Halver is a town in Germany.
69-582: Around 950 the Oberhof Halvara was first mentioned in the Werdener Probsteiregister . For more than 500 years Halver was the seat of a Fehmic court , the earliest definite evidence of which is in 1243; it ceased to exist in 1753. This court was most famous because of the trial of duke Henry XVI the Rich of Bavaria -Landshut and the knight of Toerring on May 2, 1430. With effect from October 1, 1912,
138-474: A linden tree represents the Feme court. It was designed by Otto Hupp , and was granted on March 29, 1935. The Amt Halver had a separate coat of arms, which was also designed by Otto Hupp. It combined elements from the two member municipalities Halver and Schalksmühle: in the upper part is a linden branch symbolizing Halver, in the bottom the upper half of a black mill wheel as the symbol of Schalksmühle. Separating
207-497: A lengthening e or i , by doubling the following consonants (after short vowels) or by adding h after the following consonants. Lasch distinguished the following large dialect groups, emphasising that she based it strictly on the orthography, which may often omit strongly dialectal phenomena in favour of more prestigious/"standard" forms. Nevertheless, the dialect groups broadly correspond with modern ones. Westphalian ( HG : Westfälisch , Dutch : Westfaals ): Broadly speaking,
276-771: A long stretch of coastal regions from the Zuiderzee in the West to East Prussia in the East. Its orthographic habits come closest to what was traditionally perceived as a MLG standard (the Lübeck standard , nowadays disputed). Some features: Short /e/ and /i/ in open syllables are stretched into a [ɛː] -like vowel. The personal suffixes -er and -ald appear as -ar and -old . The pronouns mî (1.sg.), dî (2.sg.) and jû (2.pl.) are used for both dative and accusative. Three subgroups can be distinguished: (1) East Frisian and Oldenburgish , i.e.
345-638: A music group from Halver and a traditional dancing group from Katrineholm. It was officially signed on September 30, 1963. On April 25, 1975, the twinning agreement with the French city Hautmont was signed. There has also been a city friendship with Pardess-Hanna in Israel since 1989. League of the Holy Court The Vehmic courts , Vehmgericht , holy vehme , or simply Vehm , also spelt Feme , Vehmegericht , Fehmgericht , are names given to
414-674: A natural border. Main cities: Hanover , Hildesheim , Brunswick , Goslar , Göttingen , Magdeburg , Halle (early times). The area within the Elbe's drainage was established by colonisation and is in many ways special. The southern part of this Elbe Eastphalian ( HG : Elbostfälisch ) area switched to High German already in Late Medieval times. Some features : Umlaut is more productive, occurring before -ich and -isch (e.g. sessisch 'Saxon, Low German') and shifting also e to i (e.g. stidde for stêde 'place'). Diphthongised short /o/
483-698: A recent death are similar to the organization's killings. The Vehmgericht also appear as antagonists in The Strong Arm , an 1899 novel set in the Holy Roman Empire by British-Canadian author Robert Barr . Geoff Taylor's 1966 novel, Court Of Honor , features the Fehme being revived by a German officer and Martin Bormann in the dying days of the Third Reich. Season 3, episode 12 of The Blacklist , titled The Vehm
552-406: A serious nature, and especially those that were deemed unfit for ordinary judicial investigation, such as heresy and witchcraft, fell within its jurisdiction, as also did appeals by persons condemned in the open courts, and likewise the cases before those tribunals in which the accused had not appeared. The accused, if a member, could clear himself by his own oath, unless he had revealed the secrets of
621-445: A sign of length, like oi = /oː/ ). The "breaking" of old short vowels in open syllables and before /r/ was often marked in writing (e.g. karn instead of korn ). Old geminated /jj/ and sometimes /ww/ was hardened into [ɡ] ; /ft/ frequently shifted to /xt/ (sometimes reversed in writing); /s/ instead of /ʃ/ ( sal vs schal ). The native present plural verbs was -et but the written norm often impressed -en . Similarly,
