- Schwedentrunk
The "Schwedentrunk" ( _en. Swedish drink) is a method of
torture and execution. The name was invented by German victims of Swedish troops during theThirty Years' War . This method of torture was administered by other international troops,mercenaries andmarauder s, and especially by civilians following the Swedishbaggage train, who received no pay. It was used to force peasants or town citizens to hand over hidden money, food, animals, etc., or to extort sex from women.Even though fifteen to twenty percent (locally up to 60%) of the German population perished due to violence, famine, and disease during the war, the memory of the "Schwedentrunk" was preserved. The method was immortalized in one of the first widely-read German books, the satirical "
Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus " published byHans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen in1668 .:"Den Knecht legten sie gebunden auf die Erd, stecketen ihm ein Sperrholz ins Maul, und schütteten ihm einen Melkkübel voll garstig Mistlachenwasser in Leib, das nenneten sie ein Schwedischen Trunk."
Translated into English,
:"They lay the bound servant on the ground, stuck a wooden wedge into his mouth, and poured into his belly a bucket full of foul manure water, which they called a Swedish Drink."
Use of the Schwedentrunk is recorded in the histories of towns throughout
Southern Germany . Though specific circumstances differed, in every case a restrained and gagged victim was forced to swallow (by means of afunnel ) a large amount of unappetizing, sometimes boiling liquid. Substances such asurine ,excrement , liquidmanure , andsullage were used for this purpose.Apart from disgust, illness, and the possibility of bacterial infection, the Schwedentrunk inflicted intense gastric pain. Because liquids are incompressible, the victim's stomach and bowels must expand to painful proportions to accommodate the copious quantities of fluid. The torturers then squeezed the distended belly with wooden boards or trampled the victim underfoot.
External links
* [http://www.ph-freiburg.de/sozial/Fachschaft_GeGk/archiv/30jaehriger/ring/Woher_kommt/alter_schwede.htm Academic site]
* [http://www.medienzentrale-illertissen.de/leiden.htm Suffering of the population]
* [http://www.gzg.fn.bw.schule.de/stadt/eriskir/kirchee.htm "Johan Vogler aus Wolfzennen" killed]
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