Un escándalo en Königsberg : Noticias falsas en el siglo XIX

Between 1835 and 1842, the scandal engulfed two clerics in the port city of Königsberg, on the shores of the Baltic. That destroyed both their reputations, stripped them of their jobs, landed them in prison, and banished them from public life. Their judicial acquittal of the most serious accusations leveled against them came too late to reverse the damage. I have been thinking about that little vortex of turbulence since I chanced upon the relevant files in the early 1990s. The campaign of denunciations and rumors that brought down the Lutheran preachers Johann Ebel and Heinrich Diestel belongs to an era before the appearance of paparazzi, radio, television and digital social media, but that is precisely what gives their story the force of a fable. Similarities with modern-day people and situations, although unintentional, cannot be ruled out either.