Woodcut of the Witches' Sabbath by Hans Baldung. Four nude female figures sitting on the ground with a cauldron, which is emitting big plumes of smoke and traces of a potion with frogs. Around the figures, the ground is littered with bones, witchforks and other items associated with witchcraft. On the right, next to the barren tree with the monogram tablet, a cat is sitting with its back turned. In the night sky, another two witches, one barely visible through the smoke, the other one riding a goat and carrying a witchfork with another cauldron and animal bones. 1510. The interest in witchcraft in the German - speaking countries was especially strong at the beginning of the sixteenth century, heralded by the publication in 1487 of the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches' Hammer) by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, which was reprinted fourteen times before 1520.