Anna Elisabeth Michel. The Scary Story of Anneliese Michel

Anneliese Michel was born in 1952 in the Bavarian Lieblfing to a strict Catholic family. Her mother had another daughter, Martha, who died at the age of eight. Her parents rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and on the 13th of every month they celebrated the feast of the Virgin Mary of Fatima.

Anneliese attended mass several times a week, said rosaries and even tried to do more than was supposed to. However, in 1968, when she was 16, Anneliese became ill during class. According to her friends, it seemed that for several minutes the girl was in a trance. That night she had an attack, during which she woke up all wet with an unbearable feeling of heaviness in her chest. After a hard night, the girl was so exhausted that she did not find the strength to go to school.

A year later, the attack happened again - Anneliese woke up due to difficulty breathing and paralysis of her arms and whole body. The parents showed the girl to the doctor, but he did not find any abnormalities. A year later - in 1970 - Anneliese ended up in a hospital in Aschaffenburg because of pleurisy and tuberculosis found in her.

After some time, she had a third seizure, after which, according to Anneliese, she began to see faces and hear some sounds. The doctors then diagnosed her with epilepsy. The girl was treated with antiepileptic drugs, but they did not give any result.

Despite health problems, she was able to finish school and go to college to become a teacher. In 1973, the girl began to suffer from hallucinations: it seemed to her that the devil lives inside her. Parents began to notice that their daughter was behaving strangely. For example, once she licked urine from the floor, ate coal, and also butchered insects and ate them. Concerned parents turned to the priest for help, but they were told that until all signs of possession were proven, the exorcism session could not be performed.

It wasn't until Anneliese avoided religious objects like crosses and holy water that the priests realized she was showing all the signs of demonic behavior. Having received enough evidence, the ministers of the church agreed to perform an exorcism session. For 10 months, the girl went through six to seven hour-long sessions to exorcise demons, during which the clergy counted about six "demons": Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Fleishman and Hitler. And each was worse than the last.

In between sessions, when Anneliese got better, she completely stopped eating - her weight reached 31 kilograms. However, the priests noted that during the exorcism, she was so strong that she had to be chained. In 1976, after another exorcism, Anneliese died. An autopsy showed that the girl had broken teeth, her limbs were bruised, and her eyes were black.

A cross was nailed to her grave in the hope that the girl's soul was freed from demons. And on April 21, 1978, the district court of Aschaffenburg, where Anneliese studied, put her parents and priests behind bars for performing rituals on a child that led to his death.

The story of Anneliese Michel, who died as a result of an exorcism, is one of the most famous and mysterious among the cases of the so-called “devil possession”. After the release of the picture "The Six Demons of Emily Rose", based on real events, interest in this mystical plot of 40 years ago has increased again. Despite the fact that skeptics do not believe in such nonsense (they say that this exorcism of yours can be explained scientifically), there are still a lot of people who are haunted by what happened. Too many inexplicable inconsistencies. So who is this Anneliese Michel? Why do many still discuss what happened to her, and some even consider her a saint?

Anneliese Michel was born in Germany on September 21, 1952 to an Orthodox Catholic family. Without missing a single religious holiday, attending Mass several times a week and reading prayers almost hourly, the Michel family was known in the district as almost fanatics. This, however, did not bother them at all. Anneliese, as you might guess, grew up a devout Catholic. The girl voluntarily slept on the cold floor in winter - in order to atone for the sins of her mother. The fact is that 4 years before her birth, Anna, while not yet married, gave birth to a daughter, which became a real shame for the family. After 8 years, the baby died, and for her sister it was such a shock that she decided to beg forgiveness from God at all costs. For this, as she believed, it was necessary to systematically punish herself: repenting for the sins of her parent, the girl, on her knees, read rosaries (prayers on the rosary), and then fell asleep right on the floor.

Anneliese Michel at the age of 16

Of course, the world knows a lot of such cases, but who wants to understand the "religious oddities" of an ordinary family, if they do not interfere with the rest? So it was with the Michel family. Until 1968, when 16-year-old Anneliese caught a cold after sleeping on a cold floor, she ended up in a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, where it all began.

There, the girl began to pray even more fervently and shared her plans for the future with other patients: she wanted to become a missionary and teach the children of underdeveloped countries the law of God.

And then something happened that became the starting point of the whole mystical history: Anneliese had a seizure during which she bit her tongue. By the way, the girl was cured of tuberculosis, they gave up on the attack and let her go home.

