Torture instrument

Graphic representation of torture using the extension ladder in the Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana.

A torture instrument is a tool that is used to carry out torture and is usually specially developed for it. It can also be a method of physical or psychological torture. In the Middle Ages and the early modern period , instruments of torture and the like were used. a. to establish the truth in the course of case law z. B. used in an embarrassing questioning (torture). Since the Middle Ages, torture itself was often preceded by territion , the demonstration of the instruments of torture. In totalitarian states and in the context of armed conflicts, various instruments are still used to torture prisoners. The UN Convention against Torture has so far been ratified by 160 UN member states .

There is more fantasy than historical truth about torture devices and degrees of torture in non-scientific literature . Images in old writings and books also deserve a cautious assessment. Leaflets with images of torture scenes were often intended to demonstrate the efficiency of the administration of justice to the public who did not know how to read . The respective cities commissioning the dissemination of such depictions of torture and executions also hoped for a deterrent effect on the immigration of criminals.

An authentic depiction of torture is found in the Austrian Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana , the embarrassment court order of Empress Maria Theresa of 1769. It will be in two appendices the torture devices and methods with pedantic exact instructions shown as they until then in Vienna and Prague in use were.

Torture chambers, largely preserved in their original state, are located, for example, in Pöggstall in the Waldviertel or in the Old Town Hall in Regensburg . The local questionnaire is located there exactly under the Reichssaal, in which the embarrassing court order of Emperor Charles V was promulgated in 1532 .

List of known torture instruments and methods

The thorn-studded iron collar of Lambert von Oer, Vischering Castle , Münsterland

Some of these instruments, such as the wheel or the Estrapade , are execution tools or methods or devices for carrying out corporal punishment or honorary punishment that were used in the context of threats . In the following, a selection of instruments and methods that are also used as tools (e.g. glowing pliers ) is listed:

• Bamboo torture
• Camera silens
• Thumb screw
• Dark
• Estrapade
• garrotte
• Pecked rabbit
• Committee
• Lying scales
• Little Ease
• Mouth pear
• Mouth stop
• Parrot swing
• Pile slopes
• wheel
• Mock execution
• sleep deprivation
• Swedish drink
• Sensory deprivation
• Spanish buck
• Spanish boot
• Strappado
• Rack
• Suruga doi
• Territion
• Toilet ban
• Waterboarding

Other torture methods where it is doubtful whether they actually existed or whether they were used in the traditional form:

• Breast rupture
• Chinese water torture
• Iron Maiden
• Judas' cradle
• Sicilian bull

literature

• Instruments of torture and their application 1769 - Reprint of the Constitutio criminalis Theresiana or the Römisch-Kaiserl. to Hungarn and Böheim etc.etc. Royal Apost. Majesty Maria Theresa Archduchess of Austria, etc.etc. embarrassing court order, Vienna 1769 . Reprint-Verlag-Leipzig, Holzminden o. J., ISBN 3-8262-2002-1 .
• Horst Herrmann : The torture. An encyclopedia of horror , Eichborn Verlag (Frankfurt a. M. 2004), ISBN 3-8218-3951-1 .
• Wolfgang Schild: "From embarrassing questions". Torture as a legal evidence procedure (= series of publications by the Medieval Crime Museum Rothenburg o. D. Tauber, No. 4), Rothenburg o. J.
• Peter Burschel (ed.): The torment of the body. A Historical Anthropology of Torture . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-412-06300-2
• Karl Bauer : Regensburg. Art, culture and everyday history . 5th, extended u. improved edition. Mittelbayerischer Verlag, Regensburg 1997, ISBN 3-931904-19-9 , pp. 870-872
• The application of the most common tools of torture and punishment . In: The Gazebo . Book 34, 38, 1864, pp. 539–542, 603–606 ( full text [ Wikisource ] - handling with images).

Web links

Wiktionary: instrument of torture  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Commons : Torture Museum, Freiburg  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Jürgen Scheffler: Instruments of torture . In: Gudrun Gersmann , Katrin Moeller, Jürgen-Michael Schmidt (eds.): Lexicon on the history of witch persecution , on historicum.net; Retrieved March 6, 2008
• Robert Zagolla: Torture . In: Gudrun Gersmann , Katrin Moeller, Jürgen-Michael Schmidt (eds.): Lexicon on the history of witch persecution , on historicum.net
• The torture methods of the Middle Ages . deutschland-im-mittelalter.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Friedrich Merzbacher : The witch trials in Franconia. 1957 (= series of publications on Bavarian national history. Volume 56); 2nd, extended edition: CH Beck, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-406-01982-X , pp. 108, 159, 164 and 174 f. (for red-hot pliers and for so-called pliers tearing).