Rating: 
Summary: The Bergermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth Century
Review: As a history student living in Germany I was greatly enthralled by this book. Ozment's understanding of the Medieval German society and its effects on its citizens is wonderful. I wholeheartedly recommend this book for anyone curious about this period in history.
Rating: 
Summary: vaguely interesting, but distasteful
Review: For a book about a sex scandal, it's very bloodless. Obviously all the passion was saved for court. The love letters are interesting, but very little of the charactor of Anna Buschler comes through in the rest of the book. Yes, women of that time and place left a very light mark on history, but she just doesn't "come alive" the way the charactor of her father does. Eventually, the story the book tells spirals down into just some nasty courtroom feuding among family members. Perhaps this book should have been written to focus on a long-running legal battle in a sixteen century German town, but sex sells better.
Rating: 
Summary: A real let-down due to poor writing
Review: I am fascinated by the historical period covered in this book, and had looked forward eagerly to reading about it in The Burgermeister's Daughter. However, what could have been a really fascinating story, became an agonizing read because of the author's awful writing (not that expected from a Harvard professor). Not only does he use tortured grammar (perhaps from reading too many German source documents), but the story is told in a haphazard, stream-of-consciousness manner with little organization. He constantly digresses, which further disrupts the account. While some of the digressions are interesting, the way that they are thrown in detracts from the story. This could have been a wonderfully fascinating read, but I felt that I had to pull myself through it. The story itself is compelling, but needs serious editing.
Rating: 
Summary: Can't be beat!
Review: Stephen Ozment is my favorite historian, and this is my favorite of his books (closely followed by Three Behaim Boys). The story of Anna, both the love story and the tragedy of her later life, are fascinating. Ozment has a talent for making history real, present, and accessible, and this book is a shining example of what an in-depth historical study can be. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in 16th century history, women's history, or the history of law.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling story - Anna is a tragic figure, but heroic ? no
Review: Steve Ozment presents a compelling story of a young woman who just would not live in a way that was acceptable to her family and the society she was born into. The Buergermeister's daughter - Anna - takes two lovers, defies and steals from her well-to-do father, which in time turns him against her with an implacable fury. He disinherits her - stretching the law, to minimize her maternal and paternal inheritance. After his death, her siblings continue legal battles with Anna which go unresolved until her sudden death in her mid-fifties.
I am with Ozment insofar as he tries to illustrate the complexity of the social and legal order in the Germany at the break of The Reformation. It is frankly quite amazing how far Anna could go and how far she could bend the system in her legal quest, given the "bad reputation" she diligently cultivated. I am also with Ozment when he resolutely rejects the excessively brutal treatment of Anna by her father, when the latter chained her to a table after her capture. Daddy lost his head to a searing obssession.
Where the feminist critics find Ozment "unconvincing" in arguing that a rational legal order existed in Reformation Germany which took women far more seriously than the Andrea Dworkins and the Marilyn Frenches of the world care to admit, I have exactly the opposite bone to pick. For a patriarchal rationalist like myself, there is far too much pandering to the hostile view of men and their treatment of women in history.
In one almost laughable passage Ozment ponders if the Burgermeister committed incest with his daughter,..citing his irregular married life he had at the time of his imprisoning his daughter. The passage then concludes there was no evidence for sexual abuse, given that Anna had very little restraint about telling it like it was.
Then there are the usual complaints about women having no access to all-male institutions - like higher learning - as if that time the gender division of labour was up for discussion.
Yes, men in their own spheres of competence would look down on women, just as women would look down on men in theirs. So what ?
This sort of anachronistic nit-picking takes away from what otherwise is a bright book which has the feel of an authentic window on the place and times.
Then, of course, I am missing the example of Anna's heroism. I believe she was a tragic figure, unable to form a realistic external view of her behaviour and therefore getting trapped. She was "willful" and hostile. There is no heroism in that. She fought back what she believed was injustice but nowhere in her "fighting" she was other than properly self-serving. There was no sense in the tale that Ozment tells that Anna had a grasp of any higher principle than her belief in entitlement. She seems blissfully unaware of the hurt she put on her family on account of her sore lack of the quality which the upright German burghers of the time so highly prized in their women...now I really have to rack my brain...ein Gefuehl fuer Anstand ???
Rating:
Summary: Excellent source for sixteenth-century Germany
Review: Steven Ozment creates a book that is rich in research but also in storytelling. Ozment tells the story of Anna Buschler, the burgermeister of Hall's daughter and the scandal that erupted in this small sixteenth-century town. Ozment painstakingly recreates the small German town that Anna grew up in, we are introduced to her story through personal letters and court documents. His goal isn't to show that Anna was innocent of the crimes that were brought against her, but to show that the actions of her family and the courts were quite severe. Throughout the book we begin to understand the role of women, in particular daughters in sixteenth-century Germany.
