Maria Pauer , was an alleged Austrian witch. She was the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

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Maria Pauer was a maid in the St. Catherine suburb in Salzburg

Salzburg

-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

. In January of 1749, she had run an errand for her employer to another house, and afterwards, the house was tormented by poltergeist phenomena. This led to her arrest. The conditions in prison made her apathetic and weak. She was interrogated with 527 questions in two months. Anna Maria Zötlin and Liesel Gusterer were also arrested and executed in 1749. Torture was used, and in September of 1750, she confessed her guilt. She was sentenced to death and decapitated and burned on October 6, 1750.

Literature

• Neumeyer, August Friedrich: Der Mühldorfer Hexenprozess 1749/50, Mühldorf 1992
• Byloff, Fritz: Die letzten Zaubereiprozesse in Mühldorf und Landshut. In: Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte (ZBLG), Jg. 1938, S. 427–444
• Nagl, Heinz: Der Zauberer-Jackl-Prozess. Hexenprozesse im Erzstift Salzburg 1675–1690. In: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde, Teil I, Jg. 1972/73, S. 385–541