Oliver Pötzsch - The Werewolf of Bamberg

For a long time, no one said a thing, and Georg looked from one to the other, puzzled.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Did I say something wrong?”

Magdalena looked at her sister, who was so shocked she couldn’t say a word. Simon, standing beside her, just stared at the floor. Jakob, the only one who didn’t know about their special friendship, just shrugged.

“Well, now the hunt is on, no doubt,” he grumbled. “But there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s always the same-they need someone to blame, the faster the better. And as I said, it’ll pay off for Bartholomäus, too, you’ll see.”

“Matheo is innocent!” Barbara suddenly shouted in despair. “There’s no way he’s a werewolf. And anyone who says that is. . is. .” She broke down sobbing and collapsed on the bench.

Magdalena took her gently in her arms and started talking to her softly, as if to a child.

Georg just stood there in the doorway, his mouth open wide in astonishment.

“You know this little punk?” he finally asked. “But why. .”

“Well, Georg, I’m beginning to feel like the two of us are the village idiots,” Jakob said, folding his arms in front of his broad chest. “Perhaps someone in this esteemed family can explain this to me, hm?”

Simon cleared his throat. “Well. . I don’t know the details, but it appears that Barbara and this Matheo. . well, they have some sort of special friendship. .”

“She’s in love with the guy. Is that so hard to understand, you dopes?” Magdalena looked up briefly as she continued to hug her crying sister. “We were at the theater performance two days ago,” she continued, a bit more calmly, “and then yesterday she was at the wedding house again, and she helped Matheo a bit during the performance. She told me they were standing together on the stage. . and since then the two have no doubt become closer.”

“My daughter stood on a stage ?” Jakob shook his head in disbelief. “With these wandering rogues and pickpockets?” He clenched his fists angrily. “Good God, can’t we leave you women alone for a minute without you going out and doing something to embarrass us?”

“These actors are almost as dishonorable as hangmen’s families,” Magdalena answered dryly. “In that sense, Barbara is staying true to her social standing.”

“And to make matters worse, you’re sticking up for her?” Jakob laughed grimly. “Do you think she should marry the boy?”

“Well, at the moment this Matheo won’t marry anyone, because he’s sitting in the dungeon and suspected of being a werewolf,” Simon interjected hesitantly. “And unless there’s a miracle, your brother and Georg will no doubt be interrogating him.”

“Monster! You monster!” Barbara jumped up suddenly and charged at her twin brother, hammering his chest with her little fists. “If you harm even a hair on his head, I’m no longer your sister. I’ll. . I’ll scratch your eyes out, I’ll-”

“Barbara, Barbara! Just stop, please.” Georg tried to grab her arm, but each time she wriggled away. “What do you want me to do?” he wailed. “Even if you think this man is innocent, the new Inquisition Commission ordered me to question him and torture him. There’s nothing more I can do.”

“You. . you beast! You ogre! To hell with all executioners!” Beside herself with anger, Barbara kept beating her brother’s chest. Finally, Jakob Kuisl stepped in between them. With one hand he seized Barbara’s wrist and held it in a viselike grip, and with the other hand he gave her another resounding smack in the face.

Barbara fell silent at once and glared at her father while trembling all over. The blow seemed at least to have quieted her down.

“Now you listen to me, Barbara,” Jakob began in a slow, firm voice. “You’re striking the wrong person. Georg has nothing to do with the fact that your Matheo has been put in the dungeon. And there’s nothing he or Bartholomäus can do but torture the fellow. After all, he’s the executioner in this city, and you know what that means.”

He let go of her and walked over to the executioner’s sword hanging in the devotional corner. Barbara stood in the middle of the room as if turned to stone, her lips pressed together in two thin lines. “It’s our living, it’s what we do,” Jakob continued, pointing to the sword. “We didn’t go looking for it, God put us here in this place.” He tried to sound comforting. “But I can talk with Bartholomäus. If Matheo is cooperative, there are means of expediting him as painlessly as possible into the hereafter.”

“Is that what you’re suggesting?” Barbara asked in a toneless voice. “That you kill Matheo like. . like a sick mongrel, even if you yourself don’t believe he is this werewolf?”

“You heard your father,” Georg replied. “We’re just the tools, and-”

“Then let me tell you this, you. . you tool ,” Barbara interrupted, slowly backing toward the door. Her voice was now sharp and cold, not at all like that of a fifteen-year-old. “I’m going now, and I won’t come back until you get Matheo out of prison.” She looked at her father. “I know you can do that. You’ve helped other people before. If he doesn’t get out, Sir Malcolm’s troupe will soon need someone new who can play the role of the girl, and that will be me, for God knows I have talent. ”

The door slammed shut, and the rest of the family just sat there, motionless.

“It looks like we have real problems now,” said Simon, breaking the silence. He sighed. “There’s one thing I know for certain-Barbara is serious. After all, she’s just like the rest of you-an accursed, stubborn Kuisl.”

Down in the crypt of the Bamberg Cathedral, Suffragan Bishop Harsee knelt before a simple stone altar and struggled to commune with God. That was not so easy, as the large, whitewashed church was crowded with worshippers even on weekdays. Smaller masses were being held in the side aisles and individual chapels, pious sinners waited to speak with their confessor, and some beggars used the church pews for a short nap before the sexton came and roughly poked them to wake them up.

Sebastian Harsee closed his eyes, trying to ignore the loud sounds around him as best he could. In the last few days, his headaches had been getting worse from all the noise. How he hated this constant racket. Hadn’t the Savior himself ejected the merchants and loud salesmen from the temple? If it were up to Harsee, this cathedral would be a place of silent reflection. Anyone wanting to hear God had to be silent and obey.

But silence and obedience had always been hard for the people of Bamberg.

The suffragan bishop crossed himself, then lay down on his belly on the cold stone floor and spread his arms out-a gesture of obedience he had loved even as a young man. Most people were lacking in humility, especially these ambitious patricians who increasingly took a stand against God and were followers of the vile demon Mammon. Simple folk were for the most part devout, but even some of them rebelled from time to time against the holy Catholic Church and the divine order. Recently, Harsee had heard that the Bamberg executioner would be celebrating his marriage in the wedding house, just like an honorable man. The council had approved, apparently because his father-in-law was employed there as a lowly clerk. These were exactly the subtle, insidious changes that Harsee detested so much. After all, God had assigned a place to everyone in life: kaiser, bishop, tradesman, farmer-and hangman. To call that into question was heresy. Well, if things were heading in that direction, Harsee would know how to prevent this wedding celebration.

And indeed-things were heading in that direction.