Vehmic Court - The Vehmic Courts in Fiction

The Vehmic Courts in Fiction

Vehmic courts play a key role in the novel Anne of Geierstein or, The Maiden of the Mist by Sir Walter Scott in which Archibald von Hagenbach, the Duke of Burgundy's governor at Brisach (Switzerland), is condemned and executed by the Vehmgericht. Scott drew his inspiration from Goethe's play Goetz von Berlichingen which he had translated, incorrectly.

In William Makepeace Thackeray's novel 'Vanity Fair' "Was Rebecca guilty or not?" the Vehmgerich of tho servants' hal had pronounced against her.

A character in the Dorothy L. Sayers novel Murder Must Advertise appears at a fancy-dress party as a member of the Vehmgericht, which allows him to wear a hooded costume to disguise his identity.

In Fritz Lang's M, the locals criminals of an unnamed city (probably Berlin) capture a child murderer and hold a vigilante court.

In The Illuminatus! Trilogy, the Vehmic courts are mentioned as being connected to Nazi Werewolves as well as the Illuminati.

In A Study in Scarlet, a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, the retribution of the Mormons is compared to that of the Vehmgericht.

The Vehmgericht also appear as antagonists in The Strong Arm, an 1899 novel set in the Holy Roman Empire by British-Canadian author Robert Barr.

Geoff Taylor's 1966 novel, Court Of Honor, features the Fehme being revived by a German officer and Martin Bormann (a featured character in other semi-historical novels with post-war 'Nazi underground' themes) in the dying days of the Third Reich.

The Freischoeffen also provided the subject for Berlioz's unfinished opera Les francs-juges, the overture to which provided the signature tune for 'Face to Face', the well-known early series of British television interviews, conducted by the Rt Hon John Freeman MBE.