Since then, things have gone awry, and Anneliese's health has deteriorated dramatically. Because of this, she hardly graduated from high school, but still entered the university to learn to be a teacher: the desire to teach children the basics of the Christian religion was already very strong. At the same time, every month Mikhel became worse: at first there were problems with speech, and then it became difficult for the girl to walk. The reasons for this were not clear to anyone. In 1969, a second attack occurred: one night, Anneliese's body suddenly became rigid, she was paralyzed, and she could not say a word. The family doctor just shrugged and advised to see a psychiatrist, but the electroencephalogram did not reveal any changes in the brain. In fact, this meant that the girl was healthy: there were no medical indications for treatment.

Anneliese (left) with her parents and sisters

Nevertheless, her parents (and this was perhaps the only time they acted wisely in this whole story) decided to leave her in a psychiatric clinic, where she spent about a year: they did not understand what was happening to her. In 1970, a third seizure occurred, after which Anneliese was diagnosed with epilepsy and prescribed strong drugs, which nevertheless did not help. All this was done in circumvention of the law, because repeated EEGs again did not reveal anything suspicious, which means that Mikhel was actually healthy.

After some time spent in the hospital, Anneliese, at first glance, felt better: the doctors considered that the attacks would not happen again, and let her go home, strictly ordering her not to stop taking her medication. The girl tried to lead a life “like everyone else”: she studied diligently at the university, attended church and prayed, prayed, prayed ... Soon she began to hallucinate, and she began to hear voices that claimed that she was cursed and would burn in Hell. According to the girl, she saw the face of the devil on the walls, floor and ceiling, and sometimes in place of her mother's face.

Parents all this time just shrugged: well, what can be done, since the pills do not help? Just hope for a miracle.

This lasted for about three years, as a result of which in 1973 Mikhel again ended up in a psychiatric clinic (at the insistence of doctors), where she was diagnosed with severe depression.

Anneliese, in turn, became increasingly disillusioned with medicine, as there was no improvement from taking medication. The doctors gradually increased the dosage of the drugs, not understanding what was happening to their patient. But the girl herself, it seems, was perfectly aware of everything: she explained her condition by the fact that, most likely, she was possessed by the devil. How else to interpret the fact that every day she was getting worse, despite strong antidepressants, and mysterious visions appeared more and more often?

Further - more: an orthodox Catholic, she began to avoid crucifixions in every possible way. Diagnosis (if, of course, one can say so) "possessed by the devil" was first made by Anneliese, a friend of the family, Thea Hein, who accompanied her on a pilgrimage. The woman noticed that the girl could not bring herself to touch the cross, was afraid to look at the icons, refused to drink from the sacred spring, and she also smelled bad. Hine advised her friends to visit a priest with her daughter so that he would exorcise the demon, who, in her opinion, was definitely “sitting” in the girl.

Shot from the film "The Six Demons of Emily Rose"

However, none of the ministers of the church agreed to perform such a ceremony: they all recommended continuing treatment, because they were not entirely sure of Anneliese's obsession. In addition, for the exorcism it was necessary to obtain the permission of the bishop, and they did not want to disturb His Holiness over such a "trifle".

Meanwhile, Michel's behavior during the attacks (and they happened more often) became more and more strange. If earlier she heard only voices and saw images of the devil, now she tore off her clothes, ate coal, spiders, flies, drank her own urine. It was impossible to stop her: at such moments, it was as if some kind of powerful force was infused into her, beyond control from the outside. Moreover, if you do not take attacks into account, Anneliese was no different from the rest: in 1973 she successfully graduated from the university, and fellow students later described her as “ordinary, but extremely pious.”

The next stage of the disease was seizures, during which Mikhel began to speak different languages and even in different voices, as well as calling himself Adolf Hitler, Cain, Judas and Lucifer. She screamed, insulted family members, attacked them.

Once she killed a bird by biting off its head, and another time for two days she sat under the table and barked, imitating a dog.

It is impossible for all this not to ask a lot of questions. Where were Anneliese's parents all this time? Where were they looking? Why was the girl at home all this time, and not in a psychiatric clinic? After all, she could harm not only her family, but, first of all, herself. One gets the impression that devout Catholics were waiting for some kind of miracle. For him, the family again turned to the priests. True, after two years of requests from her daughter, in 1975. At that time, the girl had been ill for about 6 years and had long begged her elders to ask the church again to perform an exorcism, but for some reason they were slow. As a result, the girl herself wrote a letter to a priest named Ernst Alt. It was he who was the first to agree to consider the case of Anneliese. According to him, she did not look like an epileptic at all, but was really possessed. In September 1975, Bishop Josef Stangl gave Alt and another priest, Arnold Renz, permission to perform an exorcism. True, he ordered to keep everything a secret. But the secret, as we know, always becomes clear ...

