From June 17 until September 8 in the year 1718, a classical poltergeist case took place in the home of the parson Jeremias Heinisch. The report, published five years afterwards, describes how the parsonage in the village of Gröben near Jena was bombarded during the day with stones without there being any apparent natural explanation. For instance, on July 31 in that year, Heinisch observed that “a stone from the earth flew up from the courtyard, reaching the top of the roof and then landing with a great force.” During the above period some of the witnesses testified as to how they had seen “the stones coming from a large garden of trees and from the angle of the garden door, and sometimes coming from out of the wall of the vicarage” (Heinisch 1723, p. 4).

The peace of night was being constantly broken for the inhabitants not only by the continued throwing of stones, and the breakage of pots and bowls, but even by acoustic phenomena such as sounds of scratching and c1awing. In the end the disturbance became so great that the house had to partly vacated.

The household consisted of the parson and his wife, and some others who are not specified. A baby to the parson and his wife was born during this period, on August 5.

Apports where objects penetrated doors were also reported in this Gröben case.  For instance on August 14, “a piece of lead… was of ten during the day removed from the weights of the c1ock, and either thrown at the door of my wife’s room or into the hall in front of her room. It was thrown with quite a hefty force, and the door of the downstairs room was opened without anyone being there” (Heinisch 1723 p. 11). Heinisch goes on to report several other oddities which took place in Gröben and says at the end of his documentation: “It is my intention to relate to you only that which is most important (phenomena) and which I have myself either seen or heard and experienced with a sufficient degree of certainty” (Heinisch 1723, p. 19). It is of course remarkable to read these words written by a parson who previously had expressed his opinion in the foreword of his book quite openly about goblins and similar incidents as follows: “they are merely old wives’ tales, the work of foolish imaginations, stupid superstition, or roguish deception” (Heinisch 1723, foreword). The conc1usion he reaches is actually similar to the one reached by Brügmann in the Dortmund case (case l). Like Brügmann, Heinisch discusses the different reasons for the poltergeist incidents and arrives at the conc1usion: “the real author (of these events) is a ghost and an evil one at that” (Heinisch 1723, p. 40).

Source: https://annekatrinpuhle.de/blog/?page_id=738&lang=English