry and saw no benefit to arguing against their Burgermeister in favour of his promiscuous daughter. The legal wrangling went on for over twenty-five years until Anna’s death.

On hearing Anna’s story, readers may initially feel sympathetic to her cause. She was a free-spirited young woman, forced to stay home and do housework while her father ignored his responsibility to contract her the suitable marriage she deserved. She felt stifled and miserable. Although she was always the subject of town gossip and often provoked censure from the townspeople for transgressing time-honored norms of family and sexual behavior, stealing from her father and leading a scandalous, undisciplined and reprehensible life, many in the town tolerated the behavior of the free-spirited daughter of their Burgermeister. But as time moved on, Anna becomes a less sympathetic character to both readers and the townspeople. When she reaches middle age and continues to sue her family, her fight is more about getting herself out of debt than righting what she believes is a wrong against her. By the end of the narrative, as she nears death, she appears to be a bitter woman, motivated simply by greed and spite.

The story is a fascinating study of a woman living in sixteenth century Germany, unhappy with the life her father forced her to accept and determined to fight back, battling her him, her siblings and city hall until her death. Although she defied tradition and her family to get the future she wanted, her efforts resulted in a life far harsher than anything she had imagined, thwarted by the Council’s policies and lies, even when they ruled in her favor. The twists and turns of her legal battles continued during her two marriages and she proved herself to be a tenacious, feisty woman.

Although Ozment presents Anna as promiscuous, he also presents the Burgermeister as overly severe. Both dug in their heels and the battle festered for years until Anna died in relative poverty after that long struggle, never having regained what she believed belonged to her. Ozment sees Anna as neither a rebel nor a victim, concentrating more in exploring what her story reveals about the time and place she lived in.

In recounting Anna’s life, Ozment a Harvard historian, uses several primary source documents including love letters between Anna and Erasmus and surviving court documents to support his tale. It is an interesting social and legal commentary of the time, written in a clear and organized style, although the legalese of the court documents at times becomes tedious. One surprising note is that women at that time may have had more power than many would have thought possible. Given that Anna was able to take her father and her family to court repeatedly, it leads scholars to believe women’s rights were not as oppressed as once thought.

This would be an informative read for those curious about the social and gender mores in sixteenth century Germany. It is not meant to entertain as much as inform, so those less interested in the academic issues and more interested in a good historical novel may be disappointed.

[James Hockenberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bürgermeister’s Daughter, by Steven Ozment: this is the true story of a scandal set in a16th Century German town. The book relies heavily on actual court records and writings which makes me wonder if this is more a history book than a story. The actual details of events and mores / structures of the time are fascinating, but the narrative falls a bit flat. The book lacks for a really positive character who can carry the tale – I suppose this is because the author is sticking to the actual events. Neither our protagonist, Anna, nor her father are particularly likable characters. I found this a hard read but loved how Ozment portrays the time and history of the period.

[Kevin Cairns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay so why did I read this book? Why did it dovetail with a Woman in White? I enjoyed visiting the 16th century. It was oddly similar to today. A rich family torn apart by money and schemes to keep money from each other. Not sure why the story needed to be told. The author seemed to think Anna unique and deserving of remembering. Kinda reminded me of the spoiled rich kids I knew growing up, kinda bored so they got into some trouble. Then she spends her life taking first her father to court and then after his death her siblings to court because she felt cheated out of inheritance. So why should I care?

[Chrissa Kuntz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book -- but not a thrilling one. Through tons of background information and a plethora of original documents from the era, Ozment manages to craft a family drama between vengeful daughter and stubborn father that is so much more: a story about surprising gender relations in a era perceived as uber-restrictive, a tale of the Reformation, Catholicism, and anti-semitism, and a "legal thriller" about the structure of the law in the middle ages. I really liked it, and it wasn't too long, so you could plunge in and feel like you were taking a lot in.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for a history class during my undergraduate education. it was very interesting and intriguing for the first 75% of the book. after the letters and some of the initial things Anna went through it kind of got boring and repetitive. the legal proceedings back-and-forth were just so tedious. nonetheless, I did find it quite interesting in the beginning and that is why it gets three stars.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot! It was really intriguing and well written. I thought Anna’s story was very interesting and I think I ended up being on her side at the end. I think there was a ton of greed that involved every person in this story. This was another read for my Microhistory and the human experience class for college! Also the letters were one of my favorite parts.

[Samantha Proctor]

It is a good book. I read it for my Women In World History Class. It's a great story, but it also tells a lot about history and why it is significant. It shows how women can fight against power in their own right with what they have.

[Jeni Enjaian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do not understand the point of this book. It was fine, not too dry but didn't have a concentrated direction even though its a short book. The author spent too much time on the letters between Anna and Erasmus while also including excess history of the town and other things like that.