Michel during the exorcism

From September 1975 to July 1976, 1-2 times a week, they tried to exorcise the devil from Anneliese. At the same time, the attacks were so strong that the girl had to be held by three men, and sometimes even chained to her. At the very beginning of the “therapy”, she decided to stop taking medications, while her parents strongly supported her daughter’s decision, because it turned out that the pills did not help, so why take them? Michel got a little better, and she was even able to successfully pass the exam in order to be allowed to teach children the law of God.

Anneliese during an exorcism

Parents almost clapped their hands: still, what they believed in so much worked!

However, in May 1976, Anneliese suddenly became worse: she was delirious almost all the time due to fatigue as a result of constant rituals: by that time more than 60 of them had been performed, each lasting about 4 hours. All this time she had to kneel to beg for salvation from God. 42 ceremonies were recorded on camera.

A few weeks before her death, the girl refused food and water: this is how she supposedly atoned for the sins of other people. The last rite of exorcism was performed on June 30. Due to exhaustion, Anneliese contracted pneumonia. exhausted, with high temperature, she was unable to perform the actions that her priests demanded: in the video, which was later broadcast in court, it is clear that the parents help kneel their daughter, holding her by the arms. The next day, July 1, 1976, Anneliese Michel died in her sleep.

The autopsy report stated that the girl died as a result of exhaustion (at the time of death she weighed only 30 kg) and dehydration. By the way, knee ligaments Anneliese were torn as a result of about 600 kneeling ...

The death of Anneliese caused a wide resonance in Germany: people did not understand how modern world things like that can happen. After the investigation, the Attorney General said that the death of the girl could have been prevented even 10 days before the tragedy, if her parents had forced her to take medication again. The charge was brought against Ernst Alt, Arnold Renz, as well as both parents under the article "manslaughter", because during the last 10 months of the girl's life, not a single doctor observed her. The defense broadcast recordings of the rites to prove that Anneliese was indeed possessed, and also stressed that the German Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, which means that no one forbade exorcism.

The grave of Anneliese Michel is located next to the grave of her deceased little sister.

The trump cards of the accusation were the testimony of doctors who had previously treated the girl, who said that she was not possessed, but suffered from psychiatric problems, aggravated by epilepsy and religious hysteria. The defendants were eventually found guilty of negligent manslaughter and were given a 6 month suspended prison sentence with 3 years probation.

More than forty years have passed since then, but the story of Anneliese Michel still haunts lovers of mysticism. Hollywood, of course, did not stand aside: in 2005, the horror film The Six Demons of Emily Rose was filmed based on the story.

Shot from the film "The Six Demons of Emily Rose"

And a year later, the picture “Requiem” was released in German hire, which is also based on the story of the expulsion of demons from Anneliese Michel. The girl's mother was against making films, and in one interview she even stated that she did not regret what had happened. Anna Michel sincerely believed that numerous exorcisms were necessary, and Anneliese died atoning for the sins of others. By the way, even among a small group of Catholics, the girl is revered as an unofficial saint, and her grave is a place of pilgrimage.

Many questions that this mysterious story gives rise to do not make it possible to unambiguously answer what actually caused Michel's death. So which side to take: doctors, priests or lovers of the paranormal - everyone's personal choice.

Anna Elisabeth Michel (German: Anna Elisabeth Michel, better known as Anneliese Michel, German: Anneliese Michel [ˈanəˌliːzə ˈmɪçl̩]; September 21, 1952, Lieblfing, Bavaria, Germany - July 1, 1976, Klingenberg am Main, ibid) - German woman who died after a series of exorcisms were performed on her. At the age of 17, Michel experienced her first seizure, after which she was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. Despite treatment, the girl's condition worsened and she began to show symptoms. mental disorder. Mikhel and her family decided that she was possessed, and turned to a Catholic priest with a request to exorcise the demons. The rites continued for 10 months. In July 1976, Michel died of exhaustion and dehydration caused by her prolonged refusal to consume food and water.

Biography, history and facts

The story of this girl, which became the basis of two feature films, took place more than thirty years ago, but does not cease to arouse interest today. The main question that is asked by everyone who is familiar with this drama is what really happened to Anneliese - was she really possessed or was her death the result of a serious illness. It is unlikely that we will now answer this question, but this does not prevent us from hearing the true story of the short life of Anneliese Michel from Germany.

