Iron Hand (Götz von Berlichingen)

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The two prosthetic hands of Götz von Berlichingen

Two passive hand prostheses from the 16th century attributed to the knight Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen are referred to as the Iron Hand or Jagsthauser Hand , the younger of which is also much better known. Both Iron Hands are exhibited today in the Götzenburg Jagsthausen Museum. In a broader sense, the term “ iron hand ” denotes a larger group of similar prostheses from the late Middle Ages and early modern times .

background

Götz von Berlichingen lost his right hand in 1504 when a field snake shot by allied troops during the Landshut War of Succession . According to Götz's description, the bullet hit the sword pommel, whereupon it splintered. The splinters struck the hand and severed it from the arm at about ankle level. The force of the impact was so great that he was surprised not to have been torn from his horse. An old squire then led him to the end of the camp, where a surgeon, as a precaution against gangrene , relieved his hand, which was only hanging on some skin. Further information about wound treatment is not available.

Götz himself reports in his autobiography that the thought of a handicraft came to him on his sick bed when he remembered a rider named "Kochle" who also had an iron hand.

In 1512 a prisoner in Nuremberg stated, "He actually saw Gotzen von Berlichingen with his one hand, had a handkerchief on his eysine hand." The first mention of Götz von Berlichingen with his isern hand comes from the year 1518.

Iron hand prostheses were by no means new at the time of Götz von Berlichingen, although the "Götzhand" is without a doubt the best known of its kind. The spread of constructions in the style of the first iron hand, with fingers moving in pairs ( Altruppiner hand ) or only in a single block ( first hand from Florence ) suggest that there was already “a European development” at the end of the 15th century or at least there was an eager exchange of knowledge and technology transfer within the entire continent ”( Liebhard Löffler ). The construction principle lasted for several centuries.

The first "iron hand"

The first "Iron Hand", unrestored condition with a broken little finger.
First hand, fingers bent

The first iron hand is a passive hand prosthesis made of sheet iron, which was created around 1504–1510 and corresponded to “the standard of that time”. In particular, it is very similar to the Altruppiner hand in its construction and execution. 

She is "undoubtedly the older" of the two Jagsthausen hands. It has a much simpler structure than the second Götzhand, but it is by no means a “primitive type of claw” ( Helgard Ulmschneider ). The mechanics are complex and basically resemble a battery lock with leaf springs and pawls . The hollow fingers can be moved in pairs, i.e. two fingers together. When the left finger block (index and middle finger) is moved, the thumb is also moved in the opposite direction via a lever mechanism. By pressing a button on the back of the hand, all fingers spring back to their extended starting position.

The sheet metal is about 1 mm thick, the body is 13 cm long, 7 cm wide on the back of the hand and weighs around 600 g. The fingers are 7 cm long, the thumb 5 cm. All axes are firmly riveted so that the prosthesis cannot be dismantled without being destroyed. Remnants of oil paint show that this first Götzhand was originally painted in flesh color. A forearm cuff was previously riveted on, but has not been preserved. Presumably it was made of metal and windowed like a basket to reduce weight, like the Altruppiner Hand and the Iron Hand in the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt .

Little is known about this first Iron Hand, but the strong signs of use suggest that Götz probably used it more often in everyday life than its more elaborate counterpart. A broken little finger (see pictures) was not added until 1980. However, the practical use of the prosthesis is rather limited by the three-stage locking of the fingers. Götz could possibly hold a rein or a shield with it.

Researchers at the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences , who made a reconstruction of this first iron hand with the help of computer-aided design and 3D printing , considered the prosthesis to be “absolutely functional”. It is possible to write with her and “hold objects like a smartphone or a wine glass”.

The second "iron hand"

The second "iron hand" with stretched fingers
The second hand with flexed phalanges
Finger mechanism

The second Iron Hand is by far the better known. It was created "around the year 1530," so it would be around twenty years younger than the first hand. The mechanics of the passive hand prosthesis are based on the same basic design principles as those of the first hand, but are made much more complex. Compared to the “ingenious” ( Günter Quasigroch ) mechanism, the armorer's work is at best mediocre, so the manufacturer was probably more of a mechanic than an armorer.

The mechanism is located exclusively in the actual hand, while the arm splint (cuff) is only used to attach the prosthesis to the forearm. It can be opened and closed with two leather straps and buckles .