690-425: A similar way the oblique form mik ('me') with "standard" mî . Unusually, there is also a dative pronoun (1.sg. mê ). Lexically, close connections with Nordalbingian. Unusual plural menne ('men'). (South) Brandenburgish ( HG : (Süd-)Brandenburgisch ) and East Anhaltish ( HG : Ostanhaltisch ): Roughly between the middle Elbe and the middle Oder, and along the middle Havel, bordering old Sorbian territory to
759-657: A tribunal system of Westphalia in Germany active during the Late Middle Ages , based on a fraternal organisation of lay judges called "free judges" ( German : Freischöffen or French : francs-juges ). The original seat of the courts was in Dortmund . Proceedings were sometimes secret, leading to the alternative titles of "secret courts" ( German : heimliches Gericht ), "silent courts" ( German : Stillgericht ), or "forbidden courts" ( German : verbotene Gerichte ). After
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#1732858471589828-659: Is ôstersch (lit. 'East-ish') which was at first applied to the Hanseatic cities of the Baltic Sea (the 'East Sea'), their territory being called Ôsterlant ('East-land'), their inhabitants Ôsterlinge ('Eastlings'). This appellation was later expanded to other German Hanseatic cities and it was a general name for Hanseatic merchants in the Netherlands, e.g. in Bruges where they had their komptôr (office; see Kontor ). In
897-675: Is Low German but whose inhabitants already spoke mostly/exclusively High German when the Reformation set in). Sub-periods of Middle Low German are: Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League , spoken all around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea . It used to be thought that the language of Lübeck was dominant enough to become a normative standard (the so-called Lübecker Norm ) for an emergent spoken and written standard, but more recent work has established that there
966-517: Is a modern term used with varying degrees of inclusivity. It is distinguished from Middle High German , spoken to the south, which was later replaced by Early New High German . Though Middle Dutch is today usually excluded from MLG (although very closely related), it is sometimes, especially in older literature, included in MLG, which then encompasses the dialect continuum of all high-medieval Continental Germanic dialects outside MHG , from Flanders in
1035-536: Is a scholarly term developed in hindsight, speakers in their time referred to the language mainly as sassisch (Saxon) or de sassische sprâke (the Saxon language). In contrast to Latin as the primary written language, speakers also referred to discourse in Saxon as speaking/writing to dǖde , i.e. 'clearly, intelligibly'. This contains the same root as dǖdisch 'German' (cf. High German : deutsch , Dutch duits ( archaically N(i)ederduytsche to mean
1104-460: Is based on a group of vigilantes using medieval torture methods to kill paedophiles and money launderers. Jack Mayer's 2015 historical fiction, Before the Court of Heaven , depicts the Fehme, and 'Fehme justice' as part of the extreme right-wing conspiracy to bring down Germany's Weimar democracy. Middle Low German Middle Low German is a developmental stage of Low German . It developed from
1173-475: Is in current use and means "to ostracise", i.e. by public opinion rather than formal legal proceeding. A noun derived from this is Verfemter "outlaw, ostracised person". In an 1856 lecture, Karl Marx used the Vehmic courts as a metaphor to describe his predictions of the working-class revolution that would sweep Europe. Within the politically heated turmoil of the early German Weimar Republic after World War I,
1242-645: Is no evidence for this and that Middle Low German was non-standardised. Middle Low German provided a large number of loanwords to languages spoken around the Baltic Sea as a result of the activities of Hanseatic traders. Its traces can be seen in the Scandinavian , Finnic , and Baltic languages , as well as Standard High German and English . It is considered the largest single source of loanwords in Danish , Estonian , Latvian , Norwegian and Swedish . Beginning in
