Prongs (secret sign)
The word tines or zinc is the secret understanding through sounds, gestures or facial expressions , but especially by graphic signs by members of the " traveling people used to be" and often understood only by them.
The term "prongs"
Since April 12-13 In the 19th century, the Rotwelsch in Germany can be identified, a language of travelers . Signs of various kinds complemented them over time. Like language, they served to hide the intentions of their users from outsiders, but also served the purpose of separating oneself from the settled people and stabilizing the identity of one's own group.
The term tines itself was published in the 18th century, in compositions such as zinc space (where meet thieves), tines pierce (give sign) and derived from card marking with secret identification features on the back, abzinken (mark), Zinkfleppe ( fact sheet ) or be discounted (caught, recognized). The word is derived from the Latin signum (the sign), but also from the Old High German zinko (the point, the point).
Development and function of the tines
In the 16th century, before the word Zinken was used, graphic references of this kind were observed for the first time in Europe, the so-called murder burner signs. A historical compilation includes about 340 characters, which were usually designed more differently than the later tines. With their help, gang members found out where and when a certain house should be attacked, robbed and possibly set on fire.
Rotwelsch and Zinken were a means of expression of a population group that constantly had to reckon with repression. This included criminals and small crooks, but also beggars, peddlers, travelers, hobos , tramps, tinkers and other vagabonds . In bourgeois society, which developed since the late 18th century, they formed the "stagnant state", which was always viewed with suspicion by the sedentary population. You therefore had to develop and use secret forms of communication in order to achieve your own goals.
Graphic tines were drawn with chalk, charcoal or red chalk or scratched directly into the respective substrate. They were mainly to be found in places that were frequented by many possible addressees: on toilets in inns or train stations, at entrances and exits, on church and monastery walls. The content of the graphic tines was mostly information for subsequent travelers. Message tines provided information about criminal activities, cheap opportunities to beg, free meals or places to sleep, for example. Identification prongs made it possible to identify certain driving people. Directional or signpost tines indicated the direction in which individual people or groups had moved on.
- A special group of communication prongs were the beggar prongs . They pointed to the origin of the tines - marauding gangs had developed from mendicant orders several times - and gave, among other things, information about whether one should appear pious or intrusive, whether only women or possibly a police officer lived in the house, whether a meal was only available for work was.
- Rogue tines formed the largest group of message tines. Accomplices could be recruited, news about arrests, escape, confessions or treason was distributed, as well as information about planned crimes and more or less suitable local conditions.
- Identification tines marked families and individuals and were very important to their carriers. Deliberate imitations were considered a serious offense and were punished accordingly. Such prongs often resembled coats of arms and, like them, were composed of certain basic shapes, such as depictions of animals and geometric figures, enriched with decorative elements such as serpentine lines and the like. Sometimes signet rings were made with these motifs.
- Direction or signpost tines were mainly attached to fork in the road, on stones, on trees or on the ground. Their structure was largely similar: an arrow indicated the direction, a date the day of departure, long or short lines marked men and women, small circles or other symbols represented children and animals. Combining them with an identification tine resulted in subsequent travelers very precise information.
Non-graphic tines
Overall, these forms play a minor role, but they also have a long tradition and were used in special situations. Unlike the graphic teeth, they were mostly used in direct contact with the addressee.
- Jadzinken derive their name from the Hebrew jad (hand), which is supported by the German equivalent "Grifflingszinken". Another synonymous name is "Femzinken". As can be seen from the first two names, these gestural prongs were formed with the fingers or the whole hand. The basis was the one-handed finger alphabet , which allowed precise but relatively slow communication. This group of prongs can also be assigned to techniques in which words are written in the air or, in the dark, in the palm of the “interlocutor”.
- Prongs served as identification marks. This includes the so-called Scheinlingszwack (or Scheinlingszwicken): a special grimace with one closed and one slightly crossed eye, by which like-minded people could recognize each other. Certain agreed-upon sound formations also served for mutual recognition, especially at night and over some distance. In most cases, the voices were imitated by animals, often owls, but also quails, roosters or dogs.
- Schlichner tines are a special case. While traitors referred to as Schlichner were not infrequently killed at the beginning of the 19th century, a little later they were content with punishing them with a cut in the cheek, which resulted in a permanent scar that was recognizable for everyone. Towards the end of the 19th century, it was mostly severe corporal punishment .
Today's applications
Markings in the tradition of historical tines are also used today, partly in connection with begging and burglary. In the 1990s and again since 2009, burglaries in connection with prongs are said to have occurred in Austria . However, the press also quotes an expert who stated that there was no known case "in which a break-in was committed because of a 'crook's finger'". At the beginning of 2014 , an increasing number of crooks' teeth were found in northern Germany, including in Flensburg , and they also occurred sporadically in Münsterland .
In some areas crooks tines are used "by auxiliary deliverers of magazines, who mark the stocking of the individual houses or apartments."
A very modern twist with old methods is the so-called Warchalking ( English chalk , chalk ') are indicated in the open or publicly available WLANs.
literature
- Hubert Streicher: Die graphischen Gaunerzinken (= criminological treatises. H. 5, ISSN 0075-7152 ). Springer, Vienna 1928; limited preview in Google Book search
- Angelika Kopečný : Travelers and vagabonds: their history, survival skills, signs and roads. Wagenbach, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-8031-2068-3 , pp. 162-165
- Hartmut Friesen: gangs of robbers. Thieves, crooks and buck riders. Mercator-Verlag, Duisburg 1992, ISBN 3-87463-194-X .
- Henry Dreyfuss : Symbol Source book. An Authorative Guide to International Graphic Symbols. Reprint, orig. publ. McGraw-Hill, New York 1972, pp. 90 f. (Hobo Signs)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Westfälische Nachrichten : Mysterious signs on house walls: crooks tines show burglars the way / Three cases in Münsterland , Westphalia, Münsterland, Uwe Renners, January 17, 2014
- ↑ APA ots: Press release of the Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit , July 29, 2009
- ^ ORF: More crooks in Vienna , August 4, 2009
- ↑ Die Presse: “Gaunerzinken”: The secret signs of the burglars ( memento of October 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), August 4, 2009
- ↑ infranken.de / ...: - Puzzle about crooks' tines solved in Bamberg , 23 August 2016.