Piercing helmet

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Albrecht Dürer : Stechhelm in three views . Clearly visible are the straps and lacing with which the piercing hood worn under the helmet was fixed, as well as the long helmet nail screw for attaching the helmet to the back of the harness

A heavy tournament helmet from the 15th and early 16th centuries is referred to as a sting helmet , also known as a toad head helmet . It is also one of the heraldic symbols.

The piercing helmet was at the beginning of the 15th century from the bucket helmet out and was exclusively for piercing stuff worn, whereby a tournament armor for the joust or Gestech designated duel on horseback with a blunt lance is meant. It consisted of a crown plate with a recessed viewing slit, a particularly thick front helmet wall with the shape of a ship's bow, and a rear helmet wall with a detached rear part of the head. The helmet vessel reached sideways to the shoulders and protected the neck by the face plate extended to the sternum. In addition, some stinging helmets were provided with a hinged helmet window on the side, which was used for ventilation.

Due to its heavy weight, the helmet was originally strapped to the harness . In the late 15th century it became customary to attach the helmet to the harness chest with several screws and to the back of the harness with a so-called helmet nail screw . Under the helmet the rider always wore a lined hood, which is known as a piercing hood or a harness hood . This was attached to the helmet with leather straps and cords so that a certain freedom of movement of the head was guaranteed. The piercing hood reduced both the risk of injury from falls and lance impacts and the weight pressure on the helmet wearer. At the tournament, the head was lowered when approaching in order to be able to “target” the opponent through the viewing slit. Immediately before the lance hit, the head was raised to protect the eye area and to be able to make optimal use of the sliding effect of the helmet shape. The fact that this system by no means guaranteed complete security is proven by the death of King Henry II of France , who died in 1559 during a tournament in Paris as a result of a lance splinter penetrating the skull through the eye socket.

Under the government of Emperor Friedrich III. The stech helmet gained heraldic importance as a symbol of the citizen's coat of arms. With the emergence of the plank engraving around 1520, all older forms of the engraving and the associated equipment were displaced, but the stech helmet is still used as a coat of arms symbol to this day.

literature

  • Dirk Breiding: Harness and weapons of the high and late Middle Ages . In: LWL Museum for Archeology / Westphalian State Museum Herne (ed.), Aufruhr 1225! Knights, castles and intrigues. The Middle Ages on the Rhine and Ruhr. Exhibition catalog Herne, Darmstadt 2010, pp. 129–146.
  • Ortwin Gamber: Knight games and tournament armor in the late Middle Ages , in: Josef Fleckenstein (ed.), The knightly tournament in the Middle Ages. Contributions to a comparative history of form and behavior in chivalry, Göttingen 1986, pp. 513-531
  • Harry Kühnel (Ed.): Picture dictionary of clothing and armor. From the ancient Orient to the end of the Middle Ages (= Kröner's pocket edition. Vol. 453). Kröner, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-520-45301-0 .
  • Heinrich Müller, Fritz Kunter: European helmets from the collection of the Museum of German History. 2nd, expanded and revised edition. Military publishing house of the GDR , Berlin 1984.
  • Bruno Thomas, Ortwin Gamber: The Innsbruck art of armorer. Catalog, art exhibition from June 26 to September 30, 1954. Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck 1954.

Web links

Commons : Stechhelme  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brockhaus Konversationslexikon, author collective, FA Brockhaus in Leipzig, Berlin and Vienna, 14th edition, 1894-1896