The Spitting Stone (Domshof)

Bremen · Tyskland · Haunted site

For nearly two hundred years the people of Bremen have spat on the stone where the poisoner Gesche Gottfried's scaffold stood — the ritual lives on.

Eighteen metres from the cathedral's bridal portal sits an unremarkable stone in the paving, and since 1831 passers-by have spat on it. The ritual has lasted almost two centuries and is still performed: an act of revulsion toward the woman whose scaffold stood on this exact spot, and the place has been said to weigh heavily on the square ever since.

On 21 April 1831 Gesche Gottfried was beheaded before some 35,000 spectators — Bremen's last public execution. She had been called 'the Angel of Bremen' for her care of the sick, but had in fact poisoned fifteen people with arsenic mixed into butter: her three children, both her husbands, her fiancé, her brother and her parents. The Spuckstein is today one of Germany's strangest dark memorials.

FAQ

Hvor ligger The Spitting Stone (Domshof)?

The Spitting Stone (Domshof) ligger i Bremen, Tyskland.