Anneliese Michel (September 21, 1952 - July 1, 1976). She is known for the fact that the films “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and “Requiem” were based on her life. She suffered from nervous diseases from the age of 16 until her death in 1976, the cause of which (at least indirectly) is considered to be an exorcism ritual. Her parents and two priests who performed the ritual were later charged with manslaughter. The expulsion was carried out by Pastor Arnold Renz under the ideological leadership of Bishop Joseph Stangl. The ritual ended with the girl's death.
“Annelisa’s soul, cleansed of satanic power,” said the pastor to the grief-stricken parents of the deceased, “has ascended to the throne of the Most High...”
Some people believe that she was actually possessed by the devil.
In 1969 The doctor diagnosed seventeen-year-old German Anneliese Michel with epilepsy, although the electroencephalogram showed nothing. It was only after Anneliese's death in 1976 that a number of oddities came to light, and then thanks to an equally strange trial. Despite the fact that the autopsy also showed no signs of epilepsy in the brain and death from dehydration and exhaustion, the culprits continued to be two priests and Anneliese's parents, who were not allowed to be exhumed. What made Anneliese crash? sacred relics, turn your head left and right with the speed of changing frames and eat spiders, flies and coal?
Anneliese Michel was born on September 21, 1952. in the Bavarian Leiblfing, but was brought up in Klingenberg am Main of the same land, which was then also part of the Federal Republic of Germany. The girl's name was a combination of two names - Anna and Elizabeth (Lisa). Conservative parents Anna Fürg and Joseph Michel were a colorful exception in Germany, but commonplace in the Catholic bastion of Bavaria. They rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, held the feast of Our Lady of Fatima on the 13th of every month, and neighbor Barbara Weigand, who walked five hours to the Capuchin church to receive a wafer, was a model in the Michel family. Anneliese attended mass several times a week, said rosaries, and even tried to do more than was prescribed, such as sleeping on the floor in the middle of winter.
In 1968 A generally harmless incident occurred: Annelise bit her tongue due to a spasm. A year later, incomprehensible nocturnal attacks began, during which the girl’s body lost flexibility, a feeling of heaviness appeared on her chest, and due to dysarthria - loss of the ability to speak - she was unable to call either her parents or any of her three sisters. After the first attack, Annelise felt so exhausted that she could not find the strength to go to school. However, this did not happen again for some time and Anneliese even played tennis sometimes.
In 1969 the girl woke up at night due to difficulty breathing and paralysis of her arms and whole body. The family doctor advised me to see a psychiatrist. On August 27, 1969, Anneliese's electroencephalogram did not reveal any changes in the brain. On the night of June 3 of the same year, another attack began. A new EEG again did not reveal anything suspicious, but Dr. Wolfgang von Haller recommended drug treatment. The decision was not canceled even when the third and fourth EEGs, taken on August 11, 1970 and June 4, 1973, showed the same result. In Mittelberg, Anneliese began to see demonic faces during the rosary. In the spring, Annelise began to hear some knocking. Vogt, having examined the girl and not finding anything, sent the girl to an otologist, but he also did not reveal anything, and the girl’s sisters began to hear the knocking that was heard above or below the witness.
Summer 1973 Anneliese's parents turned to several priests, but they were told that until all signs of possession were proven, an exorcism could not be carried out. The following year, Pastor Ernst Alt, after observing Anneliese for some time, requested permission from Bishop Joseph Stangl of Würzburg to perform an exorcism, but was refused.
At this time, Anneliese's behavior changed: she refused to eat, began breaking crucifixes and images of Christ in the house, tearing off her clothes, screaming for hours, biting family members, injuring herself and doing up to 400 squats a day (or 600 bows on her knees, which, in the end, led to injury to the knee ligaments). And one day Annelise climbed under the table in the kitchen and barked like a dog for two days. Thea, who arrived, called on the demons to leave the girl three times in the name of the Trinity, and only then did she come out from under the table as if nothing had happened.