The four fingers are individually in three joints of the thumb in two joints articulate executed. With his good hand, the carrier had to get where they by the phalanges of the prosthesis to the desired position pawl mechanism ( ratchet locked). Two buttons were used to bring the thumb or the four remaining fingers back into the normal position (open hand) by spring force . Due to the mechanism, the operation of the hand prosthesis is quite loud.

After pressing a third button, the “wrist” can be bent - but only by about 15 °, far less than the human hand. The comparatively weakly executed barrier is also the weak point of the entire construction.

The actual hand can also rotate in relation to the arm warmers ( pronation or supination ), the bead-shaped radial bearing is similar to that of a helmet that goes around in the collar. The detection is only made by friction, there is no separate locking device. Christian von Mechel did not recognize this level of movement in his otherwise very precise description of the handicraft.

The second Iron Hand is 37 cm long and weighs around 1.5 kg. In contrast to the first hand, it was not painted in flesh color, but instead may have been worn in conjunction with a glove.

Allegedly, Götz could hold both a sword and a quill with the prosthesis . Quasigroch actually succeeded in the latter, which would have been impossible with the first hand. In addition, the trigger of a hook socket like the one Götz used could be actuated with the prosthesis in experiments . With this prosthesis, however, the fingers are not locked in a stepless manner; a sword or a lance could not be grasped effectively with it. The sensitive mechanics were not suitable for combat anyway. In endoscopic examinations of both prostheses, the first iron hand showed far more signs of wear. The assumption is that the younger prosthesis was more of a “Sunday hand”.

effect

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe made the "Götzhand" known through his drama Götz von Berlichingen with the iron hand . As a result, a real "cult of relics" arose. The performance of the construction was overestimated in the romanticizing idea. Since both prostheses are passive, they are only suitable for holding objects with the help of the healthy hand - in Götz's left hand. You could certainly not wield a sword or a lance with it, especially with strength. In any case, Götz wrote with his left hand, not with his handicraft, and it is likely that he also fought with his left hand.

The "Iron Hand" is part of the coats of arms of the communities Jagsthausen and Schöntal as well as the logo of the Jagsthausen Castle Festival . It was also shown on the troop registration number of the 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Götz von Berlichingen" .

Medical history

The "second hand" also played a role in modern medicine. The first arbitrarily movable arm prosthesis, i.e. without the support of the healthy hand, was developed by the Berlin dentist Peter Baliff around 1812. Outwardly, this handicraft was very similar to the younger Götzhand that Baliff had taken as a model. Other early modern art hands such as Margarethe Caroline Eichler's from 1836 also adopted the design features of the Iron Hand.

With the First World War , the need for prostheses for the upper and lower extremities in Europe increased significantly. Robert Forrer reports that the Balbronn hand exhibited in Strasbourg aroused great interest among the wounded German soldiers.

In 1916, the German surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch borrowed the prosthesis from the Berlichingen family to study its function. Sauerbruch later reported that the "ingenious mechanism" of the idol's hand had provided him with valuable suggestions for the development of the so-called Sauerbruch arm , which is considered the first modern forearm prosthesis .

Origin and whereabouts of the prostheses

Christian von Mechel's engraving of the better-known second hand

A “village blacksmith in Olnhausen ” (historically also Ollhausen ) is occasionally mentioned in literature as the originator of the Götzhand . Quasigroch suspects that Götz only gave the - damaged and incomplete - "first hand" to the said blacksmith for repair, but died prematurely. In the few contemporary reports there is no indication of the place of manufacture.

According to Götz von Berlichingen-Rossach , the second hand came after Götz's death "through marriage to the von Hornstein family ". It is only said to have returned to the von Berlichingen family in 1788. The older hand, however, remained in family ownership throughout. However, the representation of Berlichingen-Rossach is at least doubtful due to some inconsistencies, which is why the exact whereabouts of the younger Iron Hand is unclear until the 18th century. The Balbronn hand from the grave of the knight Hans von Mittelhausen († 1564) with almost identical mechanics confirms its dating and authenticity. It is very likely that both prostheses come from the same manufacturer, possibly from Nuremberg or Augsburg .

At the beginning of the 19th century, the councilor Christian von Mechel dismantled the hand on behalf of Countess Franziska von Berlichingen. He described the details of the mechanism in great detail and made some detailed steel engravings. At least until it was dismantled, the prosthesis was fully functional.

