Streiff (horse)
| Streiff | |
 The stuffed Streiff |
|
| Race: | Oldenburg |
| Father: | |
| Mother: | |
| Mother, father: | |
| Gender: | |
| Year of birth: | |
| Year of death: | 1633 |
| Country: | Sweden |
| Colour: | brown |
| Equestrian: | Gustav II Adolf |
Streiff († 1633 in Wolgast ) was the warhorse of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden.
Streiff, a brown Oldenburger , was bought for 1000 Reichstalers. The average price for a horse at that time was 70 to 80 Reichstalers. The animal was named after Johann Streiff von Lauenstein from the Streiff von Lauenstein family .
On November 6, 1632, Gustav Adolf rode on Streiff to the Battle of Lützen , in which he was finally killed. Gustav Adolf planned a surprise attack on the imperial troops led by Wallenstein , who were on their way to winter quarters. The Swedish king personally took part in the attack and was shot in the elbow. Streiff was also injured by this shot: the bullet hit his neck. The horse then went through and dragged the king, who was injured by numerous other shots and stabs, a few more meters. Gustav Adolf ended up lying dead on the floor. Streiff survived the battle and was carried on the funeral procession for Gustav Adolf. He died in Wolgast in 1633. At that time his fur was prepared and stuffed; the stuffed animal was bridled and saddled with a velvet-covered saddle that Gustav Adolf had received from his wife Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg . The prepared animal has been in the Livrustkammaren in Stockholm since then . The ears and nose of the stuffed horse are damaged. This damage can be traced back to the fire at Tre Kronor Castle in the 1640s.
Streiff is considered to be one of the oldest extant stuffed horses in the world. The taxidermist pulled Streiff's fur over a structure made of pine wood. This framework is hollow; only the four legs are solid. Since the animal's fur was turned over and sutured at various points of intersection, the specimen is 146 cm lower than Streiff was during his lifetime. Carl Wahlbom recorded the death of Gustav Adolf in his painting Death of King Gustav II Adolf in the Battle of Lützen from 1855 . However, Wahlbom represented a different horse that, in contrast to Streiff, has a light mane and light pasterns.
A replica of the animal with rider is also in the Livrustkammaren today. Streiff can be seen on numerous illustrations of the Battle of Lützen.
Gustav Adolf on Streiff, Livrustkammaren Stockholm
Death of Gustav Adolf in the Battle of Lützen, painting by Carl Wahlbom
Streiff (photo from 1927)
Other preparations
The oldest preserved animal specimen in Europe, the Ingolstadt Swedish horse, was also a warhorse of Gustav Adolf II. On an exploratory ride during the siege of Ingolstadt on April 30, 1632, the horse was shot under him, whereupon it buried its rider under itself. Gustav Adolf was rescued unharmed, but his injured horse received the coup de grace . After the battle, the horse was brought to Ingolstadt as a trophy and stuffed. The horse of Gustav Adolf's competitor Wallenstein is also stuffed in Eger in the Czech Republic , and Napoleon's horse Marengo can be viewed as a skeleton in the Imperial War Museum in London.
Web links
- Information about Streiff in Swedish and numerous pictures ( Memento from August 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.evpfalz.de/presse/index_kibo07-44_lp3.htm ( Memento from December 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )