Katte straightening sword
The Katte sword or Katte Richtschwert is a sword that Hans-Hermann von Katte was beheaded with in 1730 . Both the Brandenburg Museum and the Märkisches Museum in Berlin keep such a sword.
history
Hans-Hermann von Katte was a childhood friend of the later Prussian King Friedrich II and as such a confidante of his attempted escape to France in August 1730. As a result of his acquaintance, he was sentenced to death and beheaded on November 6, 1730 in Küstrin . At that time the executioner in Küstrin was a certain Heyl, who also acknowledged the usual payment for the beheading, which is documented by archival documents. Contrary to this receipt, the name of the executing executioner is given in Carl Hinrichs ' work "The Crown Prince Trial, Friedrich and Katte" with a certain Martin Coblentz from Beeskow . However , it is not uncommon for foreign executioners to be called in for execution and then paid out by the local executioner.
Today, two museums claim to have the original Katte sword.
The sword in Brandenburg on the Havel
The Knighthood Councilor Albert von Katte (1798–1869) from Roskow - Vieritz acquired an alleged sword of his ancestors for 20 thalers from the former officer Juckwer in Dirschau . Juckwer pretended to be a descendant of the Mittenwald executioner Carl Kühne, who allegedly carried out the death sentence on Katte. In the possession of the Katte family, the sword was kept in the Katte-Winkel in Vieritz, where it remained for several generations and was also seen and described by Theodor Fontane . In 1932 Albert von Katte (1887–1945) had to sell the estate and took the sword with him to Roskow. In 1948 the sword finally came to the museum of the city of Brandenburg an der Havel and is still there today.
The sword is considered a very good craft work. It is 1.09 meters long, 84 cm of which is accounted for by the blade , which is between 4.4 and 5 cm wide. It consists of steel ground on both sides. The hexagonal, 22.3 cm long quillons with spherical ends and the hexagonal, teardrop-shaped pommel with leaf chasing are made of brass. The handle is slightly thickened and made of wood. There are two inscriptions on the handle . On one page you can read: The gentlemen steer the disaster, I exequire their Endts judgment . A wheel aligned with the tip is shown below. On the other side it says: Whenever I pick up the sword, I wish the sinner eternal life. Both sayings can be interpreted as justification of the executioner for his actions. A gallows is chiseled underneath .
The seal engraving on the sword also shows three names. They are already mentioned in Theodor Fontane's “ Walks through the Mark Brandenburg . Oderland ”, but could only be made visible again during a restoration in 1983. Above is the name Ullrich , below v.Catt and finally Stelw . The two other names besides Katte can no longer be assigned today. Both the sayings and the names are engraved in a baroque script that was typical of the 18th century. However, the engraving of the names of delinquents on an executioner's sword is atypical, which has led to doubts about the authenticity of the sword.
Further doubts about the authenticity of the sword arise from the unclear history of ownership. Around 1730 there was no executioner named Carl Kühne in Mittenwalde, whose descendant the previous owner Juckwer had claimed to be in 1851/52. A Carl Kühn, son of the executioner Johann Friedrich Erdmann Kühn († 1748) is first documented in 1753, an executioner Carl Joseph Kühne can only be proven in Mittenwalde from 1817 to 1831.
The sword in Berlin
According to tradition, another guiding sword in the Märkisches Museum in Berlin is also the guiding sword Kattes. This sword belonged to the Brandenburg executioner dynasty Kauffmann, into which it had come through the marriage of Friederike Kauffmann with the Küstriner executioner Carl Friedrich Heil († 1803), a descendant of Heyl, who had accepted in 1730.
literature
- Heike Köhler: The Katte alignment sword. In: From gallows rope and hangman's knot. Lucie Großer Verlag, Berlin 1996, pp. 14-17 ( Die Mark Brandenburg. 22, ISSN 0939-3676 ).
- Heike Köhler: The von Katte family and the Katte guiding sword. History and background. In: Annual report of the historical association Brandenburg. NF 7, 1997-98, ZDB -ID 516174-5 , pp. 67-94.
- Gabriele Langerwirsch: The Katte Sword , in: Open Doors, Book 1: Five Romanesque brick village churches in the Elb-Havel-Winkel and their peculiarities , ed. vom Geschichtskreis and Marionettenbühne Kirchspiel Wulkow-West, 2nd edition 2000, pp. 89–94.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Claudia Nack: Brandenburg returns Katte sword. In: maz-online.de. December 1, 2014, accessed March 25, 2020 .