by Paul Schmolling and Philip Stander
Copyright ©1996 Paul Schmolling and Philip Stander
The Case of the Schiel Family

In 1581 at Tottelstedt, Germany, the family of Hans Schiel, his wife Margareta, and sons Hans and Martin lived in a small peasant cottage. The case of the Schiel family was documented by a priest, Johann Korner, whose story begins one night as the family lay down to rest. Suddenly, the peace of the night was broken by lumps of earth striking them and all parts of the cottage. They were frightened and mystified because they could not understand where it was coming from. The next day, they made no mention of the brief period of terror during the previous night to visiting neighbors and relatives, but once inside the cottage, the visitors were struck with lumps of dirt. As Cornell relates the story (Poltergeists, 1979, when one of the Schiel brothers brought in a fist-sized piece of clay that had hit the cottage and laid it on the floor, teeth marks suddenly appeared in the clay as if it was being bitten by some invisible entity.

On another occasion, stones fell upon them and one landed (in the words of the family) on the toe of a "disbeliever," causing him great pain. Members of the family continued to experience pain as parts of their bodies became swollen from the pelting; the poltergeist attacks increased.

When he could bear no more, Schiel went to the local priest for help. Upon hearing of the attacks, the priest at first refused to come, insisting that the family’s house be destroyed piece by piece, in order to rid it of the evil presence. Responding to Schiel’s insistent pleading, the priest agreed to help, but as soon as he entered the house, he was immediately pelted with dirt. The priest said mass and, for a short period of time, all was quiet. Then, without any prior warning, the violence returned with a fury. In desperation, the Schiels sought help from high government officials, who examined and methodically investigated the house and events, but to no avail; their conclusion was, "that the phenomena were the work of Satan rather than of wicked men or magicians."

The poltergeist attacks continued with even greater fury; the elder son was almost strangled and an axe flying through the air barely missed the father’s head. Again, Schiel sought help and this time, two priests and their helper prayed for days in an effort to rid the house of the evil demons. Some period of peace did follow, and when the disturbances returned, the activities were much weaker. The Suffrogan Bishop, himself, came to the house, flung himself on the floor face down, and prayed in full robes. As Cornell concludes, "From that day and hour onwards the Devil was heard no more in the town of Tottlestadt."

Since in most cases of reported poltergeist phenomena the disturbing activities tend to die away in a matter of weeks, it continues to be debated whether the Bishop "cured" the house, or if it was simply time for the attacks to stop, or if the energy had been used up and dissipated from whatever the source. Once again, we see the presence of young adolescents in the Schiel home, and the question is raised about whether the energy released to attack family members, relatives, and neighbors derived from the repressed, pent-up sexual drives of the pubescent boy, but, in this case, a number of the attacks occurred when the boys were out of the room or away from home. Whether these sadistic attacks were sexually motivated remains an unanswered question.