You find this house sign on a Renaissance building in Erfurt, generally known as the Haus zum Stockfisch (House to the Stockfish). Today, the building hosts the municipal museum of Erfurt. [German]
House sign ‘Zum Stockfisch’
I wonder what kind of fish shows this sign. To me, it looks like a predator. But a stockfish isn’t really a species. It is just a term for dried fish, a popular commodity in earlier times.
The German text in the inscription below the depiction of the strange fish is pretty poetic and uses an old style.
‘Das Haus stehet in Gottes Hand zum Stockfisch ist genand‘
The house is in God’s hand, it is named To The Stockfish’