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Abstract

In Early Modern Germany skinners and executioners belonged to the class of the so-called "dishonorable" professions. They formed a marginal group in the "honorable" society. The skinner's main function was to dispose of dead animals. The executioner was responsible for torture and the execution of a sentence. In the seventeenth century both officials spent much of their time practising medicine as regular members on the market of licensed medical practitioners. All truly licensed healers used techniques which were related to magic lore. In the eighteenth century doctors and qualified surgeons gained a monopoly and it became illegal for skinners and executioners to practise medicine. Those who did so were prosecuted. The Enlightenment declared their methods to be founded on superstitions.