ABSTRACT
On 24 May 1753 Sophia Charlotte Krügerin, an eighteen-year-old maid-servant in Berlin, cut the throat of her neighbor’s nine-year-old son. After her arrest Krügerin’s pastor visited her almost daily. He later published an account of her crime and her conduct during her trial and in the days leading up to her execution. Shortly before the murder, the pastor reports, Krügerin’s employers accused her of stealing a hundred Reichstaler and threatened to turn her in to the authorities. Although she was innocent, she feared that the reputation of being a thief would stick to her. “To be thought of as a thief is unbearable to me. I prefer to die than to live in such shame.”1 On this thought, she decided to drown herself in the Spree River. The presence of some acquaintances on the river bank thwarted her plan, however, so she returned home and went up to the attic where she tried to hang herself. When it became painful she managed to free herself. At that moment it occurred to her: “If you die, you will be lost forever.”2 Shuddering, she abandoned her suicide attempt. Returning to the courtyard below, she encountered the nine-yearold boy. She had a sudden thought: “Murder this boy, and the authorities will have to execute you. Then you can still convert and be rid of this shameful life.”3 She managed to lure the boy to the basement where she cut his throat “with astonishing fury.” During her two-month trial her pastor catechized her and offered absolution and the Eucharist. Krügerin was condemned to death by beheading, a sentence that was carried out on 27 July 1753. Her pastor described her demeanor on the day of execution. During her “death march” to the scaffold she demonstrated her “joyfulness” and “steadfastness.” When the procession arrived at the scaffold her pastor blessed her and granted absolution once again. Then, “sighing quietly to the Lord,” she received the executioner’s blow.4