However, this turned out to be temporary and Anneliese was later found above the Main, ready to throw herself into the water due to repeated calls from demons to commit suicide. Every day Anneliese Michel suffered more and more from her illness. She insulted her relatives, fought, bit, growled and wheezed, slept only on the floor, did not eat regular food (according to her, Satan forbade her to do this), but ate spiders and flies, destroyed icons and crosses that were in her room.
September 16, 1975 Stangl, in consultation with the Jesuit Adolf Rodewick, based on the 1st paragraph of the 1151st chapter of the Code of Canon Law, appointed Alta and the Salvatorian Arnold Renz to perform the exorcism. Its basis then was the so-called Roman Ritual (“Rituale Romanum”), developed back in 1614 and expanded in 1954.
Anneliese indicated that she was commanded by six demons who called themselves Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Fleischmann (a 16th century monk who fell under the rule of Satan) and Hitler, all of whom spoke German with an Austrian intonation. Valentin Fleishman was a Franconian priest in 1552-1575, later he was 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. The first ceremony took place at 16:00 and lasted 5 hours. When the priests touched Anneliese, she shouted: “Take your paw away, it burns like fire!” The attacks were so severe that Annelise was either held by three people or tied up with a chain.
June 30, 1976 Annelise, feverish from pneumonia, went to bed and said: “Mom, stay, I’m afraid.” These were hers last words. On July 1, 1976, at the age of 23, Anna was pronounced dead at about 8 a.m. Her parents buried her behind the cemetery - usually illegitimate children and suicides were buried there. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was dehydration and malnutrition, from which the girl suffered during months-long cycles of exorcism.
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 Anneliese studied at the gymnasium, put the girl’s parents and both priests in the dock. It is not clear why the parents were not allowed to exhume, 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 stated that Anneliese was not possessed, Cardinal Joseph Höffner, admitted on April 28, 1978 that he believes in the existence of demons.
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 at the Vatican for the first time in 385 years new version The Roman Ritual, which has been in the works for more than 10 years, is now required by the Vatican to have a medical background to perform the ritual.
“I would never perform this ritual,” admits Father Dieter Feineis, priest of the Church of St. Pancras in Klingenberg. “But both Anna Michel and her husband were absolutely sure that they were doing the right thing. The Church says in this regard that there are cases when the devil possesses a person, but in Germany no one commits exile anymore.”
The story of Anneliese Michel is more often called "the world's first documented case of exorcism." In fact, the girl’s “strange behavior” is explained quite simply: against the background of general religious insanity, epilepsy and schizophrenia, Annelise’s visions and hallucinations took on the images of demons, the devil, etc.
Anneliese's mother still lives in that same house. She never fully recovered from those terrible events. Her husband died in 1999 and her three other daughters moved away. Anna Michel, now in her 80s, bears the burden of memories alone. She has developed cataracts, which make her eyes appear frozen under a film. From the bedroom window you can see the cemetery where Anneliese is buried. On the grave there is a wooden cross with the name of the deceased and the inscription “Rest in the Lord.”
“Of course I miss Anneliese. She was my daughter. I see her grave and often visit to lay flowers,” says Anna Michel.
A deeply religious woman, she insists that the exorcism was justified.
“I know we did the right thing because I saw the sign of Christ on her hands,” she says. “She had stigmata.” There was a signal from the Lord that we must go to exorcise the devil. She died to save our lost souls, to cleanse them from sin. Anneliese was a kind, loving and obedient girl. But when the devil possessed her, it was something supernatural that defied explanation.
The small Bavarian town of Klingeberg became a place of mass religious worship. Thousands are eager to visit the burial site of Anneliese Michel, who tragically died at the age of 23. Her misterious story repeated in the script for The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which references the real-life trial of a priest whose actions led to the death of a young girl.
Her health deteriorated every day, but despite this, Anneliese performed 600 bows every day, kneeling. This ultimately led to serious knee ligament injury. Then other strange things began. She crawled under the table and barked for several days, howled from there, ate spiders, pieces of coal and even the head of a dead bird... The small Bavarian town of Klingeberg became a place of mass religious worship. Thousands are eager to visit the burial site of Anneliese Michel, who tragically died at the age of 23. Her mysterious story is repeated in the script for The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which references the real-life trial of a priest whose actions led to the death of a young girl.
