German fencing school

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Paulus Hector Mair 16th century

The German fencing school is a martial art with European roots. Most of the preserved sources come from the German-speaking area. The heyday was between the 13th and 17th centuries. The German school of fencing includes fighting techniques with various edged weapons such as dagger , Dussack and long sword on the basis of unarmed combat techniques such as rings , in the historical context, fighting rings called. The German fencing school has had no living tradition since the late 18th century and is only preserved in the form of historical fencing books. A few exceptions are sport fencing , theater fencing and the scale length common in some student associations .

The so-called Towerfechtbuch Manuscript I.33 , which was written by a German monk at the end of the 13th century, is considered to be the oldest surviving fencing book . It describes the fight with the one-handed sword and the buckler in Latin . Fencing books appear in large numbers in the German-speaking area from the end of the 14th century. The authors are mainly in the tradition of fencing master Johannes Liechtenauer and following it geselschafft liechtenawers , no fencing books are narrated by the self. Well-known authors of historical fencing books are Hans Talhoffer , Albrecht Dürer , Johannes Lecküchner , Fabian von Auerswald , Paulus Hector Mair , Hanko Döbringer (a priest and probably a personal pupil of Liechtenauer, who created an extensive collective manuscript around 1389 which, in addition to explanations on fencing, among other things also contains metallurgical, medical as well as cooking and gunpowder recipes), Sigmund Ringeck (with a handwriting from the first half of the 15th century, first editor of Liechtenauer's fencing theory), Peter von Danzig, Paulus Kal, Joachim Meyer and Master Ott Jud.

A leading verse by Master Liechtenauer that is often quoted in fencing books:

" before still weak strong Indes / in the same words lead all art / master lichtnawers / and sint dy gruntfeste and the / core of all fencing c at the foot vein cto rosse / only vein in harnuesche. "

Another key verse of Liechtenauer, which reflects the classic values ​​of the knighthood of the 14th century: " Jung Ritter lere / got lip haben frawen io ere / So wechst your ere / Uebe knighthood and lere / art dy dich zyret and in krigen sere hofiret (fol 18r). "

There are now a large number of associations that deal with the reconstruction of historical martial arts.

See also

Web links

Wikisource: Fencing books  - sources and full texts

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Hans-Peter Hils: Reflections on the status of full-time fencers in the late Middle Ages, taking historical legal sources into account. In: Würzburg specialist prose studies. Contributions to medieval medicine, pharmacy and class history from the Würzburg Medical History Institute [Festschrift Michael Holler]. Edited by Gundolf Keil and edited by Johannes Gottfried Mayer and Christian Naser, Würzburg 1995 (= Würzburg medical-historical research , 38), pp. 201–219; here: p. 201.
  2. ↑ Trude Ehlert , Rainer Leng : Early cooking and powder recipes from the Nuremberg manuscript GNM 3227a (around 1389). In: Dominik Groß , Monika Reininger: Medicine in History, Philology and Ethnology: Festschrift for Gundolf Keil. Königshausen & Neumann, 2003. ISBN 978-3-8260-2176-3 , pp. 289-320.
  3. ↑ cf. Rainer Leng :  Sigmund am Ringeck. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 366 f. ( Digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Hans-Peter Hils: Reflections on the status of full-time fencers in the late Middle Ages, taking historical legal sources into account. In: Würzburg specialist prose studies. Contributions to medieval medicine, pharmacy and class history from the Würzburg Medical History Institute [Festschrift Michael Holler]. Edited by Gundolf Keil and edited by Johannes Gottfried Mayer and Christian Naser, Würzburg 1995 (= Würzburg medical-historical research , 38), pp. 201–219; here: p. 201.