The events that will be discussed became the subject of attention in 1976. The public has been closely following the unprecedented trial of two Catholic priests accused of killing a young woman, Anneliese Michel.

She was born in 1952 in a small Bavarian village to a Catholic family. Her name is a combination of two names, Anna and Elizabeth. Anneliese's parents, Anna Furg and Josef Michel, were Catholic believers, very conservative, if not orthodox. They rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, on the 13th of each month they celebrated the feast of the Virgin Mary of Fatima, and the neighbor Barbara Weigand, who walked five hours to the Capuchin church to receive the wafer, was known as a model in the Michel family.

Anneliese regularly attended mass several times a week, said rosaries, and even tried to do more than was prescribed, for example, sleeping on the floor in the middle of winter. In 1968, the first attack occurred: Anneliese bit her tongue due to a spasm. A year later, nocturnal seizures began, during which the girl's body lost flexibility, there was a feeling of heaviness in the chest, the loss of the ability to speak - the girl could not call either her parents or any of her three sisters. After the first attack, Anneliese felt so exhausted and devastated that she could not find the strength to go to school. Attacks were replaced by periods of calm and Anneliese even sometimes even managed to play tennis.

In 1969, the girl woke up at night due to breathing difficulties and body numbness. Family doctor Gerhard Vogt advised me to see a psychiatrist. On August 27, 1969, Anneliese's electroencephalogram showed no changes in the brain. True, later the girl was struck down by pleurisy and tuberculosis. At the beginning of February 1970 she was admitted to a hospital in Aschaffenburg. On the 28th Anneliese was transferred to Mittelberg. On the night of June 3 of the same year, another attack began. The new EEG again did not reveal anything suspicious, but Dr. Wolfgang von Haller recommended medical treatment. The decision was not overturned even when the same result was shown by the third and fourth EEG taken on August 11, 1970 and June 4, 1973. In Mittelberg, Anneliese began to see demonic faces during the rosary. In the spring, Anneliese began to hear a knock. Vogt, having examined the girl and found nothing, sent the girl to an otologist, but he also did not reveal anything, and the girl's sisters began to hear the knock.

According to Anneliese herself, it began to seem to her that she was obsessed from the age of 13. The first to realize that something was wrong with Annelise was Thea Hein, who accompanied her on a pilgrimage to San Damiano, Italy. She noticed that Anneliese bypassed the image of Christ and refused to drink water from the sacred spring of Lourdes.

Four years of treatment yielded nothing, and in the summer of 1973 Anneliese's parents turned to several priests, but they were told that until all signs of possession were proven, the exorcism could not be performed. The following year, Pastor Ernst Alt, after observing Anneliese for some time, requested permission from Bishop Josef Stangl of Würzburg to perform an exorcism, but was refused. At this time, Anneliese's behavior changed: she refused to eat, began to break crucifixes and images of Christ in the house, tear off her clothes, scream for hours, bite family members, injure herself, eat spiders, flies and coal. One day Anneliese crawled under the kitchen table and barked like a dog for two days. Thea, who arrived three times in the name of the Trinity, called on the demons to leave the girl, and only then Anneliese left the table as if nothing had happened.

On September 16, 1975, Stangl, in consultation with the Jesuit Adolf Rodewick, appointed Alt and the Salvatorian Arnold Renz to perform the exorcism. Its basis then was the so-called Roman Ritual (“Rituale Romanum”), developed as early as 1614 and expanded in 1954.

Anneliese indicated that she was commanded by six demons who called themselves Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Fleischmann, and Hitler. Valentin Fleishman was a Franconian priest in 1552-1575, later demoted, accused of cohabitation with a woman and addiction to wine. Fleishman also committed murder in his parish house.

From September 24, 1975 to June 30, 1976, about 70 rites were performed over Anneliese, one or two weekly, 42 were recorded on tape and listened to later in court. The first ceremony lasted 5 hours. When the priests touched Anneliese, she screamed: “Put your paw away, it burns like fire!” The attacks were so strong that the girl was held by three people or tied with a chain. Between attacks, however, she felt fine, went to school and church, and passed her exams at the Pedagogical Academy in Würzburg.

On May 30, 1976, after attending one of the rituals, Dr. Richard Roth allegedly retorted to Father Alt in response to a request for help: "There is no injection against the devil." On June 30 of the same year, Annelise, who was feverish from pneumonia, went to bed and said: "Mom, stay, I'm afraid." Those were her last words. The next day, at about 8 am, Anna pronounced her daughter dead. It turned out that at the time of her death, Anneliese weighed only 31 kg.

