The Burgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town

Anna’s father died in July 1543, and her husband died one month later in poverty. In his last will and testament, Herman Büschler “virtually disinherited [Anna]” by leaving her the bare minimum that he believed the law required (148). Disinheriting a child was abhorrent to German law, and Anna had a compelling moral claim to a greater share of her father’s inheritance. Anna’s siblings, Philip and Agatha, realized that drawn-out litigation with their sister would be disastrous, so they offered Anna a deal for a larger cut of their father’s estate.

Agatha and Philip agreed to increase Anna’s share on October 16, 1543. This agreement guaranteed Anna the use of a house “outside the old city wall,” payment “up to twelve hundred gulden” for the repayment of debts, regular food provisions, and an “eighty-gulden annuity for the rest of her life” (150). This share still constituted an unequal portion of approximately one-ninth of the inheritance. Philip’s share remained the most generous, as he already had 3,400 gulden out of the 16,000 gulden estate and could expect another third of the remaining 12,600. Hermann Büschler had “made it possible for [Philip] to buy out his siblings at a very deep discount” (151).