Debt Tower (Nuremberg)

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Debt Tower, 2011
Debt tower, around 1965
Debt Tower (2017)

The debt tower is a tower of the penultimate city ​​fortifications of Nuremberg .

history

The tower was built in 1323 under the city architect Conrat Stromer and is located on the Vorderen Insel Schütt 2, in the old town of Sebald. Together with the Laufer Schlagturm and the White Tower , it is one of the few remaining towers of its era in Nuremberg. The demolition planned after the transition of the imperial city to Bavaria was prevented by the resistance of the Nuremberg citizens. While it used to be built into the city wall, today it stands free on the island of Schütt.

The tower is one of two former towers that were connected to the Schuldturmbrücke (today: Heubrücke ). After the last city ​​fortifications were built, the towers were converted into prisons for debtors and also used as so-called fools' houses for the mentally ill. The still existing debtors' prison was as men debtors' prison , men of iron or digestion tower , called during the south to the Pegnitz tower woman debtors' prison or women iron was called. The women's debt tower was demolished shortly after the imperial city passed to Bavaria.

Around 1800 there was said to have been a money stock in the men's debt tower for alms that were begged by the passers-by through loud screams from the prisoners.

Known inmates

  • Hans IV. Stromer (called the Bratwurst-Stromer) (1517–1592), alderman, city judge and member of the patrician family Stromer von Reichenbach , was sentenced in 1559 to life imprisonment in the debtor's office for betrayal of secrets and foul speech . As a patrician he had one wish and wished he could get two sausages every day at the city's expense. This wish is said to have been fulfilled for 33 years before his suicide.
  • Christian Ludwig Kaulitz (1693–1744) died after 23 years imprisonment in the debt tower. It was used by the Inner Council as a secret writer and to copy hand-drawn maps because of its razor-sharp writing. He created a colored view of the women's debt tower opposite and the Heilig-Geist-Spital with the hay bridge.

literature

See also

Web links

Commons : Schuldturm Nürnberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 27 '9.5 "  N , 11 ° 4' 51.3"  E