Helena Scheuberin Garden

The first witch trial in Austria took place in Innsbruck in 1485. It was initiated by the inquisitor Heinrich Kramer with the support of Pope Innocent VIII, and was carried out under the auspices of Bishop George of Brixen and Archduke Sigmund “der Münzreiche” (lit. rich in coins) of Tyrol. After months of terrorizing investigations, more than fifty people were labeled “suspicious,” all but two of whom were women*. A total of seven women* were subsequently charged with witchcraft and imprisoned. The trials were ultimately stopped due to procedural errors and the women* were acquitted. One of these women* was Helena Scheuberin.

One part of the garden named after her is located in Waltherpark in Innsbruck. The other part is located in the Mühlauer Klamm, at a spot that used to be called Hexenkuchl (lit. witches kitchen). This folkloric name allegedly had no direct connection to the witch hunts. However, stereotypical figures of so-called witches were on display there for decades, as supposedly harmless relics of a distant past that today exist only as legend and myth.

Heinrich Kramer went on to publish the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) in 1495, one of the first modern juridical texts that established a legal framework under which any woman* could be accused of witchcraft. The attribution of guilt through hearsay, or “evidence” obtained under torture, provided simple explanations for social inequality and natural disasters, and enabled the search for scapegoats, although the underlying motives were often ideological and/or economic.

The transition from feudalism to capitalism in central Europe took place between the late 15th and 18th centuries. This period coincided with the emergence of the labor market, the exclusion of women* from a large number of professions, and their increasing confinement to the hetero- normative familial home and unpaid domestic labor. At the same time, women*’s control over childbearing and reproductive health was stripped away and criminalized. The witch hunts were one particularly gruesome part of this criminalization, with midwives, who both assisted and prevented pregnancies, being particular targets. Women* who lived alone or were financially independent, older and/or impoverished women*, and people who transgressed norms of gender and sexuality were also pursued.

The disassociation of the witch hunts from the oppression and persecution of women* as a class persists until today. While the term “witch-hunt” remains synonymous with accusation under false pretenses, the pejorative “witch” is reserved for women* who refuse to submit to the rules of patriarchal society.

The Helena Scheuberin Garden comprises a selection of local plants that have been used in gynecology and other medicinal purposes. It transforms the “witches kitchen” from a site of gendered subjugation into a space of feminist autonomy – for the production of knowledge by women* and their bodily self-determination.

we are the daughters* of the witches* they could not burn

A project by: Angela Anderson und Ana Hoffner

 

Design  |  wau.  Salon für gepflegte Gestaltung  – Rupert Asanger & Florian Volderauer
Realization | Michael Gassebner Schlossermeister
Print | Pixel Project
Botanical Expertise and Plant Selection | Konrad Pagitz & Cäcilia Lechner-Pagitz (University of Innsbruck – Department of Botany und Botanic Gardens)
Gardener  |  Katrin Uhrmann
Project Supervision and Support | Bettina Siegele & Cornelia Reinisch-Hofmann (Künstler*innen Vereinigung Tirol)

Thank you Andrei Siclodi & Veronika Riedl (Künstler*innenhaus Büchsenhausen), Nina Tabassomi (Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol), Jochen Becker, Esther Strauß, Lisa Mazza, Bettina Lichtenberger (Amt der Tiroler Landesregierung – Abteilung Kultur)