Anneliese Michel looked just like any other ordinary girl living in West Germany in the 1960s. But behind closed doors, her life was shaped by religious fear, devotion and a childhood steeped in penance for her sins. By seventeen, things took an even darker turn. She collapsed at school, slipped into trances and began seeing things no one else could—faces twisting into the devil’s image and voices whispering as she prayed.
Medication didn’t stop it. Her behaviour grew stranger, darker, and more violent. She tore at her clothes, dropped to her knees hundreds of times a day, barked through the night as if compelled by something she couldn’t fight.
Her family believed she needed spiritual help. Priests hesitated. But eventually two agreed and the exorcism that followed is enough to make the blood curdle. The events even inspired the Hollywood blockbuster the Exorcism of Emily Rose.
So, have your crucifix at the ready, as we uncover what really happened, in the Bizarre But True story of The Real Emily Rose…
Anneliese Michel was an ordinary girl, living in Klingenberg, Bavaria, West Germany during the 1960 and 70s. Her life seemed typical enough, that is, until you looked a little more closely.
From a young age, she slept on bare stone floors, which she believed would serve as penance for drug addicts that she saw sleeping rough in her local train station. Her father was a devout catholic and her mother, equally religious encouraged Anneliese to prey fervently for their previous sins in conceiving her older sister, Martha, out of wedlock. The family’s religious fervour only intensified after Martha later dies following a kidney operation.
Despite living in a home ruled by fear of sin, Anneliese was described as sweet and peaceful hearted girl.
That is until the day she blacked out at school when she was 17, and entered a trance-like state. It might sound like a childish prank, but for Anneliese, it was just the beginning of a nightmarish descent.
Diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy, she experienced convulsions and disturbing hallucinations. But things then began to get eery. Despite the medication, Anneliese claimed that she began to see the devil’s face everywhere and hear demons whispering in her ears as she prayed. As the experiences became more extreme, she concluded that she was possessed.
Anneliese’s possession took her on a dark path, as she ripped clothes, performed over 400 genuflections a day, barked like a dog, and even partook in a cuisine of spiders and coal. Her screams could be heard late into the night, for days on end.
So was this really the behaviour of someone possessed, or was it a psychiatric condition needing medical expertise? Being highly religious, it was believed she needed spiritual cleansing and several requests for an exorcism…
However, finding a priest who believed in her possession was a challenge, but eventually, two priests named Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz came forward. The local bishop granted permission for an exorcism, but on the condition of utmost secrecy.
Over 10 haunting months, 67 exorcisms were conducted. The demons, said the priests could be individually identified within her, as they came to life through her body. They claimed Hitler himself materialised calling people “stupid as pigs” and Judas began to dismiss him as a “big mouth.”
More than forty hours of the ordeal were even captured on audio, and those recordings are reportedly unsettling in the extreme. Harsh and animalistic snarls blend with guttural choking sounds, violent outbursts and exchanges in which the alleged entities describe the torments of the underworld. The intensity of the sessions frequently escalated to the point that Anneliese had to be restrained or secured to her chair to prevent injury.
Through gruelling sessions, Anneliese revealed that she wanted to atone for the wayward youth of the day and the apostate priests of the modern church. In the end, the poor girl died of malnutrition and dehydration during one of the exorcisms performed on her. She was just 23.
In 1976, the state brought charges of negligent homicide against Michel’s parents, along with priests Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz. The parents received legal representation from the renowned defence attorney Erich Schmidt-Leichner, who somewhat eerily was known for his involvement in the Nuremberg trials, while the church covered the legal expenses of the priests. The priests were recommended to face fines, while the prosecution concluded that the parents should be excused from penalties due to having “endured sufficient hardship,” a legally mitigating circumstance according to German law.
Anneliese’s tragic death led to a national sensation and ultimately a Hollywood movie in 2005. “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” may have taken some liberties with the story, but ultimately it showed the real terror that Anneliese herself went through.
Today, even in death, Anneliese can’t escape the sins that she spent her life in fear of. Her parents laid her in a section of the cemetery next to their house reserved for illegitimate children and victims of suicide. Her grave’s now a gathering point for religious outsiders and those fascinated by what really happened to this young girl. Perhaps they hope to glean some spiritual insight or to simply try and understand the mystery of her life and death. But whatever really happened, Anneliese’s story is a stark reminder that sometimes what haunts us most are our own beliefs.