1311-465: Is rarely marked as such, contrary to other dialects. Before /r/ , e and a are frequently interchanged for each other. Unstressed o (as in the suffix -schop ) frequently changes into u ( -schup ). The modal verb for 'shall/should' features /ʃ/ , not /s/ (i.e. schal ). The past participle's prefix was commonly spoken e- but mostly written ge- under prescriptive influence. The local form ek ('I' (pron. 1.sg.)) competed with "standard" ik ; in
1380-756: The Wends along the lower Elbe until about 1700 or the Kashubians of Eastern Pomerania up to modern times. In the North, the Frisian -speaking areas along the North Sea diminished in favour of Saxon, esp. in East Frisia which largely switched to MLG since the mid-14th century. North of the Elbe , MLG advanced slowly into Sleswick , against Danish and North Frisian , although the whole region
1449-584: The Emperor Sigismund himself became "a true and proper Freischöffe of the Holy Roman Empire." There is a manuscript in the Town Hall of the Westphalian town of Soest , which consists of an original Vehmic Court Regulation document, along with illustrations. By the middle of the 14th century these Freischöffen (Latin scabini ), sworn associates of the Fehme, were scattered in thousands throughout
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#17328584715891518-474: The Fehme was elaborate. The centre of each jurisdiction was referred to as a "free seat" ( German : Freistuhl ), and its head or chairman ( German : Stuhlherr ) was often a secular or spiritual prince, sometimes a civic community, the archbishop of Cologne being supreme over all ( German : Oberststuhlherren ). The actual president of the court was the "free count" ( German : Freigraf ), chosen for life by
1587-452: The Fehme . If he were one of the uninitiated it was necessary for him to bring forward witnesses to his innocence from among the initiated, whose number varied according to the number on the side of the accuser, but twenty-one in favour of innocence necessarily secured an acquittal. The only punishment which the secret court could inflict was death. If the accused appeared, the sentence was carried into execution at once; if he did not appear, it
1656-562: The Landgraviates lost much of their power, and the Freigerichte disappeared, with the exception of Westphalia, where they retained their authority and transformed into the Vehmic court. The seat of the Vehmic court ( German : Freistuhl ) was at first Dortmund , in a square between two linden trees , one of which was known as the Femelinde . With the growing influence of Cologne during
1725-505: The Lower Rhine , MLG bordered on closely related Low Franconian dialects whose written language was mainly Middle Dutch . In earlier times, these were sometimes included in the modern definition of MLG (cf. Terminology ). In the South, MLG bordered on High German dialects roughly along the northern borders of Hesse and Thuringia . The language border then ran eastwards across the plain of
1794-563: The Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented in writing since about 1225/34 ( Sachsenspiegel ). During the Hanseatic period (from about 1300 to about 1600), Middle Low German was the leading written language in the north of Central Europe and served as a lingua franca in the northern half of Europe. It was used parallel to medieval Latin also for purposes of diplomacy and for deeds . While Middle Low German (MLG)
1863-619: The Stuhlherr from among the Freischöffen , who formed the great body of the initiated. Of these the lowest rank were the Fronboten or Freifronen , charged with the maintenance of order in the courts and the duty of carrying out the commands of the Freigraf . The immense development of the Fehme is explained by the privileges of the Freischöffen ; for they were subject to no jurisdiction but those of
1932-469: The contemporary version of the Dutch language ) both from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz lit. "of the people"; 'popular, vernacular') which could also be used for Low German if the context was clear. Compare also the modern colloquial term Platt(dütsch) (from platt 'plain, simple') denoting Low (or West Central ) German dialects in contrast to the written standard . Another medieval term