From birth, Anneliese's life was filled with fear. Her family was religious: her father wanted to become a priest, but fate decreed otherwise, but three aunts were nuns. Michelle's family, like any other, had its own secret.
In 1948, Anneliese's mother gave birth to a daughter, Martha, although she was not married. This was considered a shame to such an extent that even on the wedding day the bride did not take off her black veil.
Four years later, Anneliese was born. The mother actively encouraged the girls to serve God, with which she tried to compensate for the sin of birth. At the age of eight, Martha died from complications after having a kidney tumor removed. The impressionable and kind Anneliese felt the need for atonement even more acutely.
More and more often, the girl noticed traces of sins around her, trying to get rid of them. While the children of the 60s were trying to expand the boundaries of freedom, Anneliese slept on the stone floor, trying to atone for the sins of the drug addicts who slept on the floor of the station building.
At the age of 16, terrible attacks appeared - Annelise convulsed like an epileptic, and the medications prescribed by doctors did not have the desired effect. Loss of consciousness and depression became the girl’s constant companions. The parents decided that it was all about the demons that attacked Annelise during prayers. Every day this conviction gained strength.
Doctors diagnosed advanced epilepsy, and the girl herself complained of devilish hallucinations that began with prayer. In 1973, Anneliese began to experience depression, during which she seriously considered suicide. The voices that the girl heard spoke about the futility of her actions. Then Anneliese turned to the local priest with a request to perform a ritual of exorcism, but he refused her twice. The reason was that the girl’s condition was not similar to when demons take over. That is, there were no supernatural abilities, barking, speaking in unknown languages, and so on.
Her health deteriorated every day, but despite this, Anneliese performed 600 bows every day, kneeling. This ultimately led to serious knee ligament injury. Then other strange things began. She crawled under the table and barked and howled from there for several days, ate spiders, pieces of coal and even the head of a dead bird.
A few years later, Anneliese, already driven to despair, began to beg the priest to perform the ritual, but he always refused. Only when she began to attack her parents, destroy the image of Christ and tear down crucifixes, did the priests come to her home.
Having started the sessions, which were given the go-ahead, Anneliese completely stopped taking medications.
Later, doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia, which is treatable. According to rumors, the girl could be impressed by the film “The Exorcist” from director William Fradkin. But, regardless of what caused the disease, the belief that hallucinations are real only intensified.
The ceremony was performed by Father Arnold Renz and Pstor Ernst Alt. For nine months, the priests conducted 1-2 four-hour sessions per week. According to them, the priests identified several demons, including Judas Iscariot, Lucifer, Cain and Adolf Hitler, and they spoke German with an Austrian intonation.
Forty-two hours were recorded on tape, but experts say it is incredibly difficult to listen to. Inhuman roars alternate with curses and dialogues of demons about the horrors of hell. Anneliese herself thrashed about so much during the sessions that she had to be tied, and sometimes chained, to a chair.
In the spring of 1976, the girl developed pneumonia as a result of exhaustion of the body. On July 1, without regaining consciousness, Anneliese died.
The parents buried the girl next to Martha behind the cemetery, where a place was reserved for illegitimate children and suicides. Even after death, Anneliese did not get rid of the sinfulness with which she stubbornly struggled all her life.
It is impossible to prove the veracity of one of the versions, because the treatment did not bring the desired results, and the girl took medication for 6 years. It is quite possible that she simply lost faith in the effectiveness of the treatment.
Despite the fact that the girl’s parents claimed that satanic forces were to blame, justice still took place. At the hearing, 42 hours of recordings of howls and dialogue that were heard from Anneliese's room were analyzed. But the sentence was quite lenient. The parents, as well as two priests, were found guilty and sentenced to 6 months probation.
After Anneliese's death, religious madness did not end. In 1998, a nun from East Germany told Michelle's family that she had a vision. Based on her words, the girl’s body did not decompose in the grave, which means it is in the power of dark forces. Anna and Joseph obtained the exhumation and, in the presence of the mayor and a huge crowd, opened the coffin. The mayor, who looked into the coffin first, warned the parents that the sight of the girl’s remains would interfere with preserving the image of their daughter. But they nevertheless looked in and calmed down only when they saw a terrible-looking skeleton.
Anneliese's mother lives in the same house until today I never recovered from these events. Joseph died and the other three daughters left. Anna Michel is over 80 years old today and she herself bears the burden of these memories. From her bedroom windows you can see the cemetery and her daughter’s grave with a wooden cross.
It's 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 from the floor and speaks in the voice of Adolf Hitler - then this Have demons possessed her or has she just gone crazy?”
And it’s not often that the “Best Horror Film of the Year” award “Saturn” is awarded to a film whose credits say “Based on a true story.”
2006 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film Awarded to The Exorcism of Emily Rose
This film was based on the 1978 trial of two priests, Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz, and two spouses, Anna and Joseph Michel, for the manslaughter of 23-year-old German girl Anneliese Michel.
A girl from the quiet provincial town of Klingenberg am Main, Anneliese Michel, was raised in a strict Catholic faith, bordering on religious fanaticism- during winter fasting she could sleep on the bare floor. The parents didn't mind.
It is not surprising that from such a childhood in 1968, 16-year-old Anneliese suddenly suffered a severe 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 and swear at everyone who suggested that she do this.
If Anneliese lived in the GDR, then others would consider such behavior normal, but in Germany her Catholic parents sent their daughter for treatment to a psychiatric clinic. As you know, it is not difficult for medicine to make even normal person a complete psycho, and after drug treatment, Annelise also began to hear demons.
The girl was placed in a psychiatric hospital three times ( last time she spent almost a year in the clinic), and after each course of treatment, Michel felt worse and worse: during seizures, she tore her clothes, ate insects, licked her own urine, howled in a voice that was not her own, cursed not only those around her, but and all the saints, and when she came to her senses, she blamed everything on the demons.
This, however, did not prevent Anneliese from successfully finishing school and entering the University of Würzburg in 1973. In the same 1973, the film “The Exorcist” was released on screens around the world (two Oscars and eight Oscar nominations) - and whether it was a coincidence or a reason, Anneliese and her parents came to the conclusion that the girl was possessed by the devil, and only his expulsion could help her .
Since the summer of 1973, Anneliese's parents began persistently turning to catholic church for carrying out the rite of exorcism, they received constant refusals, until the Bishop of Würzburg, Joseph Stangl, 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 met there.
From September 24, 1975 to June 30, 1976, 67 exorcism sessions lasting up to four hours were performed, one or two weekly, 42 of the rites were recorded on tape. With the beginning of the ceremony, Annelise 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 has been proposed, according to which death was caused by side effect 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 in the dock. The court then considered that the girl’s parents had already been punished, and the priests received 6 months in prison with a suspended sentence of three years.
Anneliese claimed that she was simultaneously commanded by six inhabitants of the inferno: Lucifer, Hitler, Judas, Nero, Cain, and Fleischmann (an unknown German monk to anyone outside Bavaria - a murderer, libertine and defrocked 16th century).
They howled from Anneliese in six different voices, mostly in German with an 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 Slavophiles suspect, Lucifer turned out to be German by nationality, and Cain was not a Jew, since he did not speak either Yiddish or Hebrew.
Needless to say, in the body of Anneliese Michel a solid but rather motley group has gathered together: main opponent heavenly powers and the enemy of the human race Lucifer and the defrocked pop 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 are still villains, but clearly not gopniks, and in petty dirty tricks previously unnoticed.
Who is she, anyway, this Anneliese Michel, so that six far from the last figures of the underworld would inhabit her! And for what purpose? Drink girl's urine in your warm company, eat spiders, squirm, bark from under the table and curse respectable German burghers?
