Under Prince-Abbot Balthasar von Dernbach, the Fulda witch trials in Germany resulted in approximately 250 executions. The trials were driven by religious zeal during the Counter-Reformation and demonstrated how political leaders could exploit witchcraft fears to consolidate power and enforce religious conformity.

The Fulda trials illustrated the intersection of politics, religion, and superstition that fascinated later writers. Literary works examining authoritarianism, religious persecution, and the manipulation of popular fears drew upon such historical episodes, while poets reflected on the human cost of ideological purity enforced through terror.