Judicial staff
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
- ↑ Thomas Schnepf: Heidelberger Mordsteine , Hamm am Rhein 2006, pp. 260/261.
literature
- Judicial staff . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 7, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1907, p. 642 .
- Louis Carlen : Staff. In: Concise dictionary on German legal history . Vol. 4, Col. 1838 ff.
- Ernst von Möller : The legal custom of breaking the rod. In: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History . German Department, Vol. 21 (1900), pp. 27–115.
- Walter Müller : Manufacture and vow with the judicial staff according to Alemannic-Swiss sources. At the same time a contribution to the history of the transfer of property. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1976, ISBN 3-7995-6682-1 .