Break screw

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A breaking screw was used in the 16th century either the mechanical breakup of walls for grinding fortifications or forcing open doors.

Historical background

In 1553/54 the Nuremberg screw maker Lienhard - sometimes Bernhard or Leonhard - Danner (* 1497 or 1498 ; † 1585 in Nuremberg ) developed a special "break screw " with which walls could be broken apart and collapsed mechanically. This should facilitate the previously very complex and costly razing of the walls of castles and fortresses. The specific occasion was the disputes between Nuremberg and Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach in the Second Margrave War . The success of the break screw was so great that Danner received orders for numerous screws, which were subsequently found in the inventories of many armories of German princes and cities. Danner's invention was also called the Nuremberg screw after its place of origin.

Appearance and Effect

The function of the break screw is often misunderstood and is called a "siege machine". In fact, however, it can only be used within a fortification, i.e. in peace or after a siege. In principle, the break screw is an oversized, mobile vice, one end of which is leaned against an immobile resistance (rocks, piles driven into the ground, etc.) and the other end of which presses against the wall to be torn down. The centerpiece of the apparatus is a screw spindle which, as it rotates, exerts increasing pressure on the wall and is intended to bring it to collapse. Danner came up with the idea for this device while building printing presses in Nuremberg. In fact, walls up to five meters thick are said to have been thrown in with it. An illustration of this tool can be found in 1589 of the "Architectura von Festungen" by the Strasbourg fortress builder Daniel Specklin . In addition to the oversized versions of this screw, Danner developed smaller break screws especially for breaking the locks on doors and gates. Even today, people in Nuremberg remember the inventor Leonhard Danner, who achieved great fame in the 16th century with his break screw. Originals, copies or plans of Danner's break-screws can be found at Ambras Castle and in the Hohenzollern Museum on the Plassenburg .

swell

  • A colored plan drawing of a Danner break screw in original size from the 16th century is in the Landscape Museum Obermain on the Plassenburg in Kulmbach.
  • Specklin, Daniel: "Architectvra of vestibules like those in our times on sites, castles and claws on water, land, mountain and valley with their bulwarks Caualiren, strike, ditches and runs like erbawet ...", Strasbourg 1599.

literature

  • Adelung: Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect, Volume 1. Leipzig 1793, p. 1178.
  • Burger, Daniel: The state fortresses of the Hohenzollern in Franconia and Brandenburg, in: Die Plassenburg, series of publications for local research and cultural maintenance in East Franconia, Kulmbach 2000, p. 83 f.
  • Burger, Daniel: The Danner break screw. The tool for the destruction of the Hohenlandsberg and the Plassenburg in 1554, in: The end of the fortresses. Abandoned - Destroyed - Forgotten? (Fortress Research Vol. 1), Regensburg 2009, pp. 40–57.
  • Donndorf, Johann August: History of the inventions in all parts of the sciences and arts from the oldest to the present time. First volume. Quedlinburg and Leipzig 1817, p. 158.
  • Herrmann and Kupper, Christine: Quasi Centrum Europae - Europe buys in Nuremberg from 1400-1800. Nuremberg 2002.
  • Limmer, Fritz: Reports about the destruction of the Plassenburg in 1554 in the so-called federal or margravial wars. In: Messages from the Friends of Plassenburg Association 6, 1934.
  • Pierer's Universal-Lexikon, Volume 3. Altenburg 1857, p. 255.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maué, Herrmann and Kupper, Christine: Quasi Centrum Europae - Europe buys in Nuremberg 1400-1800. Nuremberg 2002, pp. 120-122.
  2. ↑ Mittler, ES: The Royal Armory: Guide through the Hall of Fame and the Collections, 3rd edition Berlin 1903 p. 228.
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.burgen-austria.com
  4. ↑ Donndorf, Johann August: History of the inventions in all parts of the sciences and arts from the oldest to the present time. First volume. Quedlinburg and Leipzig 1817, p. 158
  5. ↑ http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/ECHOdocuView/ECHOzogiLib?url=/mpiwg/online/permanent/library/SSM0YQED/pageimg&pn=9&mode=imagepath
  6. ↑ http://zieh-fix.info/de/html/dannersche_Screw.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / zieh-fix.info  
  7. ↑ http://www.stadtarchiv.nuernberg.de/stadtgeschichte/erfindungen.html