37 pages • 1 hour read
The Burgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Anna Büschler died suddenly in 1552. Before she died, the imperial court at Esslingen sided with Hall on the issue of whether or not Anna’s escape from prison voided “her charge that the city had willfully disobeyed the higher court’s order to release her” (186). After she died, the charge against her siblings regarding the forced agreement and the charge against the city council regarding her unlawful imprisonment were rendered moot. The author concludes that Anna would likely not have liked the outcome of her legal matters if she had survived, given that the opinions of the majority of witnesses did not support her.
Ozment draws several lessons from Anna’s story. First is that “self-destructive litigation is no novelty of the twentieth century” (186). In fact, given Anna’s 16th-century context—in which belligerent or otherwise nonconforming women risked accusations of witchcraft—her legal actions were all the more dangerous. The next lesson regards the importance of the separation of powers; thankfully for Anna, “[B]ecause the city council was not a legal island but subject to a network of imperial courts willing to prod and override it, she did not end up empty-handed” (187). Third, 16th-century German women were not “powerless victims of male rule” but could “define themselves and their self-worth in fully satisfying ways through the spheres of life and work then available to them both within and outside the home” despite the lack of equality as we understand it now (187-88).
Finally, Anna’s story provides a difficult lesson regarding “the tragedy that awaits those who defy the expectations of their age and culture” (192). For the sin of refusing to suffer injustice at the hands of her own family and government, Anna fought an unceasing uphill battle until her untimely death. Her few allies—including her maternal relatives, some stalwart friends, and her two husbands—helped Anna to achieve the few successes she experienced throughout the course of her legal struggles.
Chapter 7 Analysis
Chapter 7 more fully explicates Ozment’s view of 16th-century gender inequality. He spends a great deal of time defending commonsense German views of the time against a modern reader’s possible objections. He explains that “wealth, property, and social standing” were better guarantors of privilege than whether one was male or female (188). Ozment writes, “[S]ociety’s general attitude toward women at this time is more accurately described as condescending and protective than as hateful and dismissive” (189). Ozment goes so far as to write that Anna’s narrative proves that the era’s sexism “was not as prominent or severe in actual family life and social practice” (188), which is one of the more controversial opinions the author expresses in his book.
While acknowledging Anna’s strong personality and tenacity, the author explains Anna’s legal successes (however few) partly in terms of her support system. For all the men that abandoned Anna throughout her life, she “had her supporters on her mother's side of the family and other friends as well […] she cultivated her own noble counselors and friends in high places, who helped her make the most of her rights and opportunities” (193). This too is partly Anna’s own doing, however: “[I]t was up to Anna herself to make these various connections and resources work to her advantage. To the extent that it can be so described, Anna Büschler was her own success story” (193). Somebody else in Anna’s shoes might have chosen an easier life after the agreement with her siblings and simply swallowed the deep sense of injustice, but this route was incompatible with Anna’s character.
Unlock all 37 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: