Heinrich Franz Boblig

Inquisitor Heinrich Franz Boblig of Edelstadt is famous primarily thanks to Václav Kaplický' s novel The Witch' s Hammer. The film of the same name, directed by Otakar Vávra, portrayed him in a similar vein – as a fanatical witch hunter and a greedy thief. But what was he really like? Jaroslav Čechura shows Boblig as a respected member of society and an educated lawyer. The resulting image is neither an indictment nor a defense of a historical figure, but rather a precise placement of him in the context of the period.