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Turning stick on a hall building in Wendland
Turning stick decorated with morning star and lily in Teschendorf (1901)

A Geckpfahl is a gable decoration in the form of a vertical, decorated wooden beam at the upper end of the gable of a half-timbered house .

This particular form of the gable jewelry is found mainly in Westphalia and there especially in Ravensberger Land in many hall houses , while in the adjacent Lower Saxony often at Hall houses frequently crossed horse heads encounters. Similar gable posts can be found in other areas of Germany. They are also referred to there as gable post, ridge post, ridge tip, Husbrand, Geck, Brandstang, Bram or Brant, and in Wendland also as turning club . In addition to their purely ornamental importance, all of these gable closings should prevent damage to the house, see p. see also Neidkopf . Some people assume that the shape of the geck post goes back to the Irminsul , whose location is believed to be in East Westphalia.

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