Iron maiden (torture device)

This page is about the torture device. For information on the band, click here.

The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg

An iron maiden is an iron cabinet allegedly built to torture or kill a person by piercing his body with sharp objects (such as knives, spikes, or nails), while the victim is forced to remain standing. The victim bleeds profusely and is weakened slowly and dies of a combination of shock and blood loss, if not asphyxiation.

The most famous, and probably the first, device was the iron maiden of Nuremburg. According to a hoax by Johann Philipp Siebenkees in 1793, it was first used on August 14, 1515 to execute a coin forger. The iron maiden was actually built in the 19th century as a misinterpretation of a medieval "Schandmantel" (infamy cloak), which was made of wood and tin but without spikes. The infamy cloak did not harm the body, and it was used as a chastisement for poachers and prostitutes, who were made to wear it in public for a certain time.

Physical features

The iron maiden of Nuremberg was anthropomorphic. It was probably styled after the Mary, with a carved likeness of her on the face. The maiden was about 7 feet (2.1m) tall and 3 feet (0.9m) wide, had double doors, and was big enough to contain an adult man. Inside the tomb-sized container, the iron maiden was fitted with dozens of sharp spikes. Supposedly, they were designed so that when the doors were shut, the spikes skewered the victim, missing vital organs and permitting the victim to remain alive and upright. The spikes were also movable in order to accommodate each victim.

The condemned person was kept in an extremely confined space to maximize his level of suffering by claustrophobia. Mobility was nearly impossible, and if the victim was weakened by the ordeal, the piercing objects would remain in place and tear into the body even further, causing even more intense pain.

The doors of the maiden could be opened and closed one at a time, without giving the victim opportunity to escape. Supposedly, this was helpful when checking on the victim.

Supposed operation

Purportedly, the condemned prisoner had to pass through seven rooms with seven doors before his scheduled execution. At the end of a long corridor he found himself looking into the face of an iron wardrobe that vaguely resembled a female form. On the outside, the maiden appeared harmless and unthreatening, while inside were hidden spikes of iron that were designed to torture slowly rather than kill.

The doors of the maiden were shut slowly, so that the very sharp points penetrated a man's arms, and his legs in several places, along with his belly and chest, bladder, eyes, shoulders, and his buttocks, but not enough to kill him. Historical experts have theorized that the spikes on the inside of the doors may have been moveable. They were thought to have been able to be repositioned and/or relocated depending on the individual requirements of the person's body and their crime. The overall result would be more or less lethal and mutilating depending upon where the spikes were located.

The point of this deadly object was to impale the victim and inflict extreme pain and punishment – and also, like most instruments of torture, to intimidate the prisoner before actual use, so that he confessed.

Iron Maidens in Fiction

Bram Stoker wrote a short story about the Iron Maiden titled "The Squaw" (1893).

Roald Dahl's novel Matilda contains a device similar to an iron maiden called "the Chokey."

Alejandra Pizarnik wrote a short story about the Countess Bathory regarding Valentine Penrose's work which briefly details the countess' use of an iron maiden(1968). It has been reprinted in The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales, ed. Chris Baldick.

An Iron Maiden appears in the Tim Burton movie Sleepy Hollow, in a dream by Johnny Depp's character, Ichabod Crane (1999). Ichabod Crane's mother is inside.

In the 1975 movie of Tommy by Ken Russell [link] Tina Turner as the Acid Queen morphs into a highly stylized Iron Maiden with, presumably, LSD filled syringes instead of spikes.

In Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, the protagonists of the story go back in time and are sentenced to the Iron Maiden, which they associate with the band, screaming "Excellent!" and playing air guitar.

In Batman Returns, another Tim Burton movie, an Iron Maiden in Bruce Wayne's collection has a secret trapdoor to his batcave.

In Zork Zero, one of the torture devices in the Torture Chamber is an Iron Maiden.

In the Doctor Who episode The Daemons, the master disguised as Sir Giles Estram is forced into an Iron Maiden, only for it to be his TARDIS

A similar device is described by Franz Kafka in his short story The Penal Colony (Die Strafkolonie). The whole story is dedicated to witnessing the one final session of the torture device by the narrator. While Kafka's device does not envelop the whole body, the type of piercing described can well be compared to that of the Iron Maiden.

In Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronicle), an Iron Maiden is in one of the lower levels of Milane's Weapon Shop.

In Vagrant Story for PlayStation, the Iron Maiden is a series of three dungeons with difficult monsters and valuable treasures, where each room is named after a torture method.

In the Japanese Anime, Shaman King, Iron Maiden Jeanne is shown often with inside the Iron Maiden, however completely unharmed. Instead of spikes within the Iron Maiden, there were vines with thorns adorned in the device.

In Resident Evil: Code Veronica, the character must retrieve a piano scroll from inside an Iron Maiden, however it appears that the Iron Maiden's latest victim was infected with the T-Virus, as when the doors are opened, his zombified corpse lurches out and attacks the character.

In Heroes of Might and Magic V, Iron Maiden is the specialization name for Deleb, one of the daemonic heroes.

Known usage

The number of Iron Maidens ever built, let alone used in judicial proceedings or executions, is much in doubt. Replicas have been made, even if never used for the macabre purpose.

The iron maiden at Nuremberg Castle was destroyed in the air raids of 1944 near Nuremberg, Germany.

An iron maiden was found in Iraq near the building housing the Iraqi Football Association in which Uday Hussein had an office.