Torture shirt
Torture shirt of Anna Kramerin , who was burned as a witch in Veringenstadt in 1680 .
The torture shirt (also called torture gown or torture dress ) was a piece of clothing that the accused was put on before the embarrassing interrogation , i.e. the torture , began.
The manner in which the torture shirt should be made and how and when it was put on varies according to the epoch and the local codes of practice. According to Section 6 of the Saxon Theatrum Conscientiosum Criminale of 1732, the defendant was first stripped, then head and body hair were shaved and finally black pants and a black shirt were put on him.
According to Wolfgang Schild, it was a loose shirt that fell to the knees. It was made from a single piece and had no seam. The torture shirt could only have been made for a single day; it couldn't have been a night before it was finished.
Whether a separate torture shirt was used at all or whether the torture took place without clothes or in ordinary clothes differs in different times and regions. For example, torture shirts are rarely reported in Kurmainz . In Catholic areas, the defendant was even dressed in two consecrated shirts.
The term witch's shirt (also called shame dress ) is specifically used to describe a piece of clothing that was put on supposed witches in order to depersonalize them. Known
as the Veringenstadt witch shirt, the Bader-Ann witch shirt from 1680 is the only one of its kind that has survived today. It is located in the Veringenstadt local history museum in Baden-Württemberg.
literature
- Johann Salomon Schülin: Theatrum Conscientiosum Criminale, Or: Conscientious Legally-based instruction, how every judge or civil servant should proceed conscientiously in embarrassing cases [...] . Buchner, Franckfurt / Leipzig 1732. § 6. books.google.de
Web links
- Witch exhibition in Speyer: mother of all persecutions . FAZ - series of pictures for the witch exhibition with a picture of a torture shirt
Individual evidence
- ↑ Torture Shirt . In: Prussian Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): German legal dictionary . tape 3 , issue 4 (edited by Eberhard von Künßberg ). Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar ( adw.uni-heidelberg.de - publication date between 1935 and 1938).
- ↑ Johannes Gutenberg University, Institute for Historical Regional Studies: Geschichtliche Landeskunde, Volumes 32–33, 1988, p. 170 ( books.google.de ).
- ↑ Wolfgang Schild: "From embarrassing questions". Torture as legal evidence. Rothenburg od T. 2002; quoted from: Hexenwahn - Äangste der Neuzeit ( dhm.de ).