A growing demand for exorcisms by Germans who believe they are suffering demonic possession has sparked controversy in a country where the practice has been outlawed by the Roman Catholic Church. A new radio documentary revealed that hundreds of people from all over Germany have been subjected to exorcisms in the last year alone.
Thousands more have sought help in neighbouring countries such as Poland where exorcism rituals are more commonly practised by the Church.
"Yield Satan! Succumb! You vile creature! Be silent! Yield!" screamed Father Otto Mauer, 82, a retired priest, during an exorcism on a 22-year-old woman, named as Heike H, during the documentary on the German state radio WDR.
Father Mauer, who regularly performs exorcisms at his monastery in Ingolstat, allowed the station to record his ritual.
He was the 40th exorcist to attempt to exorcise demons from the young woman, who reportedly had also not been helped by psychiatrists and psychologists.
The WDR reporter Marcus Wegner described the end of the exorcism. "Frau H spreads her arms and stares at the priest, laughing hysterically. She rolls her eyes. The minister sprinkles holy water on the woman; she tries to jump backwards, her head hitting the wall. After ten minutes, the minister finishes the ritual with a Hail Mary."
Wagner researched the exorcism phenomenon in Germany for over two years and recorded nine rituals. He also interviewed several clergymen who are also working with psychotherapists or are psychotherapists themselves and resort to exorcisms only in agreement with medical authorities.
Fater Jörg Müller, a priest and psychotherapist, is one the so-called Munich circle of priests, doctors and psychotherapists who have been tasked by the Catholic Church to help those believing to suffer from possession of evils spirits.
He said: "Last year I have helped over 350 people who believe to have been possessed by demons. They hear the voices of demons; they see ghosts or shadows or destroy crucifixions at night, without being able to remember anything the next day.
"They want an exorcism and they ask me to do it. Sometimes I am afraid of Satanic curses myself, because he who battles Satan, will sooner or later have to confront him."
The German Catholic Church has not officially endorsed exorcisms since 1973, when Anneliese Michel, 23, who suffered from epilepsy and hallucinations, died as a result of starvation when two priests performed 67 exorcisms on her.
Meanwhile, many Germans from the northern part of the country are going to neigbouring Poland to treat their perceived demonic possession.
The Polish Catholic Church is establishing a large exorcism centre in the western town of Szczecin, which will employ about 50 exorcists, who will work together with psychiatrists in order to distinguish between mental illness and what they call satanic possession.
Mgr Zygmunt Kaminski, the Archbishop of Szcecin who is behind the initiative, appointed the local priest and exorcist Father Andrzej Trojanowski to run the centre.
He currently performs about 20 exorcisms a week in his church and claims there has been huge interest in exorcisms in Poland as well as in other European countries.
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