HOAX OF PAST

Hokitika Guardian, 7 March 1931, Page 6

HOAX OF PAST

famous -muox maiden.” NOTHING BUT FAKE. CUE lOSI TV OF NUH EM HERO. Tourists and museum curators tlio world over, says the Berlin correspondent of ‘‘the Observer,” London, will lie surprised and delighted respectively to learn that the famous “Iron Maiden” (“Eiserne Jungfrau’’), chief treasure of Nuremberg’s collection ot medieval instruments of torture, is a

“fak]ov.” Tuis has been ,argued for many years by antiquarians, and just as energetically denied by the average Nuremberg citizen, proud of the attraction exerted by this horrifying show-piece to travellers of every nationality.

The ‘‘lron Maiden.” which is preserved in th ( . pentagonal tower of the historic Burg, was presumed to have been fashioned in the fourteenth century. Hundreds of sight-eers from all over the world have shuddered at it. A more than life-size female clad in a cloak reaching to the ground opens on heavy and creaky hinges to disclose blood-stained, spikes, .where the eyes, breast and abdomen of the victim thrust within might he expected to he. A moving platfo.'m under the figure provided for the casting of the body in a stream below. OBVTOUS DIFFICULTY. Two strong men were necessary to press the unwilling victim within the grim doors, of which the. two sides of the cloak masked the exterior. Tn view of the problem of how the initialed corpse was ever extracted from the spikes historians have always been doubtful of the “M-aiden” ever having been used at all. But the bloodstains were so genuine, the rust so ageold. that their voices were silenced. News recently came from Nuremberg that the owner of the “Iron Maiden” had just died. He had only lent it to the city’s museum in the Burg, together with the other collection of instruments of torture for which that romanic castle is justly famous. In. his will, however, he gave the whole collection to the town in nerpettiity, As lie had inherited everything from his father-in-law, an antiquarian. it is doubtful whether he ever questioned the fact of the “Maiden’s” genuineness. WAS MADE TO ORDER. But in connection with proving the will a native of the neighbouring spot, Eibaeh, was discovered, who stated that his father made the “Iron Maiden” to order of the antiquarian. This was one Herr Guetler, a keen student i of Nuremberg legends. He ordered a I model of a fifteenth century burgher’s j wife in wood from a clever carpenter of special gifts. The figure was therefore first made in wood. j

Old files of hills now prove that this wooden model was revered with iron plates. Who put the finishing touches of greenish mould and rusty spikes and hinges is unknown, but the tact is that in the late eighteen-sixties the “Iron Maiden” was ordered and finished within a few months. Details of how the figure grew in liis father’s barn, which was used as a workshop, diave been given by the son of thjs carpenter. Herr Geisselbreeht. who ays h ( . can also remember tlie tales his mother told him of the legend at tin- time. TH 1C ( )E I 0 IX AL TXBTRUMENT. Commenting on these revelations, a writer in the “Frankfurter Zeitung” -ays that “English Maiden” was the name of the original instrument of torture, with which Geisselbrecht’s copy has nothing to do. Germany took the idea from Henry th ( > Eight’s warden of the Tower. Leonard Skeffington. The English model was called at home “Lord Sheffington’s daughter.” which later degenerated into “Scavenger's daughter.” Nuremberg had originally a genuine “English Maiden” right enough, according to ancient chronicles, well thumbed by the antiguarian Gender, about the middle of last century.

Tin’s correspondent, commenting on s 1 the corruption of names, points out j that, as everybody in Germany knows to-day. the ‘‘lron Maiden” is now the term given to the automatic telephone I apparatus which i e lent* ">s,sly refuses to give forth the coin once drormod in. whethc a call lias been successful or not.