![]() ![]() It was all used in real life, day-to-day, in small villages all over Europe. The Kriminalmuseum collection does look a little like a goth’s wishful Ikea catalogue: everything is rusted, rigid, unwieldy - certainly worse than anything I’ve seen in Game of Thrones. So how does this place sustain itself in a small East German city like Leipzig? It is a town with a rich medieval history Goethe’s Faust was partly inspired by the author’s favorite drinking den here (the 15th-century Auerbach’s Keller), and Leipzig now boasts a thriving punk scene as well as the largest gothic festival in the world, the annual Wave-Gotik-Treffen. The pincers, cold or red hot, would be manipulated to mangle the breasts of unmarried mothers as well as women accused of heresy, white magic, abortion, and other female misdeeds. One I’d least like to be used on me - though I’m not putting my hand up for anything else - is the “breast claw” ( Brusthralle), 1300-1700. Known enigmatically as the “stork” or “ scavenger’s daughter,” in use circa 1500-1650, this binding apparatus would cause muscle convulsions for hours or days on end. My personal favorite looks like something that would go down well at an S&M party. As a non-German speaker, I reveled in the names for each device, which for all I’d know could have otherwise been Krautrock bands or types of marzipan: das Streckbett for the rack, or Hexenstuhl for the “witch” chair widely used for interrogations, studded with iron points that could be heated by fire for that little bit of extra discomfort. There’s a sort of beginner’s torture kit with all the basics: the obligatory French guillotine, stocks for public humiliation (also known as a “shrew’s fiddle”) in which the constrained prisoners would endure the contents of chamber pots being smeared in their ears, and a stretching rack that dislocates the victims’ shoulders as a prelude to the actual torture. Details about the crimes that warranted the use of these contraptions are fascinating: the simple saw, it turns out, was a popular punishment for homosexuals. Most items are accompanied by illustrations, woodcarvings, and prints from the era to show how bodies fit around and into various nooks, crannies, and spiky bits it’s not always self-explanatory. It’s not a particularly anglophone-friendly museum, but you don’t need to read a plaque to feel squeamish about the foreboding machinery on show. Hexenstuhl (witch-chair or interrogation chair, from a 17th-century original) ![]()
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