Bremen rifle company
On the left a free marksman, on the right a budding marksman.
The Bremer Schützenkompanie or Schützenfahne ( Low German Schuttenfahne ) was a unit of the Bremen citizen militia with special tasks and privileges . It existed independently of the regular civic companies from the Middle Ages to the middle of the 17th century.
origin
The beginnings of the shooting range in Bremen are not known, but it goes back at least to the 14th century, when the Ratsdenkelbuch (a record of important documents and events of the city initiated by Mayor Johann Hemeling ) first mentions shooters . There is also a complaint from the tailor's office from 1375 that the riflemen were not performing their duties correctly.
Development of the rifle company
The company was made up of the young masters of the 14 craft guilds (also called offices in Northern Germany ) in the city - most of the men were tailors, shopkeepers, shoemakers and blacksmiths. A list of the rifle company from the 17th century counts 271 men in three departments :
- 29 free shooters with bow and battle sword
- 121 outgoing shooters , some with pikes , some with muskets
- 121 prospective or shooting shooters , all with muskets
The company was divided into several platoons, each led by an officer . The supreme command of the company was held by three riflemen or riflemen , the overall supreme command was held by the three bulkhead lords of the Bremen council . The company's alarm station was at the Brautzwinger on the Weser. The riflemen's flag was striped white and red in the Bremen colors .
The riflemen's costume consisted of a black robe with a row of buttons, black shoes with red heels and a wide-brimmed hat with a silver arrow on the side. The free shooters wore black stockings and a black sash , the outgoing and prospective shooters a leather gun belt and gray stockings. The shooters had to pay for clothes and weapons themselves, the ammunition and the shooting hat were provided by the council, the latter being renewed every three years.
Every Sunday a platoon of the company practiced alternately on the shooting range, which was initially on the Seilerbahn in Neustadt , from 1599 on at Tanzwerder on Werderinsel and later on Schützenwall at Ansgaritor. Failure to do the exercises or show up in a drunk state was fined. The duties and rights of the riflemen were regulated and frequently changed in numerous ordinances of the council, four times at the end of the 16th century alone (1573, 1588, 1595 and 1597), and in 1610 a new exercise order came into force for the company.
Sagittarius privileges
.jpg)
The riflemen were exempt from the guard and fortification duty, to which the members of the regular citizen companies were obliged. In addition, the shooters were entitled to compensation in the event of injuries. A special prerogative of the shooters was the hosting of a large shooting competition, which took place every year at Whitsun and was accompanied by extensive celebrations lasting several days.
After the service on the third day of Pentecost, the company, accompanied by dignitaries of the city, with music and flags, moved across the market square , where a volley of salute was fired, on to the firing range, where shooting began at 12:00 p.m. Before rifles and targets were used with the relocation of the Schützenplatz at the end of the 16th century, the crossbow was shot at the "parrot" or "bird", a target that is located at the top of a high mast, the so-called "parrot tree" ( Low German Papagoyenboom ). Whoever succeeded in shooting the target first was named “King”, received a new musket, a silver cup and was exempt from all taxes and civil work for a year. In return, he had to buy two kegs of beer for the shooting club. If a rifleman succeeded in “bringing down” the parrots for three years in a row - as the tailor Johann Schriefer once did - then the person in question would be exempt from all taxes for life.
The day after the shooting , the ensign of the company was elected annually . The appointment to this honorary position of the company was traditionally associated with a large banquet for the bulkhead lords and free marksmen, which the newly elected ensign in the Schütting had to host. The cost of such a meal was between 250 and 300 Reichstaler (but sometimes up to 600 Reichstaler). In the course of time, the company's celebrations were curtailed by the council in order to reduce expenses, which the riflemen - despite the relative prosperity of the guilds - could often only be covered by debt.
Use of the rifle company
The rifle company was considered to be particularly militant and brave. In times of war, the unit therefore formed the front and rear of the troops or was called in for particularly dangerous missions outside the city walls. This was the case with the siege of Bremen by imperial troops in the Schmalkaldic War in 1547 , when the riflemen stormed the hill near Walle , where the besiegers' headquarters were, and killed Jobst von Cruningen, one of the two commanders of the imperial troops.
The unit was also used in the First Bremen-Swedish War in 1654. The rifle company, reinforced by other citizen companies, was supposed to relieve the strategically important ski jump at Burg an der Lesum , which was besieged by the Swedes . However, the withdrawal of the troops was delayed half a day, which gave the Swedes the opportunity to take a position at Gröpelingen and cut off the route of the Bremen people, so that the attempt at relief failed. This was later blamed on Mayor Statius Speckhan but also on the rifle company, which caused the unity of citizens and council to fall out of favor.
Dissolution of the rifle company
Immediately after the First Bremen-Swedish War, the rifle festival was initially prohibited and ten years later, in 1664, the rifle company was finally dissolved and its flag was brought to the armory . Peter Koster notes in his chronicle of the Imperial Free Imperial and Hanseatic City of Bremen : “In 1664, but in May, the entire company was lifted and the flag was brought to the armory. At the time there was Ensign Magnus Pape, a shoemaker […]. The last king was Jasper Meyer, a miller. "
See also
literature
- Johann Hermann Duntze : History of the free city of Bremen. Volume 3. Heyse Verlag, Bremen 1848, p. 401 ff.
- Klaus Schwarz: Companies, parishes and convents in Bremen 1606–1814 (= publications from the State Archives of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Vol. 37, ISSN 0170-7884 ). Carl Schünemann Verlag, Bremen 1969.
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann Hermann Duntze: History of the free city of Bremen. Volume 3. Heyse Verlag, Bremen 1848, p. 402
- ^ A b Peter Koster : Chronicle of the Imperial Free Imperial and Hanseatic City of Bremen. 1600-1700 . Edited and edited by Hartmut Müller . Temmen, Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-687-5 , p. 272 f .
- ^ Adam Storck : Views of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and its surroundings . Friedrich Wilmans, Bremen 1822, p. 329 .
- ^ Johann Hermann Duntze : History of the free city of Bremen. Volume 3. Heyse Verlag, Bremen 1848, p. 406
- ^ Heinrich Tiedemann : Brief history of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen until 1914 . Salzwasser Verlag, Bremen 2010, ISBN 978-3-86195-342-5 , p. 21 .