House brand
A house mark (also house mark , hand-painted ) is a property mark , later a family mark , which is attached to the outside of a house, buildings and objects.
history
Originally, these were simple graphic scratch symbols related to the stonemason's marks, which can be traced back to prehistoric and prehistoric times. House brands are not coats of arms due to the lack of tinging , but, as has been documented since the late Middle Ages, they can be figures and symbols used in coats of arms. What the house brands have in common with the coats of arms is the clear family assignment. Initially used as property or property marks, they were passed on within the respective family and became symbolic of this family or clan. These house brands were valid for an entire house, both in the sense of a noble family and in the sense of a farm. The symbol was recognizable even without reading skills. The individual people who belong to the house personalize this house brand with a small addition. The handwritten signature developed from these abbreviations of names in the 14th and 15th centuries, while the house brand, based on the knightly nobility, gradually developed into a common figure , which more precisely identifies the family colors in the coat of arms . Together with the house name , it becomes a house sign , as it has been preserved on inns to this day.
use
House brands were used as property marks (court marks) on movable and immovable equipment in the house and yard. So-called double hooks are described as landmarks in coats of arms. Landmarks (meaning as shame stone or weight is not applicable here) are boundary or land stones on which symbols of the owner are attached. Here these signs become house brands. House brands can be equated with the symbol wall hook , as the wall hooks or wall anchors often carry this house brand. Coats of arms from Ditzingen , Neckartailfingen and Pleidelsheim are examples.
House brands have been mentioned on Rügen since 1530. They were particularly necessary for fishermen to mark traps, nets and other accessories that were often used collectively. You can still see them in Vitt today, where they mark all the houses. At the fishing shed in the harbor there is a sign with all house brands - see photo. On Hiddensee, the house brands still had a legal character in 1976. The house brands had and still have predominantly linear forms and special names such as: B. "Spadn" (spade) or "Hahnenfaut mit´n Knäwel" (buttercup with a toggle). House brands are not tied to a person here, but, as the name suggests, tied to the house, even if they are sold to strangers or inherited to side lines, they remain in place and have legal effect. Sometimes the new owner scratched an additional line in the sign.
They were used as brand marks on animals as well as on the lintel or keystone of the house, the stone cross , the tombstone and as a hand sign on contracts and documents . The flowing transition between house and court marks such as personal and clan marks distinguishes the mark system from the coat of arms.
Simple house signs
Simple house signs can be, like in the picture a certain fish, a “red hedgehog”, a “ Lindwurm ”, a large bone or an object that is more or less clear in context. B. in iron or sheet metal form is attached to the outside of the house. A wall drawing or a picture painted with oil paint on a board can also represent a house sign. In general, it can be more detailed or more abstract.
House brands in coats of arms
The elements of the house brands used in coats of arms are similar to the highly abstract alphabet. Usually starting from a vertical, narrow basic element, the shaft (not a post in the heraldic sense, possibly a staff), all other signs are oriented in position, direction and length and are given names accordingly. In addition, there are a number of variations, parallel shafts, crossed shafts, etc. An X-shaped house brand with a horizontal horizontal line is described as a "diagonal shaft with a crossed inclined left shaft and a central cross rung at the intersection of the two shafts", the Hagal rune or the Hagal cross (ᚼ ), a St. Andrew's cross (X) with a superimposed shaft (|), as a "shaft with right and left central cross brace".
The situation: at the upper end the addition head and at the lower shaft end the addition foot to the house brand name is always added . Middle is medium , the other positions are raised or lowered . If the shaft is placed on the right or left, the position is called anterior or posterior .
The shape: half the length of the shank are rungs (horizontal and continuous) and are inclined struts or cross pieces when both sides, downward Abstreben . Half rungs are called as such: front / back (or right / left) middle half rungs . Rhombuses, rings and circles are called like this: An upper semicircle foot is an upper semicircle (arch) at the end of the shaft. Both sides sloping are called Göpel or rafters , with two with the prefix double : A rafter head shaft (arrowhead post is heraldically incorrect, since a post always touches the edge of the shield on both sides) is a shaft with an arrow-shaped top, a rafter foot shaft is a shaft with a rafter end. The rafter can also be overturned (V-shaped) (double (M-shaped) or overturned double (W-shaped)). Schrage manner specified elements are Schrage sprouts. Arc-shaped elements accordingly, e.g. B. anchor foot shaft. If angled hooks are attached to the rungs, they are described as rungs angled up and down at a point . Small discs or rings on the head or end of the shaft are called ring head / button head or foot button / ring , e.g. B. Rafter head shaft with foot button , ring head shaft with anchor foot and crosshead rung (= anchor) . The four-headed shafts with a 4 as the shaft head or in the overturned form as a four- footed are also common . The right-angled ends of the diagonal figures are indicated here as right-cut , if necessary, as with the rafters and struts (house mark in the coat of arms of Hiddensee).
Example of an element in different positions in a horizontal position to the shaft: head rung (T) - head cross rung (†) - raised middle cross rung - middle cross rung - lowered middle cross rung - foot cross rung - foot end rung.
Upper head (down) strive - head (down) strive - increased means (down) strive - middle (down) strive - lowered center (down) strive - foot (down) strive - lower foot (down) strive.
Proper names have also emerged from complicated structures. It is only important that the description clearly shows the shape. Some can no longer be described according to heraldic rules.
- House brands in coats of arms
... at the back a green house brand in gold with a turned four-headed shaft and lowered central cross bar ( Pügner )
... in the back a red house brand in silver, the shaft with front strut for the upper head, rear strut for the underfoot (double hook) and three central cross rungs ( Ebenau )
... in the back a blue house brand with a rafter head shaft and two central cross rungs, upper raised, and front foot strut, all right-cut ( Hiddensee )
T-head shank or shank with head rung ( Mohrkirch )
... a green house brand with a cross-headed four-foot shaft and raised left central cross brace, four-foot crossed at the back ( Bernau am Chiemsee )
In green, a golden house brand in the form of an overturned Latin grid cross consisting of six diamonds with an enlarged diamond at the crossing point ( Großsolt )
... in the lower silver field a green fir tree in the shape of an old house brand ( Blons AT)
See also
- House sign on the building Alter Markt 12, 13 , Magdeburg
literature
- Andreas LJ Michelsen : The house brand. A Germanistic treatise. Frommann, Jena 1853, ( digitized version ).
- Carl G. Homeyer : The house and court brands. Publishing house of the Royal Secret Ober-Hofbuchdruckerei (R. v. Decker), Berlin 1870, ( digitized ).
- Friedrich Latendorf : House brands in the Principality of Ratzeburg. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology 60, 1895, pp. 36–40 ( digitized version )
- Karl Konrad August Ruppel : The house brand. The symbol of the Germanic clan (= series of publications by the research center for house brands and clan symbols in the Ahnenerbe. 1, ZDB -ID 846865-5 ). Alfred Metzner, Berlin 1939.
- Heinz Zilch, Christiane Thomsen: The Friedrichstadt house brands . Ed .: Society for Friedrichstädter Stadtgeschichte (= newsletter of the Society for Friedrichstädter Stadtgeschichte . No. 78 ). 2009, ISSN 1617-4127 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinz Lehmann, Renate Meyer: Rügen A – Z. From Arkona to Zudar. Worth knowing in brief. Wähmann, Schwerin 1976, pp. 37-38.
- ↑ z. B. "Zum Kaiseracker" ( picture ), painting on copper sheet (with Emperor Joseph II at the plow!) From: Permanent exhibition in the Wien Museum , Nov. 2010