2001-441: The 13th century as a noun with the meaning of "punishment". A document dated to 1251 has the reference illud occultum judicium, quod vulgariter vehma seu vridinch appellari consuevit. ("It is hidden justice, that by common fashion is habitually referred to as vehma or vridinch .") The general meaning of "punishment" is unrelated to the special courts of Westphalia which were thus originally just named "courts of punishment". But as
2070-549: The 15th century, Middle Low German fell out of favour compared to Early Modern High German, which was first used by elites as a written and, later, a spoken language. Reasons for this loss of prestige include the decline of the Hanseatic League, followed by political heteronomy of Northern Germany and the cultural predominance of Central and Southern Germany during the Protestant Reformation and Luther's translation of
2139-439: The 15th century, the seat was moved to Arnsberg in 1437. The sessions were often held in secret, whence the names of "secret court" ( German : heimliches Gericht ), "silent court" ( German : Stillgericht ), etc. Attendance of secret sessions was forbidden to the uninitiated, on pain of death, which led to the designation "forbidden courts" ( German : verbotene Gerichte ). A chairman ( German : Stuhlherr ) presided over
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2208-667: The 16th century, the term nedderlendisch (lit. 'Lowland-ish, Netherlandish ') gained ground, contrasting Saxon with the German dialects in the uplands to the south. It became dominant in the High German dialects (as ENHG niderländisch , which could also refer to the modern Netherlands ), while sassisch remained the most widespread term within MLG. The equivalent of 'Low German' ( NHG niederdeutsch ) seems to have been introduced later on by High German speakers and at first applied especially to Netherlanders. Middle Low German
2277-719: The 1920s in mass media reports regarding violent acts of vengeance among the German Right. Vehmic courts play a key role in the novel Anne of Geierstein or, The Maiden of the Mist by Sir Walter Scott in which Archibald von Hagenbach, the Duke of Burgundy's governor at Brisach (Switzerland), is condemned and executed by the Vehmgericht. Scott drew his inspiration from Goethe 's play Goetz von Berlichingen which he had translated, incorrectly. Hector Berlioz 's first opera, Les francs-juges ,
2346-484: The Bible . The description is based on Lasch (1914) which continues to be the authoritative comprehensive grammar of the language but is not necessarily up-to-date in every detail. It is not rare to find the same word in MLG affected by one of the following phonological processes in one text and unaffected by it in another text because the lack of a written standard, the dialectal variation and ongoing linguistic change during
2415-492: The Middle Low German (MLG) era. General notes Specific notes on nasals (Indented notes refer to orthography.) Specific notes on stops and fricatives Specific notes on approximants Modern renderings of MLG (like this article) often use circumflex or macron to mark vowel length (e.g. â or ā ) to help the modern reader, but original MLG texts marked vowel length not by accents but by doubling vowels, by adding
2484-478: The Southeast. Main cities: Berlin , Frankfurt/Oder , Zerbst . A colonial dialect strongly influenced by settlers speaking Low Franconian. Also strongly influenced by High German early on. Some features : Old long ê and ô were diphthongised into [iə] and [uə] , written i and u . Old Germanic coda /n/ is restored, contrary to Ingvaeonic sound changes , e.g. gans 'goose'. Present plural of verbs features
2553-709: The West to the eastern Baltic. Middle Low German covered a wider area than the Old Saxon language of the preceding period, due to expansion to the East and, to a lesser degree, to the North. In the East, the MLG-speaking area expanded greatly as part of the Ostsiedlung (settlement of the East) in the 12th to 14th century and came to include Mecklenburg , Brandenburg , Pomerania and (Old) Prussia , which were hitherto dominated by Slavic and Baltic tribes. Some pockets of these native peoples persisted for quite some time, e.g.
