defenestration

Matthäus Merian's impression of the 1618 Defenestration of Prague

Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. The term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year of 1618. The word comes from the Latin de (from; out of) and fenestra (window or opening).^[1]

Although defenestrations can be fatal depending on the height of the window through which a person is thrown (see Falling), or lacerations from broken glass, the act of defenestration need not carry the intent or result of death.

Notable defenestrations in history

Historically, the word defenestration was used to refer to an act of political dissent. Notably, the defenestrations of Prague in 1419 and 1618 helped to trigger prolonged conflict within Bohemia and beyond. It is said that some Catholics ascribed the survival of those defenestrated at Prague Castle in 1618 to divine intervention.

Other notable events in Prague's history include the defenestration of the Old-Town portreeve along with the bodies of seven murdered New-Town aldermen in 1483, and the death in 1948 of politician Jan Masaryk, whose body was found in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry, below his bathroom window. A 2004 police investigation into his death concluded that, contrary to the initial ruling, he did not commit suicide, but was defenestrated, most likely by Czechoslovak Communists and their Soviet NKVD advisers for opposing the February 1948 Communist putsch.

Giorgio Vasari's impression of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

• In the book of Kings II in the Bible, Jezebel is defenestrated by her own servants at the urging of Jehu. (2 Kings 9: 33)
• It has been suggested by several chronicles (notably the Annals of Westhide Abbey) that King John killed his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, by throwing him from a window in the castle at Rouen, France, in 1203.
• In 1378 the crafts and their leader Wouter van der Leyden occupied the Leuven city hall. They took over the Leuven government. Most of the patricians left the city and fled to Aarschot. After negotiations between the parties, they agreed to share the government. The patricians did not accept this easily, as they lost their absolute power. Trying to turn the tide, they had Wouter van der Leyden assassinated in Brussels. The crafts wanted revenge. They handed over the patrician to a furious crowd. The crowd stormed the city hall and threw the patricians out of the window. At least 15 patricians were killed during this defenestration of Leuven.
• In 1383, Bishop Dom Martinho was defenestrated by the citizens of Lisbon, having been suspected of conspiring with the enemy when Lisbon was besieged by the Castilians.
• On April 26, 1478, after the failure of the "Pazzi conspiracy" to murder the ruler of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici, Jacopo de' Pazzi was defenestrated.
• In 1572, French King Charles IX's friend, the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny, was killed in accordance with the wishes of Charles' mother, Catherine de' Medici. Charles had allegedly said "then kill them all that no man be left to reproach me." Thousands of Protestants were killed in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre after soldiers attacked Coligny in his house, stabbed him, and threw him out the window.
• On the morning of December 1, 1640 in Lisbon, a group of supporters of the Duke of Bragança party found Miguel de Vasconcelos, the hated Portuguese Secretary of State of the Habsburg Philip III, hidden in a closet, killed him and defenestrated him. His corpse was left to the public outrage.
• The Revolutions of 1848 led to unrest in the German states. When an agitated crowd forced their way into the town hall in Cologne on March 3, two city councillors panicked and jumped out of the window; one of them broke both his legs. The event went down in the city’s history as the "Cologne Defenestration".
• During the Polish January 1863 Uprising, Russian troops maliciously threw Frédéric Chopin's piano out of a second-story apartment. The incident was famously memorialized in Polish poet Cyprian Norwid's poem, "Chopin's Piano." The composer had left Warsaw and Poland forever shortly before the outbreak of the November 1830 Uprising.
• On June 11. 1903 a group of Serbian army officers murdered and defenestrated King Aleksandar and Queen Draga.
• In 1922, Italian politician and writer Gabriele d'Annunzio was temporarily crippled after being pushed out a window by an unknown assailant.
• In 1941, Murder, Inc informant Abe "Kid Twist" Reles fell to his death from a window on the sixth floor of the Half Moon Hotel on Coney Island, on the eve of his scheduled testimony. The angle of trajectory suggests that he was defenestrated rather than trying to flee.^{[citation needed]}
• On March 10, 1948 the Czechoslovakian minister of foreign affairs Jan Masaryk was found dead, dressed in his pajamas, in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry below his bathroom window. The initial investigation stated that he committed suicide by jumping out of the window, although some believe that he was murdered by the ascendant Communists (see Czech coup).
• In 1968, the son of China's former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, Deng Pufang, was thrown from a window by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.
• Shortly before midnight on December 15, 1969, the Italian anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli was seen falling to his death from a fourth floor window of the Milan police station.
• On February 2, 1970, Time magazine reported that Odie R. Seagraves, the "big-time wheeler-dealer" Texan businessman, had died aged 83 by "defenestration from an eighth floor hotel room, in Dallas." At the time of his death, it is said that he was completely broke having made and lost $20 million in natural gas speculation.^[2]
• On March 2, 2007 Russian investigative journalist Ivan Safronov, who was researching the Kremlin's covert arms deals, fell to his death from a fifth floor window. Friends and colleagues discount suicide as a reason and an investigation was opened looking into possible "incitement to suicide".^[3]
• In 2007 in Gaza, Hamas killed two Fatah supporters by defenestration.^[4]

Defenestrations in fiction

• In 18th century fictional works of the Marquis de Sade, defenestrations are a common event. They are less gruesome than many of the atrocities in his works, but they are typically lethal.