On April 21, 1978, the district court of Aschaffenburg, where she studied at Anneliese, sent the girl's parents and both priests to the dock. It is not clear why the parents were not allowed to be exhumed, and Renz later said that he was not even allowed into the morgue. It is also interesting that the head of the German Episcopal Conference, which declared that Annelise was not possessed, Cardinal Joseph Heffner on April 28, 1978, admitted that he believed in the existence of demons. However, in 1974, a study by the Freiburg Institute for Marginal Psychology showed that only 66% of Catholic theologians in Germany believed in the existence of the devil.

A number of experts in their individual books, among whom the Protestant F. Goodman (Annelisa Michel and Her Demons) advocated the obsession with Anneliese, criticized the trial. In 1976, a German press agency showed that of the 22 German Catholic dioceses, only 3 practiced the rite of exorcism, and all were in Bavaria - in Würzburg, Augsburg and Passau.

After an investigation, the public prosecutor stated that Anneliese's death was premature and the girl could live for at least another week. Four defendants went to the dock: Anneliese's parents, Pastor Ernst Alt and Father Arnold Renz.

The process began on March 30, 1978 and generated a lot of interest. The priests were defended by a team of lawyers paid by the church. The defense side insisted that exorcism is an inalienable right of citizens, protected by the constitution, as well as the right to religious beliefs.

Ultimately, the defendants were convicted and sentenced to 6 months suspended sentence.

Anneliese's grave in Klingenberg is visited by groups of Catholics. Some of them believe that after many years of struggle, Anneliese's soul defeated the demons. In 1999, Cardinal Medina Estevez presented to journalists in the Vatican for the first time in 385 years new version Roman Ritual, which has been in the works for more than 10 years.

In 2005, a film directed by Scott Derrickson was released, based on the story of Anneliese Michel, The Exorcism of Emily Rose,

Six Demons by Emily Rose

This story formed the basis of the plot of the film "The Six Demons of Emily Rose". The film, directed by Scott Derrickson, was released in the fall of 2005 and became his most notable picture. The literary source of the film, in turn, was the documentary book by anthropologist Felicitas Goodman "The Exorcism of Anneliese Michael". , according to the results of 2006, the film was recognized as the best horror film and was awarded the Saturn Award, annually presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. it was shown that she was possessed by a legion of demons, and someone - that she suffered mental illness, which left its mark on the religiosity of the family. But in any case, this is a warning to everyone who is used to being frivolous about what is not worth joking with. After all, the devil does not always have to come to the call in order to conclude a contract for the soul - we carry the most terrible demons inside us ...

Caused by her prolonged refusal to consume food and water.

Anneliese Michel
Anneliese Michel
Name at birth	Anna Elisabeth Michel
Date of Birth	September 21(1952-09-21 )
Place of Birth	Lieblfing, Bavaria, West Germany
Date of death	July 1(1976-07-01 ) (23 years old)
A place of death	Klingenberg am Main, Bavaria, West Germany
A country
Occupation	student
Father	Josef Michel
Mother	Anna Michel
Media files at Wikimedia Commons

The lawsuit that followed this caused a wide resonance in society. As written Die Tageszeitung 25 years later, this process has become one of the most controversial in the history of Germany. Two priests and Anneliese's parents were charged with criminal inaction that led to. According to the prosecution, they took advantage of the girl's trust and prompted her to refuse treatment, which led to her death. In turn, the defense invoked the German Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion to citizens. As a result, all the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to 3 years of probation.

Michel's story has inspired many works of art, including the horror film The Six Demons of Emily Rose.

Childhood

Anneliese was brought up in strictness and was devoted to the Catholic faith. Reportedly, her parents were deeply religious, rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and sympathized with extremist, even sectarian Catholic associations. Michel attended mass twice a week, sang in the church choir and, as noted The Washington Post"While other children her age rebelled against authority and experimented with sex, she slept on the bare floor in the middle of winter in an attempt to atone for the sins of drug addicts and misguided priests."

Anneliese's childhood was happy, although she grew up as a weak and sickly child. Anneliese loved to play at her father's sawmill, took piano and accordion lessons, studied well, and dreamed of becoming an elementary school teacher. In addition to Martha, she had three more sisters: Gertrude (born 1954), Barbara (born 1956) and Roswitha (born 1957). In 1959, Anneliese entered primary school in Klingenberg, then in the sixth grade she moved to the Karl Theodor Dahlberg Gymnasium in Aschaffenburg.

