Who committed which offence, when – and what punishment was pronounced? For crimes that lie centuries in the past, much remains in the dark. For Thun, however, the legal records kept in the Burgerarchiv Thun and the State Archives of the Canton of Bern allow us to reconstruct an astonishing number of individual fates: the oath-breaker, the maid convicted of theft, treacherous murderers – even «witches» and fortune tellers sentenced to death.

What the tower books tell us – and what they don’t

A key source are the so-called tower books («Turmbücher»): records of the prisoners held in the castle tower, with interrogation protocols and verdicts. They do not cover all the crime of their time – offences against religious and moral norms, for instance, were the business of the moral courts and left their own traces in the files. That is why, alongside the tower books, we also study other legal records held by the Burgerarchiv Thun and the State Archives of the Canton of Bern.

Confessions under torture

Criminal procedure followed precise rules – rules that are chilling to read today: torture, the «peinliche Frage», was considered a legitimate means of obtaining a confession in Thun as elsewhere. Many of the confessions that survive in the records must therefore be read with the greatest caution. For those who want to dig deeper, the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland explains torture in the old law (in German and French).

They too are voices of the forgotten: the enforcers

Among the voices of the forgotten we also count those who had to carry out the sentences – the jailers, the bailiffs, and not least the executioner. What may have gone through his mind when he raised the sword? The Thun executioner’s sword can still be seen in the castle tower today.

Researching together

We work closely with the Burgerarchiv Thun and the State Archives of the Canton of Bern, we receive enquiries all year round, and we help wherever we can. What we find, we publish here – with care and respect: behind every entry in the records stands a human being.

Further reading: current research

The tower books and Bernese legal history are subjects of current scholarship – two examples (both in German):

• Tina Adam: «Verhört im Turm» – Interrogated in the tower: female criminality in 17th-century Bern, master’s thesis, University of Bern 2018 – a study of the Bernese tower books with a particular focus on women before the courts.
• Sibylle Hofer: «Das Richthaus» – Justice in Bern’s town hall from the Middle Ages to modern times, in: Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte 03/2017, pp. 38–48 (PDF).

Was one of your ancestors among them – as a defendant, a plaintiff, a witness, or even a judge? Many families from Switzerland and abroad carry names that appear in these records. Ask us your question on the project page – we read every message.