Kuchenreuter
Kuchenreuter (sometimes also Kuchenreiter in the literature) is a traditional family from Regensburg , whose gunsmiths and weapons are well known in Europe.
history
The year 1640 is usually given as the company's founding date, and the family name is traced back to the town of Kuchenreuth near Kemnath ( Upper Palatinate ). The family later split into a Regensburger, a Steinweger , a Stadtamhofer and a Chamer line. The most famous representatives are Johann Jacob Kuchenreuter (1709–1783) and his son Andreas Jacob (1746–1814).
The Kuchenreuters customers included u. a. the Bavarian kings , the princes of Thurn and Taxis , Frederick the Great , Prince Metternich , Emperor Napoléon I , the Tsars of Russia and the Emperors of Austria .
In 1766 Giacomo Casanova used Kuchenreuter pistols in a duel with the Polish general Franciszek Ksawery Branicki and seriously wounded Branicki.
The weapons are also mentioned in Chamisso's poem Böser Markt from 1833, in Leskov's story Das Tier , in Karl May's Das Waldröschen and, above all, several times in the stories of the "Baron of Lies" Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Münchhausen . Today's Anton Kuchenreuter KG has its headquarters in Cham and has branches in Regensburg and Amberg.
Products
The kuchenreuterchen flintlock pistols , carefully crafted precision weapons, which were always made in pairs and in some cases according to the client's individual wishes, were particularly well known . Because of their high price, they were only affordable for the nobility and wealthy classes. The simplest models cost 34 guilders a pair in the middle of the 18th century, which was more than two months' wages for a master craftsman. Up to 165 guilders had to be paid for custom-made products. Accordingly, the Kuchenreuters manufactured only 20 to 25 pairs of pistols per year around 1800. In addition to pistols, shotguns , rifles and sockets were also produced. Meanwhile, Anton Kuchenreuter KG also sells fishing equipment as well as traditional and leisure wear.
literature
- Dirk Götschmann : The Kuchenreuter and their guild members: the Upper Palatinate gunmaking trade from its beginnings to around 1850 , Regensburg: Mittelbayerische Druck- und Verlags-Gesellschaft 1995, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-927529-70-2 .
- Alexander Freiherr von Reitzenstein : Kuchenreuter. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 161 f. ( Digitized version ).
Web links
- Official manufacturer website
- Family table
- Hans Peter Jobst: "Seal of quality saber-wielding rider - The Oberpfälzer gunmaking tradition of the Kuchenreuter"