In addition to the two hands kept in Jagsthausen, a third, the so-called Grüninger hand (kept for a long time in Grüningen Castle , now in the German Historical Museum ) is ascribed to Götz. However, this is a complete forearm prosthesis with a movable elbow joint, which does not match the other two prostheses and the injuries described by Götz.

literature

  • Liebhard Löffler: The substitute for the upper extremity: the development from the first evidence to the present day. Enke, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-432-94591-4 .
  • Günter Quasigroch: The hand prostheses of the Frankish imperial knight Götz von Berlichingen - The Landshut accident. In: weapons and costume studies. Vol. 22, 1980, pp. 108-112.
  • Günter Quasigroch: The hand prostheses of the Frankish imperial knight Götz von Berlichingen. 1. Continuation: The first hand. In: weapons and costume studies. Vol. 24, 1982, pp. 17-33.
  • Günter Quasigroch: The hand prostheses of the Frankish imperial knight Götz von Berlichingen. 2nd continuation: the second hand. In: weapons and costume studies. Vol. 25, 1983, pp. 103-120.
  • Friedrich Wolfgang Götz von Berlichingen-Rossach: History of the knight Götz von Berlichingen with the iron hand and his family. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1861.
  • Christian von Mechel: The iron hand of the brave German knight Götz von Berlichingen. Georg Decker, Berlin 1815 ( doi: 10.3931 / e-rara-14841 ).

Web links

Commons : Iron Hand  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günter Quasigroch: The prosthetic hands of the Frankish kingdom knight Götz von Berlichingen - The Landshut accident.
  2. ↑ Götz von Berlichingen: My Gottfriden von Berlichingen between Hornberg vhedt vnd ​​actions. Text of the Rossach manuscript (before 1567), f . 33 v . In: Helgard Ulmschneider (Ed.): Götz von Berlichingen My feud and actions. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1981, ISBN 3-7995-7614-2 , p. 26 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ a b c Liebhard Löffler: Götz von Berlichingen and his prostheses (The two Jagsthausen hands). In: Orthopedic technology. 31/1, Dortmund 1980, ISSN  0340-5591 , pp. 11-15.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Liebhard Löffler: The substitute for the upper extremity.
  5. ↑ a b Simone Kahlow: Prostheses in the Middle Ages - an overview from an archaeological point of view. In: Cordula Nolte (Ed.): Homo Debilis. Disabled - sick - disabled in medieval society. Studies and texts on the intellectual and social history of the Middle Ages, Volume 3, Didymos-Verlag, Korb 2009, ISBN 978-3-939020-23-3 , pp. 203-223.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Günter Quasigroch: The hand prostheses of the Frankish imperial knight Götz von Berlichingen. 2nd continuation: the second hand.
  7. ↑ a b Wiebke Ada de Boer: Clinical picture of acquired amputations in childhood - retrospective analysis of 124 patients from the clinic and polyclinic for technical orthopedics and rehabilitation in Münster from 1986 to 2003. Münster 2008 ( digital copy ; PDF; 4.3 MB).
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Günter Quasigroch: The hand prostheses of the Frankish knight Götz von Berlichingen. 1. Continuation: The first hand.
  9. ↑ First-hand at hs-offenburg.de
  10. ↑ a b c d Christian von Mechel: The iron hand of the valiant German knight Götz von Berlichingen.
  11. ↑ a b c d e f Martin Friedrich Karpa: The history of the arm prosthesis with special consideration of the performance of Ferdinand Sauerbruch (1875–1951). Bochum 2004, p. 18ff. ( Digitized ; PDF; 4.5 MB).
  12. ^ Gerd Montag: Working prosthesis or relic hand. A little poetry and truth about the iron hand of the knight Götz von Berlichingen (1480–1562). Stainless steel information point, Düsseldorf-Oberkassel.
  13. ↑ Robert Forrer : The iron hand of Balbronn (Alsace). In: Journal for historical weapons and costume studies . Volume 7: 1915-1917, pp. 102-107 ( digitized version ).
  14. ^ A b Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Hans Rudolf Berndorff : That was my life. Kindler & Schiermeyer, Bad Wörishofen 1951; cited: Licensed edition for Bertelsmann Lesering, Gütersloh 1956, pp. 184–193.
  15. ↑ See: Historical-Political-Geographical Atlas of the Whole World. Heinsius, Leipzig 1744–1750, column 950 ( digitized version ).
  16. ↑ a b c d Götz von Berlichingen-Rossach: History of the knight Götz von Berlichingen with the iron hand and his family.
  17. ↑ New acquisition: Arm prosthesis “Grüninger Hand” on dhm.de.