[Dillon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had to read this for a class. Only part I liked were the old letters sent.. pretty boring Anna was a cheater and cheaters gonna cheat: the end. Now I gotta write a paper on this dumb book

[Frida Dillenbeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy history and this book was packed full of details about a slighted daughter and her mission to be heard.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Lots of good background on what life was like during the time. Could see the faults of everyone involved. Good and easy storytelling.

[Samantha Herdman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot convey how much I want to see an opera based upon the material from this book.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous study. Brought the daughter to life in a way that makes me want to be friends with her even knowing that she is a flawed person.

[Cordelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book!

[Emily Hanamann · Rating 2 out of 5]

anna was the original city girl

[Mia M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hella good for what it is

[Shane Fritz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was interesting but at times tedious. It tells the true story of a lusty young woman whose scandalous conduct offends her father to the extent that he at one point goes out and kidnaps her back to his home to imprison her. Condemned by the city council for not treating her according to the laws of the time, for he failed to arrange for her a suitable marriage, and denied her the inheritance from her mother, her father loses his position as Burgermeister. Bitter, he schemes to disinherit her. The book was carefully researched and story is footnoted throughout. It reads more like a thesis or research paper. Still the author painted a picture of life in Germany in the 1520's through 1550. The mention of the reformer Martin Luther [who posted his 95 theses in 1518] and discussion of Lutherans was of interest to me, of course, as I traveled in Germany in 2018.

[kaiya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason that this book got 4 stars was because of the first 95 percent of this book. Ozment's recount of a Bürgermeister's daughter's fight for her inheritance after her father tries to deny her because of her, ahem, "socializing" with not one, but two men, was incredibly in-depth, and pulled a lot from the time period and area of the town.

However.

Ozment's conclusion was essentially: sexism in early modern Europe didn't exist.

He gives all of this example of ways that the prejudice of women has affected Anna's treatment both socially and in the eyes of the law, and says because she was able to get the bare minimum, that means that women could be equal to men. She died impoverished, not to mention the fact that she was a lady of higher standing, so that surely effected the little that she was able to gain.

This book was published in the 90's, and Ozment clearly wanted to make some type of big declaration, which I feel like historians get trapped when they try to do, because history tends to be a bit more nuance than these huge, overarching facts.

I would recommend that anyone who wants to read this to do so, but to skip the conclusion, because of it's blatantly wrong declaration, and the fact that throughout the rest of the book, he's making connections, so the conclusion would be redundant anyway.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting social and legal history, this book tells the story of Anna Buschler and her family's legal struggles in the mid 15th century. Anna lives a rather scandalous life in her mid-twenties, and as a result is disinherited by her father, the Burgermeister (mayor) of Hall. The rest of her life is spent trying to secure the financial support of her family and her inheritance in a prolonged legal struggle against first her father, and then her siblings and the city of Hall itself. Ozment, like many biographers, becomes perhaps too sympathetic to his subject, but it is hard to blame him. He also tends to get heavily into context - which is great, but can get tedious at times (for example, there is a several page diversion on the relationship between the city of Hall and the nearby castle of Limpburg when Ozment is telling the story of one of Anna's affairs). At times, as with some of his other works (particularly When Fathers Ruled), Ozment sees the position of women in the 16th century as a bit more happy than they probably were.

[Heep · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not every history has to be written with a beautiful narrative, and the underlying story in this book is undeniably fascinating. The available source materials are pretty amazing in their detail. It is staggering that so much has survived. This makes it hard to apply one interpretation. There are so many witnesses, often with widely varying interpretations, that it defies a single, pat explanation. This should make for a rich and thoroughly authentic story. Unfortunately, the writing here tends to be a little repetitive. It just isn't as gripping as I had expected and hoped.

[S a r a h · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say this was a most interesting book, in fact, it was really quite boring. The most interesting parts were the letters. This would be a good book for legitimate information for work or school purpose. This falls short of leisurely reading.

[Mary Newcomb]

Anna Buschler is not the ideal daughter. When recovering two barrels of stolen items, her father discovers her letters (this is the 1500s, no e-mail) and learns that she has relationships with two unacceptable men. Since it is the 1500s and she is only 25 or so, he still has some semblance of control over her and her funds. She leaves and sues. He loses and kidnaps her, then holds her hostage in the family home for 6 months. More lawsuits and oh my! Fascinating reading.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not much on history (as in I was never good at memorizing dates) but this is a fascinating story. Makes you realize some things never change. Families could be just as dysfunctional 500 years back as they can be now. It was difficult to follow the laws of the day but it seems there were laws to protect women just as there were laws that gave parents of unwed adult children odd power over them. All in all, an interesting read.

[Christopher Borum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting social history of Germany in the first half of the 16th century. I was a little concerned that it was mostly the letters of Anna's that had been preserved, which I wouldn't care to read in full. But these took up only one section of the book. The rest is narrative using the letters between Anna and her boyfriends to set the stage for a discussion of her lifelong battles against her father, siblings, and the city council as well as the social conditions prevailing at the time.