and Southern Germany, where the witchcraft persecutions were more intense than anywhere else in Europe, and belong to the areas where the witch trials were most fervent. A hypothetic number of 10,000 executions has been suggested: the number of executions are unknown, but are estimated to have been very high. As early as circa the year 1400, the high profile Stedelen case documents a witch trial in the region. Switzerland, or at least a part of it, was the location of the first European mass witch trial: the Valais witch trials, which lasted between 1428 and 1459, long before the publication of Malleus Maleficarum (1486). This unleashed the first wave of witchcraft persecutions during and was followed by numerous witch trials in Wallis 1430, Fribourg and Neuchâtel (1440), Vevey (1448), Lausanne (1460), Lake Geneva (1480) and Domartin (1498 and 1524–28). During the 15th century, a third of those executed for witchcraft were women and two-thirds were men, but in the 16th century, the figure was reversed. A reason for the severe persecutions in Switzerland was the weak central power, where the Imperial court had little to no real influence, something which had a bad effect on the rights of those accused. This is illustrated by the fact that the persecutions were the worst in areas were the central power was weakest: between 1580 and 1655, about 1700 witch trials took place in Vaud, but only about 80 in Zürich. The majority of the witch trials in Switzerland were conducted by local secular courts. Most of the cases were directed against members of the public by other private citizens, and the accusations were normally destruction of property by use of magic and participation in a witches sabbath. The witch trials often took place during times of crisis and were directed toward people who were different in some way, by people with whom they had previously been in conflict. Torture was commonly used and the chance of being acquitted was slim. The method of execution in Switzerland was commonly burning at the stake. The witchcraft persecutions in Switzerland became less common in the second half of the 17th century. In 1652, Michée Chauderon became the last execution for witchcraft in the city of Geneva in the Republic of Geneva. In the 18th century, the Swiss authorities and courts were less and less willing to accept charges of witchcraft or, if they did,