2622-404: The Westphalian courts: whether as accused or accuser they had access to the secret sessions, and they shared in the discussions of the general chapter as to the policy of the society. At their initiation these swore to support the Fehme with all their powers, to guard its secrets, and to bring before its tribunal anything within its competence that they might discover. They were then initiated into
2691-423: The area between the middle Weser and lower Rhine . Main cities: Münster , Paderborn , Dortmund , Bielefeld , Osnabrück . Some Saxon dialects in the modern Netherlands (esp. modern Gelderland and Overijssel ) belonged to this group. Dutch influence on them strongly increased since the 15th century. Some features : In the West, strong influence from Low Franconian orthographic patterns (e.g. e or i as
2760-531: The areas further east, like Mecklenburg , Pomerania , northern Brandenburg (Prignitz, Uckermark, Altmark), Old Prussia , Livonia . Very close to Nordalbingian . While the Eastern dialects are today clearly distinguished from the West by their uniform present plural verb ending in -en (against Western uniform -(e)t ), in MLG times, both endings competed against each other in West and East. Main towns: Lübeck, Wismar , Rostock , Stralsund . High German influence
2829-472: The areas west of the lower Weser , in the North including dialects on Frisian substrate. As can be expected, there is much Westphalian, Dutch and Frisian influence ( hem next to em 'him'; plurals in -s ; vrent next to vrünt 'friend'). (2) Nordalbingian , between the lower Weser and the lower Elbe , and also Holstein on the right bank of the lower Elbe . main towns: Hamburg , Bremen , Lunenburg , Kiel . (3) East Elbian , including Lübeck and
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2898-406: The bench, before which a table, with a sword and rope upon it, was placed. The court was held by day and, unless the session was declared secret, all freemen, whether initiated or not, were admitted. The accusation was in the old German form; but only a Freischöffe could act as accuser. If the offence came under the competence of the court, meaning it was punishable by death, a summons to the accused
2967-556: The court, and lay judges ( German : Freischöffen ) passed judgment. The court also constituted a Holy Order . Any free man "of pure bred German stock" and of good character could become a judge. The new candidate was given secret information and identification symbols. The "knowing one" ( German : Wissende ) had to keep his knowledge secret, even from his closest family ("vor Weib und Kind, vor Sand und Wind"). Lay judges had to give formal warnings to known troublemakers, issue warrants, and take part in executions. The organization of
3036-593: The court. With the growing power of the territorial sovereigns and the gradual improvement of the ordinary process of justice, the functions of the Fehmic courts were superseded. By the action of the Emperor Maximilian and of other German princes they were, in the 16th century, once more restricted to Westphalia, and here, too, they were brought under the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, and finally confined to mere police duties. With these functions, however, but with
3105-482: The division of the duchy of Saxony after the fall of Henry the Lion , when the archbishop of Cologne Engelbert II of Berg , (also duke of Westphalia from 1180) placed himself at the head of the Fehme as representative of the emperor. The organization then spread rapidly. Every free man born in lawful wedlock and not excommunicated nor an outlaw was eligible for membership. Princes and nobles were initiated; and in 1429 even
3174-723: The early series of British television interviews presented by John Freeman . In William Makepeace Thackeray 's novel Vanity Fair "Was Rebecca guilty or not?" the Vehmgericht of the servants' hall had pronounced against her. A character in the Dorothy L. Sayers novel Murder Must Advertise appears at a fancy-dress party as a member of the Vehmgericht, which allows him to wear a hooded costume to disguise his identity. People in Femgericht costumes also appear in Arthur Schnitzler 's 1926 novella Dream Story . In Fritz Lang ' s M ,
3243-466: The execution of a death sentence, the corpse could be hanged on a tree to advertise the fact and deter others. The peak of activity of these courts was during the 14th to 15th centuries, with lesser activity attested for the 13th and 16th centuries, and scattered evidence establishing their continued existence during the 17th and 18th centuries. They were finally abolished by order of Jérôme Bonaparte , king of Westphalia, in 1811. The Vehmic courts were
