Dorothea Widmer
Dorothea Widmer (1758–1781), was a Swiss woman who was abused by her husband until she killed him. Her crime attracted tremendous public attention in Switzerland.
Widmer's husband was an alcoholic who habitually abused her. With her accomplice Bartholome Gubler, Widmer murdered her husband with an axe.
Widmer and Gubler were both convicted of murder and sentenced to death. After a postponement until her child was born, Widmer was executed on 29 August 1781 in Zürich. Her accomplice was executed 18 days earlier.
Widmer attracted great public sympathy because of her youth, beauty and her longstanding abuse. She was compared with Beatrice Cenci and became the subject of poems and inscriptions.
References
- Johann Konrad Werdmüller-Ott: Kurze Darstellung der Merkwürdigkeiten des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts in unserem Vaterland. Bei Johann Caspar Näf, Zürich,1802, S.267
Categories:
- 1758 births
- 1781 deaths
- 18th-century executions
- 18th-century Swiss women
- 18th-century Swiss people
- Axe murder
- Perpetrators of mariticide
- People executed by Switzerland
- Executed Swiss women
- Swiss female murderers
- Swiss people convicted of murder
- People convicted of murder by Switzerland
- People executed by Switzerland by decapitation
- Violence against women in Switzerland
- 18th-century murderers