Spinning house

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Illustration of a spinning house; from Abraham a Santa Clara. Something for everyone , Würzburg 1711. The inscription reads: “Diligence chases away what plagues the lazy. Throw children out of the house of the heart, the vice trinkets, the Venus Docken, and put out horny torches with the full skirt of lust. Let the needle glide in your hand, so you can be called virtue daughters. "

From the 16th century onwards, penal institutions were referred to as spinning houses and usually housed women who were impoverished, begged or accused of engaging in prostitution . The name refers to the activity of spinning that the imprisoned women had to do. The imposed work was intended to serve discipline , since the underlying purpose of the institutions was the idea of rehabilitation rather than punishment . Spinning houses are seen as the beginning of modern penal systems .

The first known spinning house as an institution for women only was built in Amsterdam in 1597 , after the first penitentiary for men had been established there two years earlier . The Spinhuis was housed in the former St. Ursulakloster on Spinhuissteeg between Oudezijds Achterburgwal and Kloveniersburgwal. There was a saying by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft above the entrance portal , which was supposed to convey the idea of ​​improvement : “Do not be afraid. I do not avenge evil, but force what is good. My hand is hard, but my heart is loving. "

In the 17th century a number of spinning houses were built in large cities, including Hamburg and Lübeck . As a rule, the prisons developed from them in the following decades .

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Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günther Kaiser, Heinz Schöch: Penal execution. Lehr- und Handbuch , Heidelberg, 2003, 5th revised edition, ISBN 3-8114-9934-3 , p. 12
  2. ↑ Lotte van de Pol: The citizen and the whore: the sinful trade in Amsterdam in the early modern period , Frankfurt / Main, New York 2006, p. 110; viewable as google-book