These demons have neither the intelligence nor the imagination to play pranks from a soul that they do not have.
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 so-called “possession by the devil.” After the release of The Six Demons of Emily Rose, based on real events, interest in this mystical plot from 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. There are too many unexplained 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 into an orthodox Catholic family. Without missing a single one religious holiday, attending mass several times a week and reading prayers almost hourly, the Michel family became known in the area 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 complete shame for the family. After 8 years, the baby died, and for her sister it was such a shock that she decided to beg God’s forgiveness at all costs. To do this, she believed, it was necessary to systematically punish herself: repenting for the sins of her parent, the girl, on her knees, recited rosaries (rosary prayers), and then fell asleep right on the floor.
Anneliese Michel at the age of 16
Of course, the world knows many such cases, but who wants to understand the “religious oddities” of an ordinary family if they do not bother others? So it was with the Michel family. Until 1968, when 16-year-old Annelise, having caught a cold after sleeping on a cold floor, ended up in a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, where it all began.
There the girl began to pray even more fiercely and shared with other patients her plans for the future: 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 sent her home.
From then on, everything went wrong, and Anneliese's health deteriorated sharply. Because of this, she had difficulty graduating from school, but still entered university to study to become a teacher: she had a very strong desire to teach children the basics of the Christian religion. At the same time, Michel became worse every month: first, problems arose 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 threw up his hands and advised me to see a psychiatrist, but the electroencephalogram did not reveal any changes in the brain. Essentially, this meant that the girl was healthy: no medical indications there was no 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 attack occurred, after which Anneliese was diagnosed with epilepsy and prescribed strong medications, which, however, did not help. All this was done in circumvention of the law, because repeated EEGs again did not reveal anything suspicious, which means that Michel was in fact healthy.
After some time spent in the hospital, Annelise, at first glance, felt better: the doctors decided that the attacks would not happen again and sent her home, strictly ordering her not to stop taking her medications. 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 damned and would burn in Hell. According to the girl, she saw the devil's face on the walls, floor and ceiling, and sometimes in the place of her mother's face.
All this time my parents just shrugged: what can be done if the pills don’t help? Just hope for a miracle.
This lasted about three years, as a result of which in 1973 Michel was again admitted to a psychiatric clinic (at the insistence of doctors), where she was diagnosed with severe depression.
Anneliese, in turn, became increasingly disillusioned with medicine, since there was no improvement from taking medications. The doctors gradually increased the dosage of the drugs, not understanding what was happening to their patient. But the girl herself seemed to be perfectly aware of everything: she explained her condition by saying that she was most likely possessed by the devil. How else can we interpret the fact that every day she became worse and worse, despite strong antidepressants, and mysterious visions appeared more and more often?
Further - more: an orthodox Catholic, she began to avoid crucifixes in every possible way. Anneliese was first diagnosed (if, of course, one can put it that way) as “possessed by the devil” by family friend Thea Hein, who accompanied her on the 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 could exorcise the demon, which, in her opinion, was definitely “sitting” in the girl.
Still from the movie “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”
However, none of the church ministers agreed to perform such a ritual: they all recommended continuing the treatment, because they were not entirely sure of Anneliese’s obsession. In addition, for an exorcism it was necessary to obtain permission from the bishop, and they did not want to bother His Holiness over such a “trifle.”
Meanwhile, Michel's behavior during attacks (and they happened more and more often) became increasingly strange. If earlier she only heard voices and saw images of the devil, now she tore off her clothes, ate coal, spiders, flies, and drank her own urine. It was impossible to stop her: at such moments it was as if some kind of powerful force, not subject to outside control. Moreover, if you do not take into account the attacks, Anneliese was no different from the others: 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 Michel began to speak in different languages and even in different voices, as well as calling themselves Adolf Hitler, Cain, Judas and Lucifer. She screamed, insulted family members, and attacked them.
Once she killed a bird by biting off its head, and another time she sat under the table for two days and barked, imitating a dog.
