Stock im Eisen

The trunk section is tall and is held in place by five iron bands; the iron bears the date 1575 and the initials HB, presumably for Hans Buettinger, the house owner who had the iron replaced. The tree was a forked spruce which started to grow around 1400 and was felled in approximately 1440, as was revealed by examination in 1975. There was regrowth in the middle of the trunk after blows from an axe. The first nails were inserted while the tree was still alive (thus before 1440). in 1548, it was already located on the wall of a house in what became Stock-im-Eisen-Platz. The Palais Equitable, which was built on the site in 1891, incorporates the Stock im Eisen in a niche. It stands on a base made of Czech hornblende granite. Wrought iron vines were added, and the building has Zum Stock-im-Eisen (At the Stock im Eisen) carved above the door and a bronze sculpture group of locksmith apprentices and the tree trunk, by Rudolf Weyr, in the tympanum. In addition, there are a pair of representations of the legend by the same artist on the doors. File:BERMANN(1880) p0852 Der Stock im Eisen.jpg|Illustration from Bermann Alt- und Neu-Wien (1880) File:Stock im Eisen 002.jpg|Another view of the Stock im Eisen today File:Stock im Eisen Relief 001.jpg|One of the reliefs on the door of the Palais Equitable illustrating the legend of the Stock im Eisen File:Stock im Eisen Relief 002.jpg|Second relief illustrating the legend ==Significance==

In the 18th century, a custom developed that travelling smiths and apprentices would hammer a nail into the tree trunk; in particular, from 1715 on, wandering journeyman locksmiths. The reason for doing so before then is unknown; however, it is unlikely to have been a craft guild custom in the beginning, because the Stock im Eisen is significantly older. "Nail trees" are well known in Southeastern Europe and are found in many cities in Hungary, Romania (in Transylvania) and other countries of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire; the Vienna Stock im Eisen is the oldest preserved nail tree. The custom persisted until the late 19th century, and inspired the "men of iron" statues that were used for propaganda and fund-raising in Germany and Austria in World War I, particularly the tree set up in Freiburg. The most likely explanation for the medieval nails is the ancient custom of hammering nails into crosses, trees and even rocks for protection or in gratitude for healing, that is as a votive offering, similar to throwing coins into a wishing well or a pond. In the Middle Ages, nails were a valuable commodity that people did not waste. The original mythico-religious and legal significance of the Stock im Eisen was effaced in later centuries by an emphasis on crafts. ==Legends==

Many legends surround the Stock im Eisen, mostly dating to the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1703 it was said to be the last remaining tree from the ancient forest; the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica says it is the last of a sacred grove around which the city sprang up. One legend recounts that the Devil himself put the tree trunk in irons, or at least guards it. Another tells that a locksmith's apprentice who stole a valuable nail from his master, or wanted to marry his master's daughter, learnt from the Devil how to make an unopenable lock with which to enclose it, and in one version also an identical nail to hammer in beside the stolen one. However, the details of the legends betray their lack of truth. The padlock which guides to Vienna often refer to as "unopenable" is only for show, A modern legend holds that the Stock im Eisen is a replica and that the original – or at least parts of it – is exhibited in the Vienna Museum. This is not true; the tree trunk has neither been divided up nor replicated in recent times. A commentary about this trunk was given in 1856 by Theodore Nielsen, a Danish kleinsmith journeyman in his memoirs: ==References==