Sutler

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Prussian sutlers in Nübbel during the German-Danish War , 1864 (stereoscopic image)

A sutler (of Italian mercatante or Mercadante , Nebenform to mercante , traders ' ) is accompanied someone that military troops and supplies the soldiers with goods and services for everyday, private demand. The term comes from the medieval military.

Sutler in the military

Early sutlers were found at the battle of Qadeš (also: Kadesch) between ancient Egypt under Pharaoh Ramses II and the Hittites under King Muwatalli II in 1274 BC. Mentioned.

In history , both male and female sutlers were naturally part of the entourage of ancient , late medieval and early modern armies . In the Middle Ages, almost every flag of the Landsknechte had its own sutler, who acted as a trader to supply the soldiers with food. Women often combined this job with prostitution . During the Thirty Years' War , the armies increasingly supplied themselves with looting, which often made the sutlers superfluous. Regardless of this, this profession also existed in later times, e.g. B. under Napoleon during the Russian campaign from 1812 to the First World War 1914–1918 .

In the Bundeswehr , the term sutler is used for mobile kiosks, which supply soldiers with sutler goods - sweets, newspapers, cigarettes, i.e. common kiosk goods - at military training areas. Goods (including cigarettes and spirits) that Bundeswehr soldiers can acquire duty-free as participants in exercises abroad and on missions abroad are also referred to as sutler goods. As part of these foreign assignments, the sutler also offers many goods that can be purchased in a normal shop in their home country (e.g. drugstore items such as shaving foam, shower gel and paper tissues). Since the infrastructure in an area of ​​operation is either not available or inadequate and the security situation often does not allow the individual soldier to shop at a market or bazaar, the basic needs of the soldiers are satisfied in this way. In this respect, the supply from the sutler plays an important role in maintaining the soldiers' morale. This is shown, among other things, in the fact that the marketers are now supplied with goods via the military supply route in order to ensure availability in crisis regions.

Sutlers

literature

In contrast to the general or male sutler, the sutler is a literary type . The figure of “Courage” has existed in literature since Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus novels . In Bertolt Brecht's play " Mother Courage and Her Children " , the title character accompanies troops as a sutler during the Thirty Years' War. In her Metz novel Die Katrin becomes a soldier, Adrienne Thomas also lets a sutler follow the army into the First World War, to the amazement of the girls working at the train station.

sexuality

A sutler is a female sutler. However, the word also stands for specifically female roles in the entourage , including prostitutes. The women who stayed with the army during the Thirty Years' War hired themselves almost exclusively as prostitutes. In the 17th century, women sutlers performing sexual services were commonplace.

regional customs

South Tyrolean music band, in the front row two sutlers on both sides of the staff leader

Today the term sutler is still used for women who accompany a marching or brass band and provide the musicians with drinks (mainly in southern Germany, Austria, northern Hesse, South Tyrol and Welschtirol / Trentino). In the Rhenish carnival , Tanzmariechen is called the sutler in some corps . The term "ladies of honor" is sometimes used for the sutlers in marching or brass bands.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Sutler  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arthur Görgey: Klapka. Leipzig 1850.