With all this, it is impossible 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 cause harm not only to her family, but, first of all, to 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 daughter’s requests, in 1975. At that time, the girl had been ill for about 6 years and had long begged her elders to again ask the church to perform an exorcism ceremony, but for some reason they hesitated. As a result, the girl herself wrote a letter to a priest named Ernst Alt. He was the first to agree to consider Anneliese’s case. According to him, she did not at all look like an epileptic, but was truly possessed. In September 1975, Bishop Joseph Stangl gave permission to Alt and another priest, Arnold Renz, to perform an exorcism. True, he ordered to keep everything 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. Moreover, the attacks were so strong that the girl had to be held by three men, and sometimes even chained. At the very beginning of “therapy,” she decided to stop taking medications, while her parents strongly supported their daughter’s decision, because it turned out that the pills didn’t help, so why take them? Michelle felt 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 ceremony
The parents almost clapped their hands: surely, 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 rituals were recorded on camera.
A few weeks before her death, the girl refused food and water: in this way 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 the priests required of her: in the video, which was later broadcast in court, her parents are seen helping her daughter kneel, 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 (she weighed only 30 kg at the time of death) and dehydration. By the way, Annelise’s knee ligaments were torn as a result of approximately 600 kneelings...
The death of Anneliese caused a wide resonance in Germany: people did not understand how modern world things like this can happen. After an investigation, the prosecutor general said that the girl's death could have been prevented even 10 days before the tragedy if her parents had forced her to take her medication again. Charges were brought against Ernst Alt, Arnold Renz, and 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 rituals to prove that Anneliese was indeed possessed, and also insisted that the German Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, which means that no one prohibited exorcism.
Anneliese Michel's grave is located next to the grave of her deceased little sister
The trump cards of the prosecution 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 ultimately found guilty of manslaughter by negligence and were sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment, suspended probationary period at 3 years old.
More than forty years have passed since then, but the story of Anneliese Michel still haunts mysticism lovers. Hollywood, of course, did not stand aside: in 2005, the horror film “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” was based on the story.
Still from the movie “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”
A year later, the film “Requiem” was released in Germany, 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 happened. Anna Michel sincerely believed that numerous exorcism rituals were necessary, and Anneliese died atonement 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.
The many questions that this mysterious story raises make it impossible to definitively answer what actually caused Michele’s death. So which side should you take: doctors, priests or amateurs? paranormal phenomena- everyone's personal choice.
Anneliese Michel was born in the Bavarian commune of Leiblfing with a population of just over 3 thousand people. Her father, Joseph Michel, grew up in a believing family. His mother's three sisters were nuns, and she wanted her son to continue the family tradition and become a clergyman. Joseph chose a career as a carpenter. Later, he completed his labor service in the imperial labor service, then, as part of the Wehrmacht, he went to the Western Front.
Anneliese was brought up strictly and was devoted to the Catholic faith. Anneliese's childhood was happy, although she grew up as a weak and sickly child. In 1968, due to a spasm, Michel bit her tongue. A year later, strange night attacks began to occur: Annelise, due to dysarthria, could not move, felt heaviness in her chest, sometimes lost the power of speech and could not call anyone from her loved ones. In 1969, the girl woke up with difficulty breathing and complete paralysis of her body. Family doctor Gerhard Vogt advised the parents to go to the hospital. An electroencephalogram was performed, which did not show any changes in Michelle'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 suffered a third seizure in the hospital where she was at that time. She was prescribed anticonvulsants, including phenytoin, which did not bring the desired result. Then she began to claim that sometimes the “Face of the Devil” appears before her. In 1973, she began hallucinating while praying, hearing voices telling her that she was cursed and would "Rot in Hell."
Michelle's treatment in a psychiatric hospital did not help, and she increasingly doubted the effectiveness of medicine. Being a devout Catholic, she assumed that she was the victim of possession. Later, she and family friend Thea Hein made a pilgrimage to San Giorgio Piacentino. 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 turned to several priests with a request to exorcise demons. They all refused and recommended continuing treatment. Michelle's condition worsened more and more. She tore the clothes on her body, ate spiders and coal, bit off the head of a dead bird, and licked her own urine from the floor. During her seizures, she spoke in different languages and called herself Lucifer, Cain, Judas, Nero and Adolf Hitler. In November 1973, she was prescribed carbamazepine.