3312-411: The length and breadth of Germany, known to each other by secret signs and pass-words, and all of them pledged to serve the summons of the secret courts and to execute their judgment. That an organization of this character should have outlived its usefulness and ushered in intolerable abuses, such as corruption was inevitable; from the mid-fifteenth century protests were raised against the enormities of
3381-511: The local criminals of an unnamed city (probably Berlin) capture a child murderer and hold a vigilante court. In The Illuminatus! Trilogy , the Vehmic courts are mentioned as being connected to Nazi Werwolf commandos as well as the Illuminati . In A Study in Scarlet , a Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle , a newspaper article mentions the Vehmgericht, stating that the features of
3450-457: The media frequently used the term Fememord to refer to right-wing political homicides, e.g. the murder of Jewish politicians such as Kurt Eisner (1919) or Walther Rathenau (1922) and other politicians including Matthias Erzberger (1921) by right-wing groups such as Organisation Consul . In 1926, the 27th Reichstag commission officially differentiated the contemporarily common Fememorde from political assassination in that assassination
3519-506: The middle Elbe until it met the (then more extensive) Sorb -speaking area along the upper Spree that separated it from High German. The border was never a sharp one, rather a continuum . The modern convention is to use the pronunciation of northern maken vs. southern machen ('to make') for determining an exact border. Along the middle Elbe and lower Saale rivers, Low German began to retreat in favour of High German dialects already during Late Medieval times (cf. Wittenberg whose name
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#17328584715893588-601: The municipality Halver was split, Schalksmühle becoming an independent municipality. Both were administered together in the Amt Halver . As part of the communal reforms of the district of Altena the Amt was dissolved on January 1, 1969, and Halver was granted city rights. The red and white checked base refers to the fess from the arms of the Counts of the Mark . The stone judgement table under
3657-450: The old forms long since robbed of their impressiveness, they survived into the 19th century. They were finally abolished by order of Jérôme Bonaparte , king of Westphalia, in 1811. The last Freigraf died in 1835. Following the abandonment of the Vehmic courts, the term acquired a connotation of mob rule and lynching . In Modern German , the spelling of Feme is most common. Other variant forms are: Fehme, Feime, Veme. The verb verfemen
3726-492: The participle prefix ge- was usually written, though probably only spoken in the Southwest. Lexically, strong connections with adjacent dialects further north (East Frisian and Oldenburgish), e.g. godensdach ('Wednesday') instead of middeweke . Westphalian was and is often thought to be altogether the most conservative dialect group. North Low Saxon ( HG : Nordniedersächsisch , Dutch : Noord-Nedersaksisch ): Spoken in
3795-516: The regional courts of Westphalia which, in turn, were based on the county courts of Franconia . They received their jurisdiction from the Holy Roman Emperor , from whom they also received the capacity to pronounce capital punishment ( German : Blutgericht ) which they exercised in his name. Everywhere else the power of life and death, originally reserved to the Emperor alone, had been usurped by
3864-450: The secret signs by which members recognized each other, and were presented with a rope and with a knife on which were engraved the mystic letters S.S.G.G., supposed to mean Stein, Strick, Gras, grün (stone, rope, grass, green). The Freistuhl was the place of session, and was usually a hillock, or some other well-known and accessible spot. The Freigraf and the Schöffen (judges) occupied
3933-522: The spelling with h unetymological in spite of its early occurrence in some 13th century documents, and hypothesizes a "lost root" " fëmen ", connecting with Old Norse fimr and conjecturing a Gothic " fiman, fam, fêmun? ". During 18th to 19th century Romanticism, there were various misguided attempts to explain the obscure term, or to elevate it to the status of a remnant of pagan antiquity, scoffed at by Grimm's entry in his Deutsches Wörterbuch . An etymology suggested by James Skene in 1824 derives
4002-584: The territorial nobles; only in Westphalia, called "the Red Earth" because here the imperial Blutbann (jurisdiction over life and death) was still valid, were capital sentences passed and executed by the Vehmic courts in the Emperor's name alone. The term's origin is uncertain, but seems to enter Middle High German from Middle Low German . The word vëme first appears in the Middle High German literature of
