Wahrheit der Ermittlung (Neuer Pitaval, Harsdörffer)

Abstract

The essay follows the history of tradition of the story The Blind Witness, from the publication in François Richer’s Causes célèbres and the subsequent inclusion in the Neuer Pitaval, to its previous iterations reaching back to the 16th century. Starting from this historical-comparative perspective, the interdependencies of investigative representations and criminal procedure codes are traced, with special attention paid to the various writing practices within the framework of criminal procedure since the 17th century. Taking Georg Philipp Harsdörffer’s version of The Blind Witness as part of his collections of crime narratives as an example, the article suggests that the demand for truth or truthfulness made by the juridical orders of writing of the time endows several forms of modern narratives with a reflection on the theory of representation.