page_title: Stock im Eisen
section_title: Significance
hierarchical_section_title: Stock im Eisen / Significance
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Wien, Stock im Eisen (Nahansicht) English: Close-up view of the tree trunk and the nails hammered into it.
context_page_description: The Stock im Eisen is the midsection of a tree-trunk from the Middle Ages, a so-called nail-tree, into which hundreds of nails have been pounded for good luck over centuries. It is located in Vienna, Austria, in Stock-im-Eisen-Platz, now part of Stephansplatz, at the corner of the Graben and Kärntner Straße and is now behind glass on a corner of the Palais Equitable.
context_section_description: 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,  travelling 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.
  Leopold Schmidt suggested that the tree was originally used as a surveying point defining the "mythic centre" of the city.
caption: Close-up view of the tree trunk and the nails hammered into it
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