ABSTRACT
Leichenpredigten, popular tn Protestant Germany among the middle and upper classes from about 1550 to 1750, played an important role within the Lutheran mourning ritual, both during and after ceremonial performance. Margareta Brandis's sister, Anna Brandis, had been a widow herself for 10 years by the time their mother died in 1636. Her ftineral sermon by Jakob Weller von Molsdorf, who was at this time superintendent in Brunswick, called special attention to some aspects of her life important to the Christian role model he intended to present. Jakob Weller dwells on her conflict with the Schrader family at astonishing length. His description takes up a page and a half within the eight-page biographical part of the funeral sermon. Returning to the funeral sermon of Mathilda Katharina von Bortfeld, Finen dwelled at length upon her Christian upbringing, as well as the problems caused by her father's death, which had left her mother a widow with five dependent children.
