37 pages • 1 hour read
Steven OzmentThe Burgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town
Steven OzmentNonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
The first chapter introduces Anna Büschler’s (1496/98-1552) dispute with her family and contextualizes her story within the social, political, and religious history of Germany broadly, as well as within the local politics of the town of Hall. Historians have an impressive record of Anna’s life, in part because her brother and father kept a stock of Anna’s primary documents (including love letters that she wrote and received) as part of Anna’s legal troubles with Hall and with her own family.
The Black Death in Europe peaked in 1349; its devastation increased the power of the urban bourgeois class at the expense of the nobility. Peasants fled to the cities to fill the need for skilled work. The 200 years between 1300 and 1500 saw the number of universities in Europe triple and the invention of the printing press. The power of the Catholic Church waned in the 16th century when the Protestant Reformation swept Germany, which spurred bloody peasant revolts that were subdued by nobility representing both Catholic and Protestant factions. This was a dark age for Germany.
Anna’s father, Hermann Büschler (1470-1543), was a five-time town bürgermeister (a political office similar to the role of mayor). He was a local hero for objecting to Hall’s patrician-only tavern and for petitioning the emperor to rectify the controversy. Büschler’s leadership helped disentangle Hall from the Catholic Church and prepared it for the Protestant Reformation. His relationship with his daughter Anna was the subject of much gossip in Hall; residents accused him of giving her too much freedom and her of taking advantage of it.
When Anna’s mother died in 1520, she moved back into her father’s home to keep house for him. Her immodest dress and flirtatiousness caused a stir in the town, and she drew her father’s ire for stealing from him. Hall residents speculated that she acted out against her father in protest of his unwillingness to arrange a proper marriage for her when she was younger. One of her major flings was with Daniel Treutwein, and they often met with each other behind Anna’s father’s back. The last straw for Hermann Büschler was when he found a collection of Anna’s love letters, which discussed intimate (sometimes sexual) matters, and he banished her from his home. Anna’s family would later use these letters to discredit her in her legal battles.
Anna’s second lover was Erasmus Schenk of the Limpurg Schenks, a royal dynasty in Germany since the 1230s. In 1356, the Holy Roman Emperor appointed the Limpurg Schenks to represent him at coronations and while holding court. The Schenks frequently feuded with the town of Hall regarding territorial boundaries, but this feuding ended in 1541 when Hall purchased Castle Limpurg, which was just outside of Hall. Anna was employed as a seamstress in Castle Limpurg and became friendly with Erasmus. The Schenkin, Erasmus’s mother, wrote to Anna’s father regarding Erasmus and Anna’s fling and stating her intention to keep the couple apart.
Chapter 1 Analysis
Anna Büschler was a charismatic woman whose personality was not necessarily a match for her historical context. Ozment writes that 16th-century Germany “turned back the clock” in terms of women’s roles (5), confining them largely to the domestic affairs of the home. This was a time when accusing an outspoken or flirtatious woman of being a witch could be taken seriously, which made Anna’s affair with Erasmus—a nobleman with a lot to lose from gossip who could throw Anna under the bus at any moment—even more audacious. Anna took many risks in daring to be herself and living the life she wanted.
Anna lived in the shadow of her father, Hermann Büschler, a local legend in Hall for his infamous petition to the emperor regarding an exclusionary taproom, as well as for his long tenure as town bürgermeister. Anna was constantly the center of attention in Hall because of who her father was, but Hermann’s own actions and attitude toward his daughter greatly affected Anna’s quality of life. When Anna returned to live with Hermann after her mother died, the town gossip regarding her flirtation and sex life would have been difficult but manageable so long as Hermann was ignorant or indifferent to the situation, as was the case at first. Once Hermann found out more about Anna’s love life and threw her out of his home, Anna’s life spiraled into hardship, poverty, and lawsuits. That Anna’s quality of life depended on Hermann’s irrational fancies underscores the restrictions 16th-century Germany placed on women, who continued to live under the rule of their father into adulthood and, in fact, until marriage (at which point they became subject to the authority of their husbands instead).
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