Heidenstock

Wied-Runkel, 1765, text: Zugeiner und Zusam̄en Gerotteter Vagabonten straffe

Heide sticks ( vagabonds sticks , Gypsies [warning] sticks , Taternpfähle , warning sticks or similar) were from the late 17th and 18th centuries coverage at the borders of the states of the Old Kingdom built characters that prohibited the entry into the country.

Historical classification

As a rule, they were wooden stakes with metal signs, which warned with pictures and writing against entering the country if there was a risk of severe punishment. The pictures showed criminal acts such as pushing carts, standing in pillory or being executed on the gallows . The motifs varied; the gallows penalty was always among them. The accompanying text generally named " vagabonds ", the group of " heathens ", " gypsies " and "criminals" and sometimes also Jews as addressees .

Heidenstocks were directed against "abandoned rabble". This essentially referred to three groups of people who lived without ties to a subject association , so that they were generally prohibited from entering any state territory, i.e. they were basically not permitted to reside anywhere: stray poverty of the majority society , " beggar Jews " and Roma .

An initial indication of “warning signs against the 'entry of the gypsies' and against 'strong beggars' already erected on the borders” is available for Kleve-Mark for 1685 . In 1696 they should be repaired. The regulation went into more detail on the painted content: "A gypsy being whipped by the executioner with the two inscriptions 'Punishment of the gypsies' and 'Punishment of the strong beggars'".

This form of warning did not stand alone as a prohibition sign. Similar warning signs, such as the “fish stick” warning of disregarding the fishing ban, existed for other forms of transgression.

Popular interpretations

In the meantime, everyday knowledge of the content and meaning of the prohibition signs has disappeared. Corresponding place and field names are still unrecognized, followed by street names (Am Heidenbaum, Heide [n] stock, Heidenpfahl, Heidepohl). As far as interpretations are presented, they refer to mythical times far back, for which there can be no evidence. The young age of these interpretations can be seen in the ignorance of "heathens" as a synonym for "gypsies", which was still alive in the dialects well into the 20th century, but was lost there with them. This is also noteworthy because in large parts of the German-speaking area, “Heiden” was the dominant word in the vernacular for the rather seldom so-called “Gypsies” at least until the end of the early modern period.

On the border path between Südsauerland and Wittgenstein there is a Heidenstock that has been renewed again and again today. He no longer shows any open references to his previous function. It is said of him that he was a "pagan" sacrificial site or a memorial at the site of a slaughter by Christian Franks on the Saxons to be Christianized. Apparently there was another warning post in front of the nearby village of Girkhausen. Here the explanation for the parcel "Am Heidenstock" is moved to the late Middle Ages and associated with pilgrimages.

Another well-known misinterpretation is that of the small Roman fort Heidenstock in the Taunus. The name goes back to the "pagan" Romans.

For “Haarestock” and “Haareborn” (= Heidenbrunnen) in Perscheid (Hunsrück), local folklore has created an “ancient local legend” that is as paperless as it is imaginatively equipped as a founding myth: The inhabitants of the “big city” that was the village of Perscheid, were "pagans". "When their city was destroyed, they buried their idol, a golden calf and a cauldron full of gold."

What all these derivations have in common is that they in no way reveal the real historical significance of the defensive signs and the apparently general presence of the excluded, wandering part of the population.

literature

• Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann, "Extermination" and "Pardon". Norm setting and legal practice against Sinti in Westphalia in the 18th century, in: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, Vol. 54 (2009), pp. 63–88.
• Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann, “Don't be a goat tune, but an imperial cornet”. Sinti in the 17th and 18th centuries. An investigation based on archival sources, Berlin 2007.
• Norbert Steinau: The stake in the Deister: a sign of the early 18th century. In: Heimatbuch: people and landscape around Hanover. - Hanover: Shepherd. 2 (1984) pp. 152-154.
• Egon Wieckhorst: On the history of the Wülfinger Taternpfahles from 1635. In: Springer Jahrbuch ... for the city and the old district Springe . Publisher: Friends of the town history of Springe eV Springe 2012, pp. 100–106.

Web links

The local information offered in the following links must not be regarded as secure, e.g. Sometimes they contradict research. Their origin is consistently unknown:

• Dithmarschen (Schleswig-Holstein): [2]
• Groß-Umstadt (Hessen): [3]
• Maikammer (Palatinate): [4]

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann, "Be no goat tuna, but imperial cornet". Sinti in the 17th and 18th centuries. An investigation based on archival sources, Berlin 2007.
2. ↑ See e.g. B. the text examples for the years 1734 and 1736 in: Gustav Süssmann, "Das 'Grenzsteinnest' between Landwehrhagen and Sandershausen", Staufenberg 1982 (Contributions to the history of the Higher Court, no. 2), p. 38.
3. ↑ Dina van Faassen, "Authoritative goals and methods in the defense against vague marginalized groups [in Paderborn and Lippe]", in: Aschkenas. Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der Juden , 9 (1999), no. 2, pp. 405-429.
4. ↑ Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann, “Don't be a goat tuna, but an imperial cornet”. Sinti in the 17th and 18th centuries. An investigation based on archival sources, Berlin 2007, in particular pp. 141 - 146.
5. ↑ Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann, “'Vertilgung' and 'Pardon'. Norm setting and legal practice against Sinti in Westphalia in the 18th century ”, in: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde , Vol. 54 (2009), pp. 63 - 88, here: p. 81.
6. ↑ Gustav Süssmann, "The 'Grenzsteinnest' between Landwehrhagen and Sandershausen", Staufenberg 1982 (Contributions to the history of the Higher Court, no. 2), p. 51f.
7. ↑ Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann, “'Vertilgung' and 'Pardon'. Norm setting and legal practice against Sinti in Westphalia in the 18th century ", in: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde , Vol. 54 (2009), pp. 63 - 88, here: p. 82.
8. ↑ See: Archive link ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
9. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated February 8, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
10. ↑ See: [1] .