Wappner

Wappner (Latin: armed ) in the literal sense denotes an armed man, armed man, weapon bearer, coat of arms bearer.

Civil society

In heraldry , the Wappner or Armiger is someone who has the right to wear his own coat of arms or his family coat of arms .

Until the middle of the 15th century, when the term Junker became common, Wappner was therefore a synonym for noble servant , a noble, knightly , adult man who had not (yet) acquired the knighthood.

Military affairs

In medieval warfare, a Wappner was a knight's armor. Since he also wore the shield with the coat of arms of his employer, squire and Wappner were synonymous terms. Insofar as squires were almost without exception knightly boys or young men, this meaning coincided with the heraldic one.

In a broader sense, Wappner were nothing more than armed men who z. B. served on medieval warships. Also, the fighting as weapons slaves "serving Brothers" ( servientes ) of Templerordens were designated as Wappner.

City rights symbolism

Finally, the concept of the Wappner as a shield bearer was also used in numerous cities from around 1500 - such as B. in Augsburg , Bad Wildbad , Bietigheim-Bissingen , Leonberg , Weil der Stadt , Hildesheim - on the market square, often on the city fountain, transferred a statue of an armed man who carried the coat of arms of the sovereign and his rule over the city and at the same time symbolized the privileges of free trade and market protection granted by him . Such Wappner replaced the sculptures of a sword-bearing arm that had often been put up until then. The oldest surviving Wappner fountain is the so-called "Lindl fountain" from 1526 in Traunstein with the Bavarian coat of arms.