Dzieciobójstwo w kulturze niemieckojęzycznej późnego oświecenia – przypadek Susanny Margarethy Brandt

This article aims to analyse the case of the most famous female infanticide in the German‑speaking cultural area in the eighteenth century. Susanna Margaretha Brandt, probably the prototype of Margaret in Goethe’s Faust. To do this, it was necessary to outline the cultural and, above all, the legal background to the tort of infanticide during the late German Enlightenment. A careful reading of the trial reports reveals the religious dimension of the whole process, which becomes the proper focus to consider.