Anna Zippel
executed for witchcraft in Sweden
Anna Zippel, also spelled as Sippel or Sippela (died 29 April 1676), was an alleged Swedish witch, one of the most famous ones of the Katarina witch trials in Stockholm during the Swedish witch mania "Det stora Oväsendet" ("The Great Noise") of 1668–1676; She was called "The Queen of Blockula", and together with her sister Brita Zippel the most famous witch in Swedish history, famed for her proud defense.
Together with her sister, Brita Zippel, and her friend and business partner Anna Månsdotter, she was the first woman in Stockholm to be accused of abducting children to Witches' Sabbath of Satan in Blockula.
Background
Anna Zippel was a wealthy middle-class woman. Her brothers were sports instructors at the royal court, and her husband Bengt Bråk owned several bakeries, properties, and a mill. She sold medicines made by her close friend, the independent and attractive hatmaker, Anna Månsdotter. She supported her impoverished sister Brita Zippel, even though they were not close. Unlike her sister Brita Zippel, she was a respected and dignified woman. She had a place in high society and, according to witnesses, was on friendly terms with the mayor Thegnérs wife, the wife of the city-captain, Margareta Remmer, and madame de la Vallée, wife of the famed architect Jean de la Vallée of the Royal house. Aware that accusations of sorcery were not accepted against members of the upper-classes, Anna would later state this in the trial against her.
Anna was described as a tall, proud woman with elegant posture, and she seems to have been interested in fashion.
The public source identifies “Anna Zippel” as executed for witchcraft in Sweden. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Anna, Zippel and executed.
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This entry incorporates text from “Anna Zippel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.