Medieval crime museum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber
| Data | |
|---|---|
| place | Burggasse 3–5, Rothenburg ob der Tauber |
| Art |
historical Museum
|
| opening | 1920 |
| Number of visitors (annually) | Over 110,000 guests |
| management |
Markus Shepherd
|
| Website | |
| ISIL | DE-MUS-118210 |
The Medieval Crime Museum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a German legal museum and gives an insight into legal events over the past 1000 years. It has been located in Burggasse 3 (former Johanniterkomturei) in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Middle Franconia since 1977 and celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2020.
It shows 50,000 exhibits from over 1000 years of European judicial history with a focus on the Middle Ages .
History of the collection and the museum
The Medieval Crime Museum is located in the former Rothenburg Johanniter Commandery, which was built between 1393 and 1410 together with the adjacent St. John's Church. In 1718 the building was converted into the Baroque style that is still recognizable today. The collection goes back to a small private collection of the publisher and archivist Rudolf Hermann Albrecht at the end of the 19th / beginning of the 20th century. It was housed as the so-called "Rothenburg torture chamber" in the tower of the castle hotel in Klostergasse and was based on the world-famous Nuremberg torture chamber. Exhibition by GFGeuder.
The “Rothenburg Torture Chamber” collection and the building were taken over by the artist couple Ernst Paul Hinckeldey and Marta Hinckeldey-Wittke in 1920, expanded and presented in a museum. Since the 1950s, their son Christoph Hinckeldey and his wife Hildegard have continued the collection and initially enlarged the exhibition area to include the castle hotel's cellar. The consistent expansion of the collection and the expansion of the museum's alignment to a comprehensive legal education museum for the German-speaking area made a further spatial expansion of the museum inevitable in the 1970s. In 1977 the company moved to the former Johanniter Commandery in Rothenburg in Burggasse.
At the end of 1993, the main museum building and parts of the collection were transferred to a foundation under public law based in Rothenburg ob der Tauber by the city of Rothenburg, as well as the neighboring Johanniterscheune. In addition to running the museum, the purpose of the foundation is to promote science and research. After the death of the founder, Christoph Hinckeldey, Karl-Heinz Schneider took over the management of the Medieval Crime Museum. In the years 1994 to 1996 the Johanniterscheune was restored in accordance with the listed building standards and has been used for museum, exhibition, conference and cafeteria operations since 1997. Markus Hirte has been head of the Medieval Crime Museum since June 2013.
The Medieval Crime Museum now comprises around 50,000 exhibits from over 1000 years of German and European legal history.
main building
The tour of the exhibition is based on the course of criminal proceedings from the preliminary investigation to the execution of the sentence. A large number of thematic islands shed light on particular areas of legal history in more detail.
- Cellar vault: beginning of proceedings, evidence proceedings , torture
- Ground floor: physical and life sentences, imprisonment , executioners , robbers and witches
- First floor: Law in the Germanic-Franconian period, right mirror , church and law , inquisition proceedings , city and law , seals , honor punishments , iron maiden , marriage, honor and women in law, craft law
- Second floor: Constitutional and constitutional law, police law , school sentences , sensational criminal cases, superstitions , passports, legal caricatures, bookplates and faience
Johanniter barn
The museum's special exhibitions are presented here during the main season.
- Ground floor: cafeteria and museum shop as well as multimedia room
- Intermediate level: special exhibition
- First floor: special exhibition
- Top floor: ballroom / conference area
Special exhibitions
Current: Dog and Cat - Wolf and Sparrow: Animals in Legal History
The special exhibition revolves around the subjects of animal trials and animal punishment. Wolves and pigs as accused in judicial murder trials, excommunicated dolphins and grasshoppers or head bonuses for sparrows and mice. In addition, the role of animals in the death penalty is examined and there are excursions to farm animals, witches, mythical animals and heraldic animals. The exhibition can be visited from May 3, 2020.
Previous special exhibitions
- With the sword or firm belief - Martin Luther and the witches
The special exhibition was visited by around 500,000 guests from May 2016 to December 2019 in the Johanniterscheune of the Medieval Crime Museum. It dealt with the history of the witchcraft belief and the witchcraft rule - from the beginning to the end of the great witch hunts. A special focus was on the person Martin Luther and his statements for and against the belief in witches. The Reformation and the persecution of witches in Franconia and Rothenburg ob der Tauber were also an issue.