Disease and treatment attempts

In 1968, due to a spasm, Michel bit her tongue. A year later, strange night attacks appeared: Anneliese, due to dysarthria, could not move, felt heaviness in her chest, sometimes lost the ability to speak and could not call anyone close to her. In 1969, the girl woke up with difficulty breathing and with complete paralysis of the body. Family doctor Gerhard Vogt advised the parents to go to the hospital. An electroencephalogram was taken, which did not show any changes in Michel's brain. However, she was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. The girl was hospitalized in early February 1970 with a diagnosis of tuberculosis.

In June 1970, Michel experienced a third seizure in the hospital where she was at that time. She was prescribed anticonvulsants, including phenytoin, which did not work. Then she began to assert that sometimes the “face of the Devil” appears before her. In the same month, she was prescribed an aolept similar in composition to chlorpromazine and used in the treatment of schizophrenia and other mental disorders. Despite this, she continued to be depressed. In 1973, she began to hallucinate while praying and heard voices telling her that she was cursed and would "rot in hell".

Mikhel's treatment in a psychiatric hospital did not help, and she increasingly doubted the effectiveness of medicine. Being a devout Catholic, she assumed she was the victim of a possession. She later made a pilgrimage to San Giorgio Piacentino with family friend Thea Hine. There, Hein came to the conclusion that Michel was possessed because she could not touch the crucifix and refused to drink water from the holy spring of Lourdes. Together with her family, Michel approached several priests with a request to perform an exorcism. All of them refused and recommended to continue treatment. According to Michel, the exorcism requires the permission of the bishop and absolute certainty that the patient is possessed.

In the period between attacks, Mikhel did not show signs of mental disorder and led a normal life. She graduated from the University of Würzburg in 1973. Later, classmates described her as "reclusive and extremely religious". In November 1975, she successfully passed the exams for missio canonica- special permission to perform educational functions on behalf of the church.

Michel's condition worsened. She tore clothes on her body, ate spiders and coal, bit off the head of a dead bird, licked her own urine from the floor. During her seizures, she spoke in different languages ​​and called herself Lucifer, Cain, Judas, Nero, Adolf Hitler, and other names. According to reports from Michel's entourage, sometimes the demons even argued with each other, and it seemed that she was speaking in two different voices. In November 1973, she was prescribed carbamazepine. Opinions are expressed that the treatment was not sufficiently thought out and consistent, in particular, the doses were too small to cure such a serious disorder.

The exact diagnosis of Michel has not been established. B. Dunning cites in her article the opinion that she could suffer from dissociative identity disorder, aggravated by schizophrenia, and the seizures were caused by chronic stress. Although the psychiatry of that time was not able to cure the patient, but to some extent controlled the disease. Michel died after refusing treatment. Catholic priest and paranormal researcher John Duffy published a book about Michel in 2011. He wrote that based on the evidence available, it is safe to say that Anneliese was not possessed. Jesuit priest and psychiatrist Ulrich Niemann said the following about the incident: “As a doctor, I say that there is no such thing as 'possession'. In my opinion, these patients are mentally ill. I pray for them, but that alone won't help. You have to work with them like a psychiatrist. But at the same time, when the patient comes from of Eastern Europe and believes that he is possessed by the devil, it would be a mistake to ignore his belief system. There was also speculation that, perhaps because of the film The Exorcist, which was released in 1973 (exactly at the time when Michel's condition began to deteriorate rapidly), she could learn about the symptoms of possession and subconsciously "tuned" herself for their manifestation.

On the morning of July 1, 1976, Mikhel was found dead in bed. When Alt was informed of this, he told her parents: "The soul of Anneliese, cleansed of the satanic power, rushed to the throne of the Most High."

As the autopsy showed, Mikhel's death was not directly caused by an exorcism. At some point, she decided that her death was inevitable, and voluntarily refused food and drink. Mikhel believed that her death would be atonement for sins younger generation and departing from the canons of the clergy. She hoped that people, having learned about her fate, would believe in God. At the time of her death, Mikhel weighed only 68 or 70 pounds (about 30 kg) with a height of 166 cm, suffered from pneumonia, her knee joints were torn from constant kneeling, and her whole body was bruised and open wounds. In recent months, Mikhel could not even move without assistance. She had to be tied to a bed so she wouldn't hurt herself.

According to judge Eimar Bolender, who led the Michel case, her death could have been prevented by treatment even 10 days before the incident.

