Weckschnapp

The name comes from a gruesome Cologne legend. In the tower's prison chamber, the guards are said to have hung a "Weck" — a small loaf of bread — from the ceiling. Given no other food, the prisoners would eventually try to jump up and "snap" at the bread. In doing so, a trapdoor would open and drop them through a knife-lined shaft straight into the Rhine. Only one prisoner, so severely emaciated that he was thin enough to fall between the blades without touching them, is said to have escaped.

The tale was first written down in 1826 by the Cologne author Ernst Weyden (1805–1869), who recorded it as a short prose story from oral tradition.

The little Kunibert tower has been documented since 1446 and was linked to the main Kunibert tower by a wall-walk. Arnold Mercator's 1570 view of Cologne clearly shows the gate, tower and Ark. Because this tower standing in front of the city wall was unique in Cologne, it long served as a landmark for directions — from the harbour to the railway station "by the little tower." Street names such as "Thürmchenswall" still recall it. When the city wall was demolished, the Kunibert fortifications were torn down in 1895; the little tower survived and was restored by city architect Josef Stübben.