ABSTRACT
In 1646, two years before the end of the Thirty Years’ War, a healing well sprang up in the village of Hornhausen, near Magdeburg in northern Germany. An anonymous pamphlet entitled Impartial and Well-Meaning Opinion about the Newly Sprung-Up Healing Well at Hornhausen in Lower Saxony. In Hornhausen a well has sprung up and it has been reported that through the powerful effects of this healing well’s virtues many and diverse illnesses have been swiftly cured. In the early modern period, illness was a constant companion. In Catholicism, healing wells were often integral parts of pilgrimage sites dedicated to saints, whereas in Lutheranism, newly discovered wells were frequently interpreted as God-given ‘miracle wells.’ The anonymous author of this pamphlet, presenting himself as a “Christian physician,” takes a middle ground in the contemporary discussion about how the Hornhausen wells should be interpreted.
