Schandmantel

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A Schandmantel, also known as a Schandtonne or Spanish coat, was a torture device.

Its first appearance was from the 13th century. The Schandmantels, which were manufactured from wood and sometimes lined with sheet metal, were used to punish the honorless. The Schandmantel was often used to punish delinquents who were accused of poaching or being prostitutes. While in the coat victims could be insulted, humiliated and have rotten vegetables thrown at them by onlookers. It behaved thus as with the "Lästersteinen". The Schandtonne partly contained at the lower edge as well as at the neck opening weights, in order to increase the agony of the delinquent without being fatal.

In the 19th Century the torture device known as an “iron maiden” was allegedly made as a misinterpreted Schandmantel, and was said to have been used for executions. Instead of being simply stiff and heavy, the "Iron Maiden" was provided with thorns inside. Wolfgang Schild, professor for criminal law, criminal law history and philosophy of law at the University of Bielefeld claims to have proven that such iron maidens were pieced together from museal artifacts to have spectacular objects for exhibition.

[edit] Literature

• Schild, Wolfgang: Die eiserne Jungfrau. Dichtung und Wahrheit (Schriftenreihe des Mittelalterlichen Kriminalmuseums Rothenburg o.d.Tauber Nr.3) Rothenburg o.d.Tauber o.J. [2000]. (german)