Cannae's helmet

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The Roman antique room at Erbach Castle . The helmet is in a showcase below the mirror.

The helmet from Cannae is a well-known piece of the antique collection of Count Franz I. zu Erbach-Erbach in Erbach Castle in Erbach (Odenwald) due to its traditional acquisition history .

According to legend, it is the only surviving helmet from the battlefield of Cannae (216 BC), a battle between the Romans and the Carthaginians under Hannibal .

The helmet was stolen by a servant of Count Franz I zu Erbach-Erbach on his second trip to Italy in 1791 on behalf of the Count for his collection from the Vatican Museums . This story is mentioned several times in the literature of the 19th century with regard to the preparation and execution of the art theft, and in some cases it is portrayed dramatically. The oldest written source on this is a story by Otto Müller , which was written before 1868.

The servant who is said to have committed the theft was the future forest advisor Friedrich Louis (* 1759, † 1846), great-grandfather of Ludwig Ganghofer . He also had other well-known descendants, such as Elly Heuss-Knapp , wife of the first German Federal President .

In the literature on Count Franz I. zu Erbach-Erbach , the origin of the helmet is not reported and its history is not discussed. It is difficult to understand to what extent the traditional acquisition history is about hunter's Latin , which - perhaps actually based on a story by the Forestry Councilor Friedrich Louis - was recorded by Otto Müller and passed on as a local legend.

literature

  • Ernst Franz: Forest Adviser Louis. 2nd edition 1959.
  • Otto Müller: The Cannä helmet . In: Humorous house treasure for the German people. Ed .: Ernst Eckstein. NF 6. Vol. Leipzig n.d., pp. 187-232.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Eckstein (ed.): Humorous house treasure for the German people . NF 6. Vol. Leipzig n.d., p. 186.
  2. ↑ On his person see: Ernst Franz: Forstrat Louis.
  3. ↑ Ludwig Ganghofer writes about him in his memoir, Lebenslauf eines Optimisten, Chapter 1 ( Memento from January 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ): “As a young Jägermeister, my great-grandfather helped his count, who at that time was still an imperial master and a fanatical collector of antiques , kidnap the legendary helmet of Hannibal in Rome from the Vatican. Otto Müller, who was told the story of the Odenwald by the aged forest adviser Louis, has turned this bold adventure, balancing death and grotesque humor, into an exciting novel: 'The helmet of Cannä'. But a good part of this book may well have been fabulous. "
  4. ^ Friedrich Höreth: The circle of relatives and friends around Friedrich Louis . In: Ernst Franz: Forstrat Louis . S, 6.
  5. ↑ See: L. Ferdinand Dieffenbach: Count Franz zu Erbach-Erbach. A picture of life and culture from the end of the XVIII. and the beginning of the XIX. Century . Darmstadt 1879; Eduard G. Anthes : The antiquities of the Graeflich Erbach-Erbachischen collection to Erbach i [m] O [denwald]. Darmstadt 1885.
  6. ↑ Title mentioned: Ernst Eckstein (Ed.): Humoristic house treasure for the German people . NF 6. Vol. Leipzig n.d., p. 186.