Germany

  • Mata Hari

    Margaretha Zelle was born in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. She was the eldest of four children of Adam Zelle and Antje van der Meulen. Her father was a successful hatter. She attended a teachers’ college in Leiden. In 1895 she married a Scottish officer named Captain Rudolph MacLeod, and from 1897 to 1902 they lived in Java and Sumatra. The couple returned to Europe but later separated, and she began to dance professionally in Paris in 1905. She soon began touring all over Europe, telling the story of how she was born in a sacred Indian temple and taught ancient dances by a priestess who gave her the name Mata Hari,…

  • Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen of Prussia

    Beautiful, charismatic and gentle, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the most influential Queen of Prussia. However, the “Queen of Hearts”, was much more than a pretty face. She helped shape her husband’s policy and lent a steadying presence during some of the worst times the country had faced. Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born March 10,1776 in Hanover. Her mother died when she was only six, and her new stepmother died when she was ten. This left her with a lifelong soft spot for orphans. Their grief stricken and newly widowed father sent Louise and her sister to be raised by their maternal grandmother. The girls were raised more humbly than most…

  • MALLEUS MALEFICARUM

    Okay, I am an open-minded guy. I really am. I accept all faiths, creeds, races, religions, sexual-orientations, and firmly believe in their right to practice their beliefs in whatever manner they see fit so long as it 1) Does not hurt people; 2) does not hurt animals; and 3) I am not actively told I am wrong for not believing in it. But I have to say that there is very little more… evocative than the title of this book. In three different languages, it draws on the imagination like an insane zealous Teutonic preacher etching his initials in blood on the pages of history. I mean, the Latin is…

  • HEINRICH KRAMER – THE FIRST WITCH HUNTER

    Okay so maybe not the FIRST witch hunter, but probably the most famous if for one reason: He wrote the book on witch hunting. LITERALLY. I’ll get to that. Kramer was born in Selestat, Alsace circa 1430 CE and from a very young age showed a great deal of interest in the church and it’s works. He joined the Dominican Order of Monks at a markedly young age (though how young is not known) and became the Prior of the Order in his hometown while still quite young. Sometime in his 40’s he was appointed as Inquistor of Tyrol, Salzburg, Bohemia, and Moravia, and his charisma and passion in the…

  • Archduchess Mathilde of Austria

    Mathilde Marie Adelgunde Alexandra, was born on the 25th January 1849 in Vienna. She was the third child of Archduke Albert, Duke of Teschen and Princess Hildegard of Bavaria. Her elder sister was Maria Theresia (1845 – 1927) who married Duke Philipp of Wurttemberg in 1865. Her elder brother, Karl Albrecht was born in 1847, but tragically died of smallpox aged 18 months, in 1848, before Mathilde was born. The family were close to the Imperial family, Mathilde’s mother being a cousin of the Empress Elisabeth, and spent a good deal of time in their company. A distant cousin of the Italian Habsburg line, Archduke Ludwig Salvator wanted to marry…