Armory of the Wartburg
The armory of the Wartburg was home to 1,867 to 1,946 a valuable collection of weapons from the 12th to the 19th century, the 16th century with emphasis. The total of 850 historical works of art were confiscated by the Red Army in February 1946 , brought to the Soviet Union and have since been considered lost.
history
Since the Middle Ages, there have been various rooms at the Wartburg near Eisenach for the storage and safekeeping of the weapons and armor required to defend the castle in the event of a siege, as well as for arming the knights and servants serving at the castle. A third group comprised the weapons and armor acquired for tournament combat as well as a collection of war trophies from the possession of the Thuringian landgraves.
With the rapid change in warfare and military technology after the introduction of firearms, the armories were supplemented by special rooms for the storage of gunpowder and grenades, so the south tower of the castle became the "powder tower". In the early 16th century, the growing threat from the Turks led to the reorganization of national defense in the Electorate of Saxony. Land weirs were established, the city fortifications and important castles were extensively modernized. The stables of the castle bailiff, located in a basement room of the castle bailiff, were converted under the guidance of builder Nickel Gromann as a provisional arsenal - hereinafter referred to as the "armory". A weapons inventory made in 1552 when the building was handed over lists, among other things, the stocks of fireballs, pitch wreaths, spears with iron, helmet bards and storm flasks. There are also 30 spaces for horses in the castle. The military crew of the Wartburg had to ensure that the weapons and equipment were always ready for action. In 1566, Matthes Stuzer was assigned to the Wartburg from the Gotha fortress Grimmenstein as "Gunsmith and Thorwart" . He was the first official administrator of the military stocks at the castle and was subordinate to the bailiff.
During the Renaissance period, extensive collections of ostentatious weapons were created at the European royal courts. These valuable objects were also collected in large numbers in the Weimar Ducal House. In 1801, Duke Carl August von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1757–1828) ordered “armor for both man and horse” to be brought to the Wartburg from the disbanded armory in Weimar . A directory from 1824 contains: falconets, flags and standards, cannons, rifles with old German and fuse locks, knight armor, balaclavas, horse armor and powder horns. From 1838, parts of the collection were exhibited in the Landgrave's room and the singers' hall. In 1841 Bernhard von Arnswald became the commandant of the Wartburg. He set himself the life's task of repairing and maintaining the valuable weapons. He also made sure that the new construction of Dirnitz by Hugo von Ritgen a representative, over two floors extending hall with high windows, wood paneling, Estrade, gallery and heating to accommodate the magnificent Grand Ducal arms collection was born. This hall was inaugurated in 1867. Hermann von Arnswald , a brother of Bernhard, continued his work as the successor in command of the Wartburg. He was followed in 1894 by Hans Lucas von Cranach , who scientifically processed the weapons collection and documented it with photographs. His pictures formed the basis for the standard work by Alfons Diener-Schönberg "Die Waffen der Wartburg" , published in 1912 . The ceremonial armor, horse armor, tournament armor, field armor, helmets, shields, rifles and crossbows all date from the 12th century, with an emphasis on the 16th century, to the cuirass and helmet of Grand Duke Karl Alexander in the 19th century. Some of the total of 70 armaments could also be assigned to historical wearers, such as Elector Friedrich the Wise , Friedrich the Magnanimous and other Wettins. It was almost exclusively German work, some of which came from famous workshops in Nuremberg, Augsburg and Saxony. In the 1920s, the armory's collection was supplemented by traditional flags of German regiments.
Hans Matschke, the then director of the Wartburg Foundation , wrote in 1990 about the armory of the Wartburg: “On February 8, 1946, these works of art were removed from their place and taken out of the country”. "The Wartburg Foundation has made repeated attempts in the past to find out the current location of the armory collection." "So it is only now (1990) possible to come out with our concern in the world and to search for the armory of the Wartburg with all available means". "The aim is to one day be able to present the armory collection to the guests of the Wartburg in its traditional location and in its old splendor." According to the state of affairs, the Red Army Trophy Commission confiscated the valuable weapons collection as looted art and brought it to the Soviet Union .
Today the former Grand Ducal Armory on the Wartburg is largely forgotten and is hardly mentioned in publications about the Wartburg.
literature
- Alfons Diener-Schönberg: "The weapons of the Wartburg" (based on photographs by Hans Lucas von Cranach). Historical publishing house Baumgärtel, Berlin 1912
- Rosemarie Domagalla: "The armory of the Wartburg". Small series of publications by the Wartburg Foundation. Druckhaus Dierichs, Kassel 1990
Individual evidence
- ↑ Max Baumgärtel (ed.): The Wartburg. A monument to German history and art . Berlin 1907.
- ↑ Hans Matschke, Director of the Wartburg Foundation, in the foreword to “The armory of the Wartburg”. Rosemarie Domagalla. Small series of publications by the Wartburg, Kassel 1990
- ↑ a b "New and old in the Wartburg Museum". "Eisenach online", April 18, 2008.
- ↑ VON Bai: "Missing Treasures". Welt online, June 22, 2005
Web links