Ozment relies on the personal letters of Anna, Daniel and Erasmus and he also looks at the court documents. He expertly tells the story of times and of the sources he had which is sadly not too much. But his use of his sources and the history of the period, Ozment creates a book that engrosses the reader into Anna's life and that of a daughter in sixteenth-century Germany. However, Ozment's sources are his greatest weakness. Since he has so few resources, there lies his limitations. Ozment is only able to tell the story that he is presented with and speculates on what he does not have. For example, in Chapter 3, Ozment brings forth the accusation of incest between Anna and he father. Ozment shows a quote out of the court documents from Anna saying that her father "abused her maidenly modesty" (121). With this quote, he takes the information to a new level. He does not really state that the quote could have been said to gain sympathy, but rather takes it that Anna's father could have molested her. Ozment wants to show Anna in a heroic light that he will stop at nothing to show her in nothing but a good perspective. Which is further seen in last sentence, "Anna may have been more heroic than the burgermeister of Hall and the Schenk of Leimpurg [her father] (194)."
As the tale of Anna goes on, it becomes less like a historical analysis but rather a sympathetic tale of one girls struggle against the indignities of her father and the court systems. Ozment ability as a storyteller brings Anna's story to life and the struggles of women during the sixteenth-century.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent source for 16th century Germany
Review: Steven Ozment creates a book that is rich in research but also in storytelling. Ozment tells the story of Anna Buschler, the burgermeister of Hall's daughter and the scandal that erupted in this small sixteenth-century town. Ozment painstakingly recreates the small German town that Anna grew up in, we are introduced to her story through personal letters and court documents. His goal isn't to show that Anna was innocent of the crimes that were brought against her, but to show that the actions of her family and the courts were quite severe. Throughout the book we begin to understand the role of women, in particular daughters in sixteenth-century Germany.This book was absolutely enchanting for every genre of reader, I am a graduate student and this proves invaluable for both research and entertainment!
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing Topic - Poor Representation
Review: Steven Ozment has managed to take an intriguing subject - the sordid (and true) affairs of a 16th century Burgermeister's daughter - and make it as dull and unreadable as possible. I concur with other Amazon reviewers who stated that Ozment's writing and research are both deeply flawed. His account of the willful and oft-unfairly treated Anna Bueschler could be a fascinating commentary on 16th century German history, social mores, family and romantic relationships, politics and the role of women in society. Instead, Ozment neglects all of these possibilities and focuses on the most mundane aspects of Bueschler's case, and does so poorly at that. Events are discussed out of order, sources are thrown about haphazardly, and the wonderful surviving letters that relate to Anna Bueschler are not used to their best advantage. The author repeats the same themes over and over throughout the book, while never really making any progress in his analysis of Anna's situation. The book reads like a bad high school textbook. It is a shame that such a fascinating and strong-willed historical figure has been treated so unjustly by Ozment (as she often was in life by her peers!). Perhaps another more-organized historian will take up the case of Anna Bueschler and do right by her.
Rating:
Summary: A Superb Study of a Sixteenth-century ... Scandal
Review: The Burgermeister's Daughter is a fascinating and highly readable study of a ... scandal that errupted in the German city of Schwabish Hall during the early years of the Reformation. The central figure, Anne Buschler, the daughter of a former Burgermeister and long-time city councilman, was a girl who liked to test the limits and would often have tongues wagging over her--for that day and age, at least--wild behaviour. It came to the point where she was having intimate relations with two guys, Erasmus of Limpurg and Daniel Treutwein. When this was discovered by her father, he disinherited her; but instead of allowing herself to be cast adrift in this manner, she fought back and thus ensued a protracted legal battle against her father, and, after his death, her siblings. In the end, we are presented with an extra-ordinary glimpse into the lives of (upper class) Germans during this era, German culture and society, the status of women, and the intricacies of the German legal system. It's a rare treat to find a book that is so meticulously researched but so readable. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Superb Study of a Sixteenth-century ... Scandal
Review: The Burgermeister's Daughter is a fascinating and highly readable study of a ... scandal that errupted in the German city of Schwabish Hall during the early years of the Reformation. The central figure, Anne Buschler, the daughter of a former Burgermeister and long-time city councilman, was a girl who liked to test the limits and would often have tongues wagging over her--for that day and age, at least--wild behaviour. It came to the point where she was having intimate relations with two guys, Erasmus of Limpurg and Daniel Treutwein. When this was discovered by her father, he disinherited her; but instead of allowing herself to be cast adrift in this manner, she fought back and thus ensued a protracted legal battle against her father, and, after his death, her siblings. In the end, we are presented with an extra-ordinary glimpse into the lives of (upper class) Germans during this era, German culture and society, the status of women, and the intricacies of the German legal system. It's a rare treat to find a book that is so meticulously researched but so readable. Highly recommended.
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