Spitting Stone

The Spitting Stone is a seemingly unremarkable stone set into the cobblestones of Domshof square in Bremen, Germany. It marks the location where Gesche Gottfried, a woman convicted of poisoning fifteen people between 1813 and 1828, was publicly executed by beheading in 1831. The act of spitting on the stone originated immediately after her execution and continues today as a symbolic gesture of disgust for her crimes. While the stone itself is easily overlooked, it carries a significant historical and cultural weight, representing a dark chapter in Bremen's past and the public's reaction to a particularly heinous series of murders. Some accounts suggest the stone also bore markings from the Nazi era, yet the spitting tradition persisted.