I don’t know what to call this in English.

It isn’t a wayside or roadside cross, put there for pilgrims, but a relic of an old practice before criminal offences were recognized as punishable by the state. There are several of these crosses in Franconia and further afield, and a Google image search will show more.

I photographed this today on the last day of guided tours of Fürth by the Stadtheimatpflegerin Barbara Ohm, who is retiring from her honorary position (it entails encouraging knowledge of local history and traditions). Unfortunately she seems to have cleared her website too. I can recommend the books ‘Durch Fürth geführt’, with guided walks and pictures.

I don’t know what to believe about the cross. We heard that before 1532, when Emperor Charles V introduced a system of law where criminal offences were punished by the state, voluntary manslaughter (Totschlag) was dealt with privately, by a contract between the killer and the family of the deceased. The killer had to pay the funeral expenses, provide for the survivors, have masses read, set up one of these crosses near a public road so people can see it when they pass, and go on a pilgrimage. This had various advantages: it avoids revenge killings, and the killer can be reintegrated into society when he comes back from his pilgrimage.

Another source is a book called Justiz in alter Zeit, published in German and English (Criminal Justice through the Ages) by the Kriminalmuseum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (site, and museum, have German, English and Japanese texts). The book shows interesting pictures, especially for those interested in forms of punishment and torture (like me). The English version is shorter, and I found these crosses in the German version. It says that under old Germanic law, voluntary manslaughter was expiated by wergeld (OED: In ancient Teutonic and Old English law, the price set upon a man according to his rank, paid by way of compensation or fine in cases of homicide and certain other crimes to free the offender from further obligation or punishment). The introduction of christianity introduced the idea of penance. This book says that in order for a killer to be obliged to submit to this process of expiation or penance, there had to be a functioning court system, so the king ensured that every six weeks there was a ‘genuine thing’ (echtes Thing) lasting three days. There were sometimes other things, and a judge (often called a Thungin!).

So I don’t know if these crosses were private, but I suppose the consequences were between the private parties.

This was a walk through Unterfarrnbach, rather wet, with rural episodes.

Blogalization (iggy) gives the English translation of an interview with Lia Wyler, the Brazilian translator of the fifth Harry Potter. She is also about to publish a book of her own, ‘Languages, Poets and Scholars’, a history of translators in Brazil

From Schockwellenreiter via AdvobLAWg: here is a link to the German-language press release from the Berlin police President, of 9th October, which I quote in summarized form:

bq. A 28-year-old Nigerian had 50,000 euros confiscated by the customs when he entered Germany from Switzerland recently. This was done because the man was receiving state welfare assistance and it wasn’t clear how he came to have the money. On the afternoon of 8th October, he went to the police in Berlin to reclaim the money.

bq. During the questioning, he gave his address, and a search of his flat in Friedrichshain was immediately carried out. The investigators found a large number of indications that he was involved in a large-scale fraud.

bq. The Nigerian, according to present knowledge, told at least 30 people from various countries that he wanted to have large amounts of money taken out of Africa. He promised his victims about 30% of the sums (which amounted to many millions of dollars) if they would remit to him money for fees, transport and deposit of the sums with security firms. All this was done by cashless transfer, so there was no personal contact with him. As far as is known, he used a fake South African passport to collect the money. To keep his victims happy, he sometimes sent them fake cheques. In the few cases where there was personal contact, he took large sums of money from his victims for a chemical. He claimed that the money had been coloured black to disguise it for transport, and this chemical would remove the colour. One victim from Bavaria alone (oh dear!) transferred over 200,000 euros to memebers of the Nigerian Connection from 1995 on.

bq. This Nigerian is part of a world-wide network that causes damage in the amount of many billions (i.e. thousands of millions) of euros every year. He already has a conviction for fraudulent transfer (Überweisungsbetrug) and is receiving unemployment benefit. He will be brought before a judge today (that is 9th October) for an arrest warrant/committal order.

Here is a humorous site on replying to the Nigerians.

At Carob, Robin Stocks has uploaded a huge list of links to German laws (i.e. both statutes and delegated legislation) in English translation. It is most impressive. Carob seems like a weblog to me, but Robin says he isn’t sure. Anyway, it has no possibility to leave comments, so let me just say here I think it’s fantastic.

The Kirchweih (annual fair) in Fürth takes over the whole town centre. The City Center shopping centre nearly wasn’t built because the entrance to the underground car park would have had to be blocked for 12 days once a year, but someone hit on the idea of a special traffic light and lane. There are temporary road markings all round the town during the Kirchweih and it’s not advisable to drive there if you don’t know your way around.

A German article in the Fürther Nachrichten reports that the law firm of Bauer and Neuhof (they haven’t even got a website) actually applied for an injunction to remove the mobile lavatory parked outside their offices. Apparently they backed down when it was moved by 2.5 metres. There’s a photograph in the article showing the situation.

bq. „Abgesehen vom Geruch sahen wir das auch als optische Belästigung und als Eingriff in den laufenden Gewerbebetrieb, denn so etwas ist ja nicht gerade einladend“, erklärt Neuhof, …

bq. (“Apart from the smell, we also saw it as a visual nuisance and as an intervention in our day-to-day business, because a thing like that isn’t exactly inviting,” says Neuhof,…)

Their offices are in a very elegant building, but obviously the visual aspect of 12 days’ Kirchweih in driving clients away had escaped me. The upshot is that the mayor would have voluntarily appeared in court to represent the interests of the people at the fair, and next year the toilets will be elsewhere, and their place will be taken by a caravan (why am I disappointed?). Other objections of this nature will not be tolerated.

Further to an earlier entry, Carob (a new translators’ blog in appearance if not in name – no permalinks though – by Caro and Robin Stocks) cites the Google address to which such spammers can be reported:

bq. Here’s where to report search engine spammers:

http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html