Twice ToldThe Cologne pamphlet of 1589: the werewolf of Bepper
- Language
- German
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 24 September 2026
A four-leaf news pamphlet printed in Cologne by Niclas Schreiber in 1589. Most of it reports witch burnings of that year in other places. The werewolf comes last, in one long paragraph, and the title page announces him separately. It is the only German print about the case that we have read, and it gives the man no name.
[Title page]
Warhafftige Vnd erschreckliche Beschreibung / von vielen Zauberern oder Hexen / wie vnd warumb man sie hin vnd wider / verbrandt / in diesem 1589. Jahre / Was sie getrieben vnd bekandt haben / männiglich zur trewen warnung gestellet.
Auch von einem Werwolff / welcher zu Bepper ist gerichtet worden / den 31. October / dieses 1589. Jars / was böser Thaten er begangen hat.
[Woodcut]
Gedruckt / durch Niclas Schreiber.
[Images 8 and 9]
Es hat auch ein Zauberer zu Bepper gewohnet / drey meilen von Cöllen / welcher die Zauberey 24. Jahr getrieben hat / vnnd sich zu einem Wehrwolff können machen / welchen man gefangen / vnd gepeinigt hat / dieser hat frey bekandt / er habe dreyzehen kleiner Kinder von 6. vnd 7. Jahren / zerrissen / vnd zween Männer sampt eine Fraw vmbs leben bracht / auch 7. Jahr mit seiner Tochter bulieret / welche man auch zu Puluer verbrandt hat / vnd viel böser Thaten mehr begangen. Nach laut aber seiner vrgicht / hat man jhn den 31. October zu Bepper hingerichtet / vnd jhn erstlich zehen mal mit glüenden Zangen gepfetzt oder gezwickt / darnach mit einer Holtzaxt oder Beyhel / Arm vnd Beyn entzwey geschlagen / vnd also geradtbrechet worden / letzlich hat man jhm den Kopff abgehawen / den Cörper verbrandt / vnd einen höltzern Wolff gemacht / denselben auff ein Radt gesetzt / vnd den Kopff darauff genagelt. Also ist diesem Wolff gelohnet worden.
Translation
[Title page]
A true and terrible account of many sorcerers or witches: how and why they have been burned here and there in this year 1589, what they did and what they confessed, set out as a faithful warning to everyone.
Also of a werewolf who was executed at Bepper on 31 October of this year 1589, and the evil deeds he committed.
Printed by Niclas Schreiber.
[Images 8 and 9]
There also lived at Bepper, three miles from Cologne, a sorcerer who had practised sorcery for 24 years and could make himself into a werewolf. He was caught and tortured. He freely confessed that he had torn apart thirteen small children of six and seven years, and taken the lives of two men and a woman; also that for seven years he had lain with his daughter, who was burned to powder as well; and that he had done many more evil things. On the strength of his confession he was executed at Bepper on 31 October. First he was pinched or nipped ten times with red-hot tongs; then his arms and legs were broken with a wood axe or hatchet, and so he was broken on the wheel; lastly his head was cut off and his body burned. A wooden wolf was made and set on a wheel, and the head nailed on top of it. That was this wolf’s reward.
Notes
- Transcription conventions: the long s is printed as s; u, v, j and spelling are as printed; the slashes are the printer’s virgules. The printer sets 1 as j in “3j.” and “j589”; we give the numerals as 31 and 1589.
- Bepper is Bedburg; the London pamphlet of 1590 spells it Bedbur, Hermann von Weinsberg Bedber.
- The man is not named. The daughter is not named. There is no second woman, no belt, no son and no pregnant women.
- The torture comes before the confession: “welchen man gefangen / vnd gepeinigt hat / dieser hat frey bekandt”. “Frey bekandt” sits next to “gepeinigt” in the same sentence.
- The digitised copy is ULB Halle’s, released under the Public Domain Mark. Kaiser (2016) reports a Dutch version printed by Jan van Ghelen in Antwerp on 7 December 1589; we have not seen it.