Court

The circumstances of Mikhel's death were so unusual that it took investigators two years of proceedings before the case was brought to trial. As prosecutor Karl Stenger later admitted, when he was informed about the exorcism case, he at first mistook it for a prank on the part of colleagues. The trial began on March 30, 1978 and received extensive press coverage. Alt, Renz and Michel's parents were charged with criminal omission resulting in negligent death. Advocate for parents Eric Schmidt-Leichner, priests were defended by lawyers hired by the church. Representatives of the prosecution demanded a fine or other appropriate punishment only for priests, while the parents, in their opinion, should only be found guilty. This was explained by the fact that the Michelis were already punished by the loss of their daughter, and before the exorcism they tried to help Anneliese with traditional treatment for several years.

The doctors who testified at the trial said that Mikhel was not possessed, but suffered from psychiatric problems, aggravated by epilepsy and religious hysteria. The defense cited the German Constitution, which guarantees citizens freedom of religion. Renz said he was sure of the girl's obsession. According to Alt, he did not suspect that Mikhel was in such a serious condition, otherwise he would have immediately asked for help. According to some reports, Alt turned to Dr. Richard Rothu, who told Michel: "There is no cure for the devil, Anneliese."

All the defendants were found guilty, and the verdict was even stricter than what the prosecution demanded. They were sentenced to six months ' suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of 3 years .

Memory and Meaning

The death of Michel caused a wide resonance in Germany and raised the question of the boundaries of religious freedom. Many Germans were discouraged that such an event could occur in modern times. European country. Journalist Franz Bartel, who covered the incident in the press, said in an interview with the newspaper three decades later The Washington Post that he is still struck by the death of Michel and the superstition of her surroundings. The Washington Post in a 2005 article, she noted that exorcisms are now more widespread than is commonly believed. Thus, according to Professor Clemens Richter, there are up to 70 practicing exorcists in France. The 2005 Polish congress was reportedly attended by 350 exorcists. Germany is an exception in this regard: there are only two or three exorcists here, and they are forced to perform their actions in secret, albeit with the consent of the bishops. As noted skeptic Brian Dunning writes in his article, many such deaths are now known after exorcisms.

Michel is revered by a small group of Catholics as an unofficial saint, her grave is a place of pilgrimage. After the trial, Mikhel's parents asked the authorities for permission to exhume their daughter. The official reason given was that she was buried in a cheap coffin in a hurry. As it turned out later, a Carmelite nun from southern Bavaria told the Michels that she had a vision of the incorruptibility of Anneliese's remains. According to official reports, this information has not been confirmed. Alt subsequently stated that they were not allowed to attend the exhumation in person. After that, Michel's remains were reburied in an oak coffin with pewter trim. Also near the cemetery, Anneliese's father erected a small chapel in memory of his daughter; the girl 's parents went there to pray throughout their lives . Josef Michel died in 1999. Mikhel's mother said in an interview in 2005 that she did not regret the exorcism and to this day believes that her daughter was possessed and died atoning for the sins of others. In Klingenberg, they try not to talk about Michel, considering her death a black and shameful page in the history of the city.

After Michel's death, a group of German theologians formed a commission to change the rite of exorcism, and in 1984 they submitted proposals to the Vatican. It was proposed to remove those places where the exorcist addresses the devil directly. As follows from the arguments of the members of the commission, this form of treatment can further convince a mentally ill person of his own obsession. It took 15 years for the decision to be made. The updated description of the rite was notable for significant changes, but the most radical of the proposed changes were not accepted.

Three films were made based on Michel's story: The Six Demons of Emily Rose, The Diary of an Exorcist, and The Requiem. Michel starred Jennifer Carpenter, Nicole Muller and Sandra Huller, respectively.

Brian Dunning strongly criticized such paintings:

Filmmakers exploited these victims not only to create The Exorcist, but also many other imitator films based on the stories of specific individuals, including Anneliese. Every time Linda Blair's head twitched or she spit green vomit, we laughed and had a good time at the cinema. “…” These victims are often seriously ill people - they may have medical or psychiatric problems that need treatment - they do not deserve to be tortured or killed by negligence, nor to have their ordeal glorified as some sort of pop culture horror story .

In 2013, the house where the ceremonies were held burned down. This revived interest in the Michel case and encouraged further speculation regarding its paranormal nature.

