Background
Agnes Bernauer was probably born around 1410; nothing is known of her childhood and youth. She was a daughter of an Augsburg baker.
Agnes Bernauer was probably born around 1410; nothing is known of her childhood and youth. She was a daughter of an Augsburg baker.
Agnes was secretly married about 1432 to Albert (1401 - 1460), son of Ernest, duke of Bavaria-Munich. Ignorant of the fact that this union was a lawful one, Ernest urged his son to marry, and reproached him with his connexion with Agnes. Albert then declared she was his lawful wife; and subsequently, during his absence, she was seized by order of Duke Ernest and condemned to death for witchcraft. On the 12th of October 1435 she was drowned in the Danube near Straubing, in which town her remains were afterwards buried by Albert. This story lived long in the memory of the people, and its chief interest lies in its literary associations. It has afforded material for several dramas, and Adolf Bottger, Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig have each written one entitled Agnes Bernauer.
In December 1435, Albert endowed a perpetual mass and an annual memorial celebration in the Straubing Carmelite Cloister in memory of Agnes Bernauer. In 1447 he expanded the endowment in her honor. In 1436, his father had an Agnes Bernauer Chapel erected in the cemetery of St. Peter Straubing. In 2013 at the Blutenburg Castle there was erected the Sculpture of Agnes Bernauer with Albert III, Duke of Bavaria by Joseph Michael Neustifter.
