The New Murrey and Blue blog

We’re inclined to view fully functioning prosthetic hands and so on as a modern invention. The fruits of our ever-advancing society. But we aren’t the originators. Of course, prosthetics go back a very long time, e.g. a wooden toe survives from Ancient Egypt, but the fully functioning part also goes back a fair way. A very well-known example is the iron hand made for Götz von Berlichingen (1480 – 23 July 1562) a German mercenary whose “gang” was up for hire to any of the many small states that existed in what would eventually become Germany itself.

He prospered in this lucrative occupation, but then his right hand was blown off by a cannon ball. Far from giving up and resigning himself to a different future, Götz decided to have a new arm and hand instead. He set his blacksmiths to work, and the result was an astonishingly effective iron gauntlet-hand that enabled him to do many things, including grasp a sword tightly enough. It could even manage something as delicate as a quill!

It’s on display at Jagsthausen Castle, an ancestral seat of the Berlichingens. There are two hands, the second a vast improvement on the first. You can read more about this amazing hand here. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/object-of-intrigue-the-prosthetic-iron-hand-of-a-16thcentury-knight

Götz lived to a ripe old age and died peacefully.