The first ceremony was performed on September 24. After this, Michel stopped taking medications and completely trusted the exorcism. 67 rituals were performed over 10 months. They were carried out once or twice a week and lasted up to four hours. 42 rituals were captured on camera and later demonstrated in court in the case of Michel's death. An autopsy showed that Michel'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. Michel believed that her death would be atonement for the sins of the younger generation and clergy who deviated from the canons. She hoped that people, having learned about her fate, would believe in God. At the time of her death, Michel weighed only about 30 kg with a height of 166 cm, suffered from pneumonia, her knee joints were torn from constant kneeling, and the whole body was bruised and open wounds. In recent months, Michelle could not even move without assistance. She had to be tied to the bed to prevent her from hurting herself.
The trial that followed caused a wide resonance in society. Two priests and Anneliese's parents were charged with causing death by negligence. According to the prosecution, they took advantage of the girl’s trust and encouraged her to refuse treatment, which led to her death. In turn, the defense referred to the German Constitution, which guarantees citizens freedom of religion. As a result, all defendants were found guilty and sentenced to 3 years of suspended imprisonment.
Michelle's story has become the basis for many works of art, including the famous horror film The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
Anna Elisabeth Michel, better known as Anneliese, was born in a Bavarian village in 1952 in big family conservative Catholics. A girl raised in strict faith, with early childhood attended all services and sang in the church choir. She was distinguished by religious fanaticism and even slept on the cold floor during the winter fast.
Since the age of 16, the girl has suffered from nervous diseases. Anneliese Michel has her first seizure, accompanied by convulsions. According to doctors, her epilepsy was aggravated mental disorder. The teenager bites her tongue due to a strong spasm, sometimes even complete paralysis of the body occurs, and due to speech impairments the girl cannot call anyone for help. At the same time, strange things happen: she stops drinking holy water, turns away from the crucifix, and quarrels with her family. Soon attacks torment her both day and night. At this time, she cannot talk, feels empty and tired, and her body loses its former flexibility. A girl who misses school is tormented by a constant feeling of heaviness in her chest. She begins to feel depressed and has suicidal thoughts.
The story of this girl, which became the basis of two feature films, took place more than thirty years ago, but continues to arouse interest today. Main question, which asks everyone who is familiar with this drama: 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 answer this question now, but this does not prevent us from hearing true story short life Anneliese Michel from Germany.
The events in question became the subject of attention in 1976. The public has been closely watching the unprecedented trial of two Catholic priests accused of causing the death of a young woman, Anneliese Michel.
She was born in 1952 in a small Bavarian village into a Catholic family. Her name is a combination of two names, Anna and Elizabeth. Anneliese's parents, Anna Fürg and Joseph Michel, were practicing Catholics, very conservative, if not orthodox. They rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Fatima on the 13th of every month, and neighbor Barbara Weigand, who walked five hours to the Capuchin church to receive the wafer, was considered 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, such as 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, night seizures began, during which the girl’s body lost flexibility, a feeling of heaviness appeared in her chest, loss of the ability to speak - the girl could not call her parents or any of her three sisters. After the first attack, Anneliese felt so exhausted and empty that she could not find the strength to go to school. The attacks were followed by periods of calm and Anneliese even sometimes managed to play tennis.
In 1969, the girl woke up at night due to difficulty breathing and numbness in her body. Family doctor Gerhard Vogt advised me to see a psychiatrist. On August 27, 1969, Anneliese's electroencephalogram did not reveal any changes in the brain. However, 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. A new EEG again did not reveal anything suspicious, but Dr. Wolfgang von Haller recommended drug treatment. The decision was not reversed even when the same result was shown by the third and fourth EEGs 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 knocking sound. Vogt, having examined the girl and found nothing, sent the girl to an otologist, but he also found nothing, and the girl’s sisters also began to hear the knock.
