Lazy Mette
The Faule Mette , also called "Faule Metze" or "Faule Mettje" , was a giant medieval artillery used by the Braunschweig city defense and, according to a calendar published in 1714, "the largest artillery in Germany" .
history
According to the inscription on the giant gun, it was cast out of bronze in 1411 by the Brunswick piece caster Henning Bussenschutte . It had a length of 2.90 m, a caliber of 76 cm and fired bullets with a weight of 550 kg. The gun weight of 8,228 kg was proven to be exceeded within Central and Western Europe only by the 16,400 kg of the Dulle Griet (also Tolle Grete) from Ghent .
In peacetime, the gun was housed in a shed in the courtyard of the Martini church on the old town market . Due to its great weight, the cannon could not be moved on a carriage and consequently could not be carried on campaigns. It had to "... always lie at home unusable [...] therefore this gun was given the name of a lazy Mette or Mettje." Its enormous dimensions therefore served more to deter potential enemies or to break into enemy positions during sieges .
On August 23, 1550, the gun was transported from the Martinikirchhof to Michaeliswall, where it was used against the troops of the besieging Duke Heinrich the Younger of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . After successfully defending against the ducal siege, there is evidence that the lazy Mette remained on the wall for 100 years, until 1650, and was then finally brought to the Wendentor.
In 1787 the "Faule Mette" was finally melted down after firing a total of only 12 shots over the centuries, only five of them to defend the city. In peacetime she fired the last shot from Peterstor, which was near the former foundry. The occasion was the 200th anniversary of the Reformation in 1717. The bullet fired weighed 730.5 pounds and was fired with the help of 52 pounds of powder over a distance of 2,442 m.
Later calculations showed that the normal load of 33 kilograms was unfavorable for the gun. Therefore, the load was reduced to around 25 kilograms of black powder and lighter stone balls were used.
For the period between 1411 and 1421, a total of 94 such - but mostly smaller - guns have been recorded for Braunschweig. The “Faule Mette” is one of the historical “name guns” such as the “ Faulen Grete ” of the Elector of Brandenburg from 1414 and the “ Dicken Bertha ” or the “ Dora ” railway gun used in the First and Second World Wars .
Calls
The shots in detail:
- 1492: three shots at the enemy camp of Duke Henry the Elder
- 1550: two shots during the siege of Braunschweig by Duke Heinrich the Younger
- 1569 and 1616: two gun salute as a tribute for the Guelph Dukes
- August 18, 1650: two gun salutes at the celebration of thanksgiving for the Peace of Westphalia
- November 1, 1717: a gun salute on the occasion of a Protestant festival
- September 5, 1728: a gun salute for the 200th day of the Reformation in Braunschweig
- June 25, 1730: a gun salute to mark the 200th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession
technical description
- Type of gun: main rifle
- Gun class: giant guns (stone rifles)
- Design: Stone box in cast bronze
- Total length: 305 cm
- Weight: 8.75 t
- Chamber length: 124 cm
- Ball diameter: 67 cm
- Ball weight: 409 kg
literature
- Cord Meckseper (Ed.): City in Transition. Art and culture of the bourgeoisie in Northern Germany 1150 - 1650 , Volume 2, Stuttgart 1985
- Bernhard Rathgen: The Gun in the Middle Ages , VDI-Verlag, Berlin, 1928. ( online at archive.org )
- Christof Römer : Faule Mette , in: Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon, published on behalf of the city of Braunschweig by Luitgard Camerer, Manfred RW Garzmann and Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf with special assistance from Norman-Mathias Pingel, Braunschweig 1992, page 70, ISBN 3-926701-14 -5
- Volker Schmidtchen: giant guns of the 15th century. Technical top performances of their time. Part II. In: History of technology. Vol. 44, No. 3, 1977, pp. 213-237 (221-226).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Günter Jahn: The old town market in Braunschweig. History and stories , in: City Archives and Public Library Braunschweig. Kleine Schriften , No. 18, 2nd edition, Braunschweig 1998, pp. 33–35
- ↑ a b Schmidtchen (1977), pp. 224-226
- ↑ a b Bernhard Rathgen: The gun in the Middle Ages , "The Braunschweiger Mette von 1411", pages 274 ff. (Online)
- ↑ Cord Meckseper (ed.): City in change. Art and culture of the bourgeoisie in Northern Germany 1150 - 1650 , Volume 2, Stuttgart 1985, p. 866
- ↑ All information from Schmidtchen (1977), pp. 221f.