- "Art and Criminal Law" (May 17 to June 16, 2019)
- 50 years of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (November 27, 2018 to January 6, 2019)
- "Robert Hellenschmidt - St (r) ichhaltig" (29.11.2015 to 10.01.2016)
- Erika Szameitat (August 16 to October 31, 2015)
- VR Hedwig - The Devil and His Martin, Dream World and Reality (2015)
- "Rome in Rothenburg" (August 17th to November 2nd, 2014)
- "The mills in fairy tales ..." (2014)
- Reiner Grunwald - "FOCUS" (01.12.2013 to 06.01.2014)
- ADOLF KRAUSE - "ANSICHTSSACHEN" (01.09. To 31.10.2013)
- "EIICHI TAKEYAMA - Soul Pictures + Landscape Pictures" (16.06. To 11.08.2013)
- "Sound off, camera on and action - Rothenburg as a film city and location" (April 14th to May 26th, 2013)
- Exhibition by Udo Winkler (December 1st, 2012 to January 6th, 2013)
- "Witches" (October 27th to November 4th, 2012)
- 1945 - collapse and liberation (April 15 to May 13, 2012)
Digitized
The special exhibition "With the sword or firm belief - Martin Luther and the witches" has been integrated into the presence exhibition of the Medieval Crime Museum. It is now digitally accessible on the ground floor of the main building.
guides
The crime museum offers its guests tours in four languages - German, English, Italian and Spanish. These can be booked in advance by phone or email. During the opening hours, visitors can also discover the museum on their own.
Publications
In addition to exhibition catalogs, the Medieval Crime Museum has published other publications over the years:
I. Catalogs of the Medieval Crime Museum
- Volume 1: "With the sword or firm belief" - Luther and the witches, Darmstadt 2017
- Volume 2: "With the sword or strong faith" - Luther and the Witches, Rothenburg odT 2017
- Volume 3: "Dog and Cat - Wolf and Sparrow" - Animals in Legal History, St. Ottilien 2020
II. Series of publications by the Medieval Crime Museum
- Volume I: Die Maleficia der Hexenleut ', Rothenburg odT 1997
- Volume II: The neck court order of the city of Volkach from 1504, Rothenburg odT 1998
- Volume III: The Iron Maiden - Poetry and Truth, Rothenburg odT 1999
- Volume IV: “From embarrassing questions” - Torture as legal evidence, Rothenburg odT 2000
- Volume IVc: Criminal Justice through the Ages, Rothenburg odT 2016
- Volume V: Legal Proverbs, Rothenburg odT 1992
- Volume VI: Justice in old times, Rothenburg odT 2005
- Volume VII: Pictures from the Kriminalmuseum, Rothenburg odT 1989
- Volume VIII: Pictures from the Medieval Crime and Justice Museum, Rothenburg odT 2015
- Volume IX: Graphics from the Kriminalmuseum, Rothenburg odT 2018
- Volume X: Rock, Rap, Law - Contributions to Music, Law and History, Darmstadt 2019
III. Rothenburg Talks on the History of Criminal Law
- Volume 1: Günter Jerouschek / Hinrich Rüping (eds.); "Out of love for justice and for the sake of common benefit" - Historical contributions to criminal prosecution, Tübingen 2000
- Volume 2: Günter Jerouschek / Wolfgang Schild / Walter Gropp (eds.); Benedict Carpzov - New perspectives on a controversial Saxon lawyer, Tübingen 2000, reprint Gießen 2020
- Volume 3: Günter Jerouschek; Protection of life and the beginning of life - The history of the abortion ban, Tübingen 2002
- Volume 4: Dirk von Behren; The history of § 218, Tübingen 2004, reprint Gießen 2020
- Volume 5: Markus Hirte; Pope Innocent III, the IV Lateranum and the criminal proceedings against clergy - a register-based study of the development of the types of proceedings between 1198 and 1216, Tübingen 2005
- Volume 6: Günter Jerouschek / Hinrich Rüping / Barna Mezey (eds.); Prosecution and State Reason - German-Hungarian Contributions to the History of Criminal Law, Giessen 2009
- Volume 7: Andreas Blauert; Early witch hunts - heretic, sorcery and witch trials of the 15th century, reprint, Gießen 2020
- Volume 8: Markus Hirte / Arnd Koch / Barna Mezey (eds.); Turning Points in the History of Criminal Law - German and Hungarian Perspectives (Festschrift), Giessen 2020
Symposia
Since 2018, the Kriminalmuseum has been organizing an annual symposium in cooperation with the Taubertal Festival on various topics from the fields of history, music and law:
- Gender, power and law: #MeToo - on the role of women in the music business (2019)
- Rock, Rap, Law (2018)
See also
literature
- Markus Hirte (ed.): With the sword or firm faith - Luther and the witches (exhibition catalog). Theiss, Darmstadt 2017, ISBN 978-3806234510 .
- Medieval Crime Museum (Ed.): 313 images from the Crime Museum. A tour of the graphics. Rothenburg ob der Tauber 1989.
- Medieval crime museum (ed.): Pictures from the crime museum. Rothenburg ob der Tauber 1984.
- Wolfgang Schild: The iron maiden. Poetry and truth. Rothenburg ob der Tauber 1998.
Web links
- Website of the Medieval Crime Museum
- Medieval crime museum at rothenburg.de
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 49 ° 22 ′ 32.4 " N , 10 ° 10 ′ 45.2" E