Notes

1. , p. 20.
2. Find a Grave - 1995. - ed. size: 165000000

It is not often in a real murder trial that the prosecution and defense argue seriously on the topic: "If a Catholic girl barks from under the table for hours, bites family members, eats spiders, licks her own urine off the floor and speaks in the voice of Adolf Hitler - then this is did the demons move into it or just "the roof went"?
And it's not often that the Saturn Horror Film of the Year award is given to a film that says "Based on a true story" in the credits.

2006 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film goes to The Six Demons of Emily Rose

This film was based on the 1978 trial in which two priests Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz and two spouses Anna and Josef Michel were charged with the unintentional murder of 23-year-old German girl Anneliese Michel.

A girl from the quiet provincial town of Klingenberg am Main, Anneliese Michel, was brought up in a strict Catholic faith, bordering on religious fanaticism - during the winter fast she could sleep on the bare floor. The parents didn't mind.
Not surprisingly, from such a childhood in 1968, 16-year-old Anneliese suddenly had a violent seizure with convulsions, which was diagnosed as epilepsy. At the same time, amazing atheistic things began to happen to the girl: from time to time she began to refuse to drink holy water, kiss the crucifix, and also wriggle in writhing and curse everyone who offered her to do this.

If Anneliese lived in the GDR, then others would consider such behavior normal, but in Germany her Catholic parents sent her daughter for treatment to a psychiatric clinic. As you know, it is not difficult for medicine to make even normal person complete psycho, and after drug treatment Anneliese also began to hear demons.
The girl was placed in a psychiatric hospital three times (the last time she spent almost a year in the clinic), and after each course of treatment, Mikhel felt worse and worse: during seizures, she tore her clothes, ate insects, licked her own urine, howled not her own voice, cursed not only those around her, but also all the saints, and when she came to herself, she blamed everything on the demons.

This, however, did not prevent Annelise from successfully completing school, and in 1973 to enter the University of Würzburg. In the same 1973, the film "The Exorcist" was released on the screens of the world (two Oscars and eight Oscar nominations) - and this is a coincidence or a reason, but Anneliese and her parents came to the conclusion that the girl is possessed by the devil, and only his exile can help her .

From the summer of 1973, Anneliese's parents began to persistently turn to the Catholic Church for an exorcism, received constant refusals, until Bishop Josef Stangl of Würzburg got tired of it, and on September 16, 1975, he instructed Pastor Ernst Alt and the Salvatorian monk Arnold Renz to expel from Anneliese Michel everyone they meet there.

From September 24, 1975 to June 30, 1976, 67 exorcisms lasting up to four hours were sent, one or two weekly, 42 rites were recorded on tape. With the beginning of the ceremony, Anneliese stopped taking medications, and began to voluntarily refuse food and drink.

This quite naturally led to the fact that at 8 am on July 1, 1976, Anneliese was found dead in her bed. An autopsy showed that the main cause of death was dehydration and malnutrition (the girl weighed about 30 kg). Another hypothesis was put forward, according to which the death was caused by a side effect of the drug carbamazepine, which she had been taking for several years on the advice of psychiatrists.

On March 30, 1978, the Aschaffenburg district court put both priests and the girl's parents on trial. The court then considered that the girl's parents were already punished, and the priests received 6 months in prison with a three-year suspension of punishment.

Anneliese claimed that she was simultaneously commanded by six inhabitants of the hell: Lucifer, Hitler, Judas, Nero, Cain, and Fleishman (an unknown German monk, a murderer, a libertine and a 16th-century defamationist, to no one outside of Bavaria).
They howled from Anneliese in six different voices, mostly in German with the Austrian dialect (although Nero sometimes switched to his native Latin, and Judas to his native Aramaic, which Anneliese studied at school and Sunday school). As the Slavophiles suspect, Lucifer turned out to be a German by nationality, and Cain was not a Jew, since he did not speak Yiddish or Hebrew.

Needless to say, in the body of Anneliese Michel, a solid, but rather motley company came together: main adversary heavenly powers and the enemy of the human race, Lucifer, and the pop-cut Valentin Fleishman, who is not even worthy of cleaning his hooves. The pagan and tyrant Nero, who did not believe in either God or the devil, and Hitler, who may have been an occultist, but certainly not a Satanist. And Cain and Judas - the villains are still the same, but obviously not gopniks, and have not been previously noticed in minor dirty tricks.

But who is she, in general, this Anneliese Michel, so that six far from the last figures of the underworld inhabit her! And for what purpose? Drink girlish urine in your warm company, eat spiders, squirm in writhing, bark from under the table and curse respectable German burghers?
Neither the mind nor the fantasy of these demons to play pranks from the soul, which they do not have.