{"id":"SEIDEL1896-001","label":"Ratzebuhr Schwirrholz survival","people_or_site":"Children or users of Ratzebuhr otherwise unrecorded","country_current":"Poland","historic_region":"Ratzebuhr / Kreis Neustettin / Hinterpommern / modern Okonek","macroregion":"Europe / Central Europe","local_name":"","source_term":"Schwirrholz","source_language":"German","object_description":"The simple Schwirrholz, the same whirling wooden toy Franz Figura had just reported from Galicia.","function_summary":"A boys' toy.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"seidel1896_ratzebuhr_schwirrholz","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/globus-70.-bd-1896/page/n357/mode/1up","page_or_plate":"printed p. 340","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Modern Okonek town anchor for historical Ratzebuhr; no exact use site is recorded.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Long after antiquarians had begun filing the Schwirrholz away as a relic, it was still being swung at Ratzebuhr — today's Okonek in Poland — in 1896. A simple plaything, Seidel called it, in boys' hands there as across Pomerania and Rügen, where children not yet of school age already knew how to handle one.","pull_quote":"Ich kann melden, daß dies einfache Spielgerät auch in dem hinterpommerschen Landstädtchen Ratzebuhr, Kreis Neu-Stettin, und Umgegend noch heute im Gebrauch ist.","pull_quote_translation":"I can report that this simple plaything is also still in use today in the little Farther Pomeranian town of Ratzebuhr, in Neustettin district, and the country around it.","pull_quote_cite":"Seidel 1896:340","term_gloss":"Schwirrholz: generic German bullroarer term; no separate local name is recorded","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"H. Seidel, 'Das Schwirrholz in Hinterpommern und Rügen', Globus 70 (1896), p. 340","url":"https://archive.org/details/globus-70.-bd-1896/page/n357/mode/1up"}],"source_citations":"H. Seidel, 'Das Schwirrholz in Hinterpommern und Rügen', Globus 70 (1896), p. 340","source_display":"H. Seidel, 'Das Schwirrholz in Hinterpommern und Rügen', Globus 70 (1896), p. 340","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"The simple Schwirrholz, the same whirling wooden toy Franz Figura had just reported from Galicia.","function_display":"A boys' toy.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"children users","display_name":"Ratzebuhr Schwirrholz survival","image":{"full":"assets/objects/EUROPE-010_maa_1922-393_brommer.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/EUROPE-010_maa_1922-393_brommer_thumb.jpg","alt":"Alkmaar brommer: a long flat wooden blade with a rounded tip, worn painted decoration and a cord through a hole near its squared end.","credit":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge (1922.393)","license":"No open license stated (Cambridge MAA online image) — rehosted for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/493486/","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A Dutch brommer, a rectangular wooden blade, Alkmaar.","pool_id":"auto-EUROPE-010_maa_1922-393_brommer","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/SEIDEL1896_globus_p340.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/review_2026_07_15/thumbs/SEIDEL1896_globus_p340_thumb.jpg","alt":"Seidel’s 1896 German journal page, with a left-column report that the Schwirrholz was still used at Ratzebuhr, now Okonek.","credit":"H. Seidel, Das Schwirrholz in Hinterpommern und Rugen, Globus 70 (1896), p. 340","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/globus-70.-bd-1896/page/n357/mode/1up","rehosted":true,"caption":"Seidel's 1896 page records the Schwirrholz still in use at Ratzebuhr, now Okonek."}]},"slug":"seidel1896-001-children-or-users-of-ratzebuhr-otherwise-unrecorded"}