• In 1926, American writer Nella Larsen ended her novel "Passing" with a person leaving a building via a window; whether this is a defenestration depends on one's interpretation of the novel's characters and events.
• In the 1992 movie, Batman Returns, Max Shreck shoves Selina Kyle out of his company window after she discovers his plan to build a power station and drain Gotham of its electriciy.
• In 1997, Brian Goggin and a team of artists create an absurdist site-specific art installation on two sides of an empty four-story building at the corner of Sixth and Howard Streets in San Francisco entitled "Defenestration", which depicted seemingly animated furniture apparently leaping out the windows and off the parapet.
• In the 2005 film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith the Jedi Master Mace Windu is defenestrated by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious after he is incapacitated by Anakin Skywalker by means of cutting off his hand.
• In the 2006 film The Departed, Captain Queenan is defenstrated by Frank Costello's men as he's trying to cover the escape of undercover officer Billy Costigan. Costigan is horrified when Queenan lands right next to him.
• In the television show Dark Angel, Duvalier comments to a man he is about to throw out a window, "Know what the word “defenestration” means?", to which the man haplessly replies, "Isn’t that when you cut all the trees down?".
• In the television show Lost, Locke is defenestrated by his father out of a window 80ft above ground. He survives but his back is broken, leaving him paraplegic. His ability to walk is miraculously regained when he arrives on the mysterious island.^[5][6]
• In the 1995 movie Braveheart. Edward Longshanks throws his son's homosexual lover out of the castle window.
• The 1986–1987 Graphic Novel Watchmen opens soon after the superhero Comedian has been thrown out of his apartment window. The 2009 movie of the same name features this as the opening scene.
• In the 1984 action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop, main character Axel Foley, played by Eddie Murphy is defenestrated by a group of men out of a ground floor window for trespassing.
• In the episode "Catalysts" of The Spectacular Spider-Man, the opening starts with voice-over narration from Spider-Man saying, "The dictionary defines defenestration as the act of throwing a person or thing out a window." We then see Spider-Man flung out a window, to which the narration picks up again, "Really not my favorite word."
• In the novel Vineland, the opening chapters detail Zoyd Wheeler's self-defenestration, an annual event he re-enacts to retain his public benefit.
• In the Simpsons episode “Double, Double, Boy in Trouble”, Bart switches places with a rich boy who looks just like him. Lisa figures it all out because the new Bart is too nice and intelligent. She slaps the imposter and makes the claim that the real Bart would have thrown her out the window, to which the fake Bart says “He would have defenestrated you?”
• In the television show Heroes, Peter Petrelli is defenestrated by Sylar in episode "Eris Quod Sum". Also, in episode "It's Coming", Claire Bennet defenestrates herself to escape from Knox and Flint Gordon from Peter Petrelli's apartment.
• In The Emperor's New Groove, the titular emperor has an old man defenestrated for "throwing off his groove." The victim survives, apparently unharmed.
• In NUMB3RS Season 2 episode "Assassin", defenestration was brought up as a possible assassination tool.
• In the Calvin and Hobbes treasury "The Essential Calvin and Hobbes", Calvin recites a poem entitled "A Nauseous Nocturne," which describes the attempt by his nighttime monster to eat him. The poem ends: The monster, in his consternation, Demonstrates defenestration, And runs and runs and runs and runs away. Rid of the pest, I can now rest, Thanks to my best friend, who saved the day."
• Science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke wrote a comic short story entitled "The Defenstration of Ermintrude Inch," though he never tells the reader the definition of the word "Defenestrate."
• In the video game Def Jam: Fight for NY the protagonist is locked in a final battle with Crow(played by Snoop Dog) has the option of defeating the final boss by an act of defenestration.
• In 1991, World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Shawn Michaels defenestrated his soon-to-be-former Rockers partner, Marty Jannetty, during an interview segment hosted by Brutus Beefcake. Michaels hit Jannetty with Sweet Chin Music, then sent his Rockers companion through the set's plate glass window.
• In the 1991 film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Friar Tuck defenestrates the Bishop of Nottingham after weighing him down with bags of coin.
• In the season five episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled "I Was Made To Love You", a robot named April throws Spike out of a window when he tries to flirt with her.
• In a Bud Light television commercial that first aired February 1, 2009 during Super Bowl XLIII, an employee at the company's budget meeting is thrown through a 4th story window of an office building when he suggests to the group that to save money they stop buying Bud Light for every meeting.
• Death metal band Cryptopsy has a song called "Defenestration".
• Super-hero The Defenestrator, from the Hitman comic book series, carries around a window through which he throws criminals (and occasionaly policemen as well).

Scientific studies

In 1942 safety pioneer Hugh De Haven published the classic Mechanical analysis of survival in falls from heights of fifty to one hundred and fifty feet.^[7] De Haven's work on survival in defenestrations was instrumental in the development of the seat belt.

References

Look up defenestration in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.