The devastating city fire of 1617 was probably the most terrible event in the Hanseatic city of Tangermünde. Closely connected to this is the name of the unfortunate Grete Milde, who despite her innocence was sentenced to death at the stake and despised as a revengeful woman and arsonist.

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Claudia Hinkelhuber

September 25, 2023

The novella "Grete Minde" by Theodor Fontane is based on true events.
A Grete Minde actually lived there, there was also an inheritance process, and in 1617 there was a major fire in the city. Large parts of St. Stephen's Church there also burned. Some documents related to this are on display in the museum inside the city's historic town hall.
In contrast to Fontane's novella, in which Grete Minde becomes an arsonist out of revenge for the inheritance that was denied to her, the real Grete Minde is now considered innocent and rather a victim of intrigue and hasty justice, which sent her to death after slander and torture Pyre condemned. On March 22, 1619, Grete Minde was painfully executed. The historical court files, which can still be viewed today in the Tangermünde city archives, speak a clear language: Grete Minde had “five fingers on her right hand pinched off one by one with red-hot pliers,” according to the verdict, “and her body was repainted with four red-hot pliers, namely in the chest and arm are seized, therefore forged with iron chains on a raised pole, burned alive and thus passed from life to death, by right.
Source: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grete_Minde_(Novelle)#Historischer_Background

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Miffy 🐳

October 14, 2022

Grete Minde (Margarete von Minden 1593-1619), resident of the city of Tangermünde, who was probably tortured to confess that she was responsible for the city fire in 1617.
She was sentenced to death at the stake and executed in 1619. However, her guilt is questioned by historians.

Theodor Fontane processed the life of Margarete von Minden in the novella "Grete Minde" from 1879.
Here too she dies, but under different circumstances.

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Location: Tangermünde, Stendal, Altmark, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

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1. Tangermünde Town Hall – Tangermünde Harbor loop from Tangermünde

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