Witches in the Family: The Tragic Fate of Bartle and Waldburga Faller

Family history often brings unexpected discoveries. While tracing my Faller ancestors from the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany, I came across a darker chapter from the 17th century: two members of the family —  Bartle and Waldburga Faller, the brother and sister of my 9th great-grandfather Jakob Faller — were executed after being accused of witchcraft in the Freiburg area during the height of the European witch trials.

Their story came to me only in fragments (see the graphic "Hexenwahn im Schwarzwald" below), but it offers a haunting glimpse into the fear and uncertainty of life in early modern Germany.

The Faller Family in the Black Forest

The Faller family lived in the rural Black Forest communities northeast of Freiburg im Breisgau, in what is now Baden-Württemberg. Life in this mountainous region was difficult even in the best of times. Families depended heavily on farming and livestock, and survival could be threatened by harsh winters, poor harvests, disease, or war.

Fallengrund

The early 1600s were especially turbulent. Europe was in the midst of the Thirty Years’ War, and communities across the Holy Roman Empire were suffering from famine, economic hardship, plague, and religious conflict. In many places, fear and suspicion found an outlet in accusations of witchcraft.

Urban Dold: The First Accusation

The tragedy in my family appears to have begun with Urban Dold, the stepfather of Waldburga and Bartle Faller. Urban married Veronica Marckhin, the widow of a Faller farmer, and became part of the household in the Fallengrund area of the Black Forest.

According to surviving family histories, Urban Dold was accused of witchcraft and executed in Freiburg around 1620. One account states that he confessed under torture and was beheaded rather than burned — a distinction sometimes made by courts when an accused person cooperated during interrogation.

A family tradition recorded centuries later tells of Urban speaking shortly before his execution. As he was led away, he reportedly said that if he went “where God is,” he would ask for his young child to join him. The story continues that the child died only weeks later, a detail that later generations interpreted with fear and superstition.

Whether the story is entirely accurate or shaped by folklore over time, it reflects the atmosphere of terror that surrounded witchcraft accusations during this period.

Hexenwahn im Schwarzwald

Waldburga and Bartle Faller

The accusations did not end with Urban Dold. Years later, his stepchildren were also caught up in the persecutions.

My 9th great-grand aunt, Waldburga Faller, was reportedly executed for witchcraft around 1630, and my 9th great-grand uncle, Bartle (Bartholomäus) Faller, met the same fate in 1636.

Like many victims of the witch hunts, they were ordinary rural people whose lives became entangled in fear, rumour, and judicial systems that accepted torture and coerced confessions as evidence.

In small farming communities, accusations could arise from almost anything: livestock illness, failed crops, unexplained deaths, or even tensions between neighbours. One local tradition connected with the area claimed that an accused woman’s cows produced unusually good milk while neighbouring cattle suffered — the kind of everyday suspicion that could escalate into deadly charges of witchcraft.

Coincidentally, another branch of the same extended family later became associated with a place whose very name echoes these earlier tragedies. My 3rd great-grandmother, Salome Hummel — a descendant of Waldburga and Bartle Faller’s brother Jakob — married Vitus Zimber and lived in the Black Forest valley of Hexenloch near Neukirch. The name Hexenloch translates literally as “Witch’s Hole” or “Witches’ Hollow,” a striking reminder of how deeply the memory and folklore of witchcraft became woven into the landscape and culture of the region.

Witch Trials in Southwestern Germany

Although places like Bamberg and Würzburg became infamous for mass witch trials, the entire region of southwestern Germany experienced waves of persecution during the late 1500s and early 1600s.

Witch-burning at Bamberg

Authorities at the time believed witchcraft posed both a spiritual and social threat. Courts often relied on torture to obtain confessions, and once one person confessed, they were pressured to name others. Entire networks of accusations could spread through villages and families.

Women made up the majority of those accused, but many men were prosecuted as well — especially in German-speaking regions.

Today, historians view these trials as the result of a combination of religious conflict, social anxiety, superstition, and legal systems that lacked meaningful protections for the accused.

Remembering Their Story

Researching genealogy usually connects us to stories of survival — migrations, marriages, and new beginnings. But sometimes it also reveals tragedies that remind us how fragile life could be for our ancestors.

Bartle and Waldburga Faller were not legendary witches or mysterious figures from folklore. They were real people, members of a farming family in the Black Forest, who became victims of fear and persecution during one of the darkest periods in European history.

More than 390 years later, their names are still remembered.