I’ve been reading about the Natalee Holloway Resource Center that opened on June 8th in the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, DC. That reminded me of several trips that I took to the German town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber which has something called the Criminal Museum. I am putting up the photos that I took in the Museum. Click on the photos to see a larger size.
The Criminal Museum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber is located in the former seminary of the Order of St. John; right next to it is St. John’s church which is now modern inside.
The Criminal Museum has four stories of displays that cover 2000 square feet. In the basement are displays of torture instruments such as the rack.
In the lobby of the building is displayed an Iron Maiden, shown in the photo below.
Iron maiden was used for women
Shown in the photo below is the building which houses the Criminal Museum, located on the Burggasse in the oldest part of the city of Rothnburg ob der Tauber. On the side of the building is displayed the dunking stool which was used to punish bakers whose bread was too light. Dishonest bakers were dipped into the well in the Market Place.
Cage for dunking bakers who cheated customers
"Neck violin" for women who quarreled
Double neck violin for two men who quarreled
Chastity belt for wives and girlfriends
Marriage door in Catholic church was only for girls who were virgins
A bride who was not a virgin had to wear a headpiece made out of braided straw and she was not permitted to enter the church through the traditional “marriage door.” The photo above shows a small door, less than six feet high, opening into St. Jakob’s Church, which was designated as the marriage door.
I took a day trip to Rothenburg, it looked a bit of tourist trap, Sort of a Medieval Disney on the Tauber
Comment by littlegreyrabbit — June 13, 2010 @ 10:18 pm
The first time that I visited Rothenburg ob der Tauber, it was 1957 and I was the only American there. There were no tourists at all and no businesses catering to tourists. I purchased a postcard of the Plönlein, the most photographed spot in the city. Now tourists stand in line to take a photo of the Plönlein, which you can see on this page of my web site at http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Rothenburg/Tour/Plonlein.html
There are lots of Japanese tourists at Rothenburg now and they are not polite like the Germans. They ignore the line for photographs and just stand in front of other people to take their photographs. The German people typically stand aside and gesture to indicate that they want me to go ahead of them to take a photo.
Comment by furtherglory — June 14, 2010 @ 7:17 am