4071-561: The two is the red and white checked fess, as above. The coat of arms was granted on June 8, 1936, and expired with the dissolving of the Amt in 1969. Municipality Halver Town Halver At the election in 2015, Michael Brosch (SPD) became the new mayor in Halver, he won against his predecessor Dr. Bernd Eicker. The town twinning with the Swedish city Katrineholm originated from the connection between
4140-536: The word entered the Southern German dialects via Saxony and Westphalia, the word's meaning in Early Modern German became attached to the activities of these courts specifically. Jacob Grimm thought that the word is identical in origin to a homophonous word for the raising of pigs on forest pastures ( Hutewald ), just as the more familiar German Zucht can mean both breeding and discipline. Grimm considers
4209-581: The word from Baumgericht (Lit. "Tree law"), supposedly the remnant of a pagan "forest law" of the Wild hunt and pagan secret societies. The Westphalian Vehmic courts developed from the High Medieval "free courts" ( Freigerichte ), which had jurisdiction within a "free county" ( German : Freigrafschaft ). As a result of the 14th century imperial reform of the Holy Roman Empire ( Golden Bull of 1356 ),
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#17328584715894278-413: Was by definition exerted upon open political opponents, whereas a Fememord was a form of lethal vengeance committed upon former or current members of an organization that they had become a traitor to. This definition is also found in the common pseudo-archaic, alliterating right-wing phrase, "Verräter verfallen der Feme!" ("Traitors shall be ostracized!", i. e. killed), as it was often quoted throughout
4347-411: Was inspired by Scott's presentation of the Vehmic Courts. Though the work was never staged the overture survives as a concert piece. In the very first concert of Berlioz's work, on 26 May 1828, the overture was performed along with the Opus 1 Waverley overture, a further indication of Berlioz's debt to Scott's fiction. The Les francs-juges overture later became the signature tune for Face to Face ,
4416-455: Was issued under the seal of the Freigraf . This was not usually served on him personally, but was nailed to his door, or to some convenient place where he was certain to pass. Six weeks and three days' grace were allowed, according to the old Saxon law, and the summons was thrice repeated. If the accused appeared, the accuser stated the case, and the investigation proceeded by the examination of witnesses as in an ordinary court of law. The judgment
4485-423: Was put into execution on the spot if that was possible. The secret court, from whose procedure the whole institution has acquired its evil reputation, was closed to all but the initiated, although these were so numerous as to secure quasi-publicity; any one not a member on being discovered was instantly put to death, and the members present were bound under the same penalty not to disclose what took place. Crimes of
4554-467: Was quickly made known to the whole body, and the Freischöffe who was the first to meet the condemned was bound to put him to death. This was usually done by hanging, the nearest tree serving for gallows. A knife with the mystic letters was left beside the corpse to show that the deed was not a murder. It has been claimed that, in some cases, the condemned would be set free, given several hours' head start and then hunted down and put to death. So fearsome
4623-403: Was ruled by Denmark . MLG exerted a huge influence upon Scandinavia (cf. History ), even if native speakers of Low German were mostly confined to the cities where they formed colonies of merchants and craftsmen. It was an official language of Old Livonia , whose population consisted mostly of Baltic and Finnic tribes. In the West, at the Zuiderzee , the forests of the Veluwe and close to
4692-419: Was strong in the Teutonic Order , due to the diverse regional origins of its chivalric elite, therefore MLG written culture was neglected early on. Eastphalian ( HG : Ostfälisch ): Roughly the area east of the middle Weser , north and partly west of the Harz mountains, reaching the middle Elbe , but leaving out the Altmark region. In the north, the sparsely populated Lunenburg Heath forms something of
4761-594: Was the reputation of the Fehme and its reach that many thus released committed suicide rather than prolonging the inevitable. This practice could have been a holdover from the ancient Germanic legal concept of outlawry ( Acht ). Legend and romance have combined to exaggerate the sinister reputation of the Fehmic courts; but modern historical research has largely discounted this, proving that they never employed torture, that their sittings were only sometimes secret, and that their meeting-places were always well known. The system, though ancient, came into wider use only after
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