Birch rod
A birch rod is an instrument for whipping and was previously used as a birch whisk like a whisk for whipping foam in the kitchen. The birch rod consists of a bundle of leafless birch twigs that are tied together at one end to form a "handle". The branches of the birch tree are suitable for this purpose because of their flexibility.
Other instruments of punishment, also known as the “rod” or breeding rod , such as the hazel rod or the willow rod, do not consist of a bundle of twigs tied together, but a single straight sapling .
history
From antiquity to the middle of the 19th century, the birch rod (along with sticks and various types of whips ) was a common instrument of punishment in Central , Northern and Eastern Europe . Punishment with the birch rod was used both in adults as corporal punishment for certain offenses and crimes , in civil law and in the military . In a milder form, rods were used as an educational tool in children to promote discipline , they could be used at home, in school and in monasteries .
From the middle of the 19th century, the birch rod was increasingly displaced by the (imported) cane . This had several advantages over the rod: a) it could be used over and over again without wearing out, b) it was more painful, consequently it required fewer strokes and the penalties could be carried out more severely with the same effort, c) a cane was good felt through clothing. On the one hand, the latter accelerated the process of punishment - in school - and on the other hand it accommodated the growing moral reservations towards any form of nudity at the end of the 19th century , since the delinquent's back or buttocks did not need to be exposed. The birch rod was always used on the unclothed body, as it can hardly be felt through clothing due to the thinness of the branches.
present
Since the 20th century, most people have only known the birch rod in connection with Nikolaus , Knecht Ruprecht , Krampus or Santa Claus . In Europe, the birch rod was used to enforce judicial sentences on the islands belonging to the British crown possession, Jersey or the Isle of Man, until the beginning of the 1970s.
In Germany , corporal punishment as a legal punishment and in schools has been abolished for decades (most recently in Bavaria in 1980 ). The parental right to punishment, which allowed legal guardians to carry out certain corporal punishments, was completely repealed in 2000 with an amendment to Section 1631 BGB .
Other application
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Flagellantism was a religious form of use to purify the mind through pain in the body.
In the Finnish or Russian sauna , it is popular to hit yourself or each other with fresh birch twigs to stimulate blood circulation. However, the birch branches are not defoliated, which means that there is hardly any pain during these blows. The effect is rather felt as a pleasant refreshing massage.
In English, the discipline with the birch rod is called birching . It is used in various forms of BDSM for sexual stimulation.
Legend
In the legend of Saint Birgitta of Sweden (1303–1373), the following miracle happened in connection with a birch rod: When Saint Birgitta was twelve years old, she secretly began to get out of bed at night and stretched out on her stomach to pray on the cold floor. When her aunt found her there, she had a rod brought to punish her for this childish nonsense. When she raised the rod to strike, however, the rod in her hand broke into small pieces.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dieter Lehmann: Two medical prescription books of the 15th century from the Upper Rhine. Part I: Text and Glossary. Horst Wellm, Pattensen / Han. 1985, now at Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg (= Würzburg medical-historical research , 34), ISBN 3-021456-63-0 , p. 157.