Judicial staff

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Judgment bars in a depiction from 1507
Symbolic representation of jurisdiction; this judge “breaks the rod” over the sinner already in chains; while the raven is already waiting for a "fat meal";
Relief in the historical frieze at the New Town Hall of Hanover , still unidentified artist

The judicial staff was a sign of judicial power and dignity in Germanic, medieval and early modern legal symbolism.

It was mainly used in the area of blood justice. The judge "swore" the oath by having it taken on the court staff . According to the Tyrolean neck court order of 1499 and the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina of 1532, the court staff was broken after a death sentence had been read out . Hence the expression "to break the stick over someone" comes from. The judicial staff was used until the early 20th century. When the murderer of Wilhelm Busse was convicted in 1922, for example, B. the instruction that the stick should be thin, 20 cm long and notched in one place. The notch was probably intended for problem-free breaking of the rod, since failure to break could have been interpreted as a sign of higher powers.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Schnepf: Heidelberger Mordsteine , Hamm am Rhein 2006, pp. 260/261.

literature