A quiz question · medium
How long did Johannes Kepler spend defending his mother against witchcraft charges?
Katharina Kepler was accused of witchcraft in 1615; she was formally arrested in 1620 and the case dragged on until her release in October 1621. Kepler returned from Linz several times, wrote the legal brief himself (which survives), and represented her at the trial. She was acquitted but died six months later, broken by the imprisonment. The trial documents are among the most complete surviving records of a 17th-century German witch case.
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The Astronomer Who Defended His Mother From the Stake In 1620 the seventy-four-year-old mother of Johannes Kepler was arrested for witchcraft. He spent six years getting her out.
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