According to Anneliese herself, it began to seem to her that she was possessed from the age of 13. The first person to realize that something was wrong with Anneliese was Thea Hein, who accompanied her during a pilgrimage to San Damiano, Italy. She noticed that Anneliese walked away from the image of Christ and refused to drink water from the sacred Lourdes spring.
Four years of treatment yielded nothing, and in the summer of 1973, Anneliese’s parents turned to several priests, but they were explained that until all signs of possession were proven, an exorcism could not be performed. The following year, Pastor Ernst Alt, after observing Anneliese for some time, requested permission from Bishop Joseph Stangl of Würzburg to perform an exorcism, but was refused. At this time, Anneliese's behavior changed: she refused to eat, began breaking crucifixes and images of Christ in the house, tearing off her clothes, screaming for hours, biting family members, injuring herself, eating spiders, flies and coal. One day Anneliese climbed under the table in the kitchen and barked like a dog for two days. Thea, who arrived, called on the demons to leave the girl three times in the name of the Trinity, and only then Anneliese came out from under 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 back in 1614 and expanded in 1954.
Joseph Michel. Memory and meaning
Michel's death caused a wide resonance in Germany and raised questions about the limits of religious freedom. Many Germans were dismayed that such an incident could happen in modern times. European country. Journalist Franz Barthel, who covered the incident in the press, said three decades later in an interview with The Washington Post that he was still amazed by Michele's death and the superstitiousness of her circle. The Washington Post noted in a 2005 article that exorcism is now more common than is commonly believed. Thus, according to Professor Clemens Richter, there are up to 70 practicing exorcists in France. A Polish congress in 2005 reportedly attracted 350 exorcists. Germany is an exception in this regard: there are only two or three exorcists, and they are forced to carry out their actions in secret, albeit with the consent of the bishops. As the famous skeptic Brian Dunning writes in his article, many similar cases of death after the expulsion of demons are currently known.
Video Anneliese Michel - REAL EXORCISM
Everyone goes crazy in their own way. Every locality must have a city madman. For example, a certain Oleg Mitasov lived in Kharkov.
Oleg Mitasov is an economist, a store director, who later fell ill with schizophrenia and covers every surface he comes across with inscriptions, from the walls of his own apartment to the streets of the city. Mitasov died in 1999, but his wall messages are still remembered by Kharkov residents over 35 years old.
What is noteworthy is that, having never seen the Internet, the blessed one wrote everything with a dot. People perceived the inscriptions differently, many considered him a cult figure, almost a prophet, and saw in his texts something more than just letters.
Almost no one knew Mitasov’s biography. Born in Czechoslovakia. Received a higher economic education. P gave birth in a communal 7-room apartment in the center of Kharkov at the address: Krasnoznamenny Lane, building No. 18 (opposite Khudprom).
According to one legend, he went crazy after he forgot his doctoral dissertation on the tram on the way to the Higher Attestation Commission and because of this he did not become a doctor of science. This can be confirmed by the numerous mentions of the word VAK (higher certifying commission) in his inscriptions.
He did not allow anyone into his apartment and, nevertheless, from somewhere it was known that the entire space of the communal apartment, from which the rest of the residents had practically moved out, was also filled with inscriptions. In the city where Grigory Skovoroda, known for his philosophical paradoxical statements (“The world caught me, but did not catch me”), once lived and taught, the figure of Mitasov looked iconic, continuing a certain tradition of searching for cosmic harmony between man and the world around him. From the same series, the image of Mitasov the shaman, spinning and shouting words-symbols in the pouring rain.
Having fallen ill, he covered all the surfaces of his apartment with inscriptions, often in several layers.
He died at the end of 1999 from tuberculosis in one of the psychiatric hospitals Kharkov. After the death of his mother, the apartment was renovated, and all the inscriptions inside the apartment were lost. Currently, there is an office in Mitasov’s former apartment. The fate of the piano and refrigerator, covered in several layers with Mitasov’s inscriptions and drawings, is unknown.
