Witch Persecution and the Politics of Memorialisation

Dr Jonathan Durrant / University of South Wales

What is the point of memorialising the witch persecutions that took place across early modern Europe and the New World? What do campaigners for such memorials aim to achieve? Are their aims valid and useful? As a historian of witchcraft in early modern Germany and England, these are questions I have been thinking about as campaigns to remember historic witch persecutions have gathered pace. In this paper, I will focus specifically on the divisive and confrontational politics of witchcraft memorialisation in Germany that have as their context debates about Holocaust memorials, immigration and the role of the church in society.

Dr Jonathan Durrant is a principal lecturer in History at the University of South Wales, and a historian of witchcraft in early modern Germany and England. He is the author of Witchcraft, Gender and Society in Early Modern Germany (Brill, 2007) and the co-editor of The Historical Dictionary of Witchcraft (Scarecrow Press, 2012). He is currently writing Witchcraft in World History (forthcoming 2026) for Routledge’s Themes in World History series. Jonathan also devised and led the recent Historical Association short course “Witchcraft, Werewolves and Magic in European History” (2024).