Wilhelm Kreussler

Wilhelm Kreussler (* 1597 , † 1673 ) was a German fencing master and reformer of academic fencing in Germany.

Life

Tomb of the Kreussler family in Jena

Kreussler was the son of a village school teacher in Niederhadamar in Nassau. He learned fencing from the Marx brothers in Frankfurt am Main on 1618 and settled in Jena as a fencing master in 1620 , where he maintained a private fencing floor. In 1669 he and two of his sons were named the privileged royal Saxon fencing and exercise master, thus establishing the fencing master dynasty that continued until the beginning of the 19th century. By converting the hitherto mixed slash and thrust fencing to pure thrust fencing, Kreussler brought the student fencing art, which had fallen into disrepair in the Thirty Years' War, into a new system that was carried over to other university towns by his descendants. One of the essential elements of the reform was the reduction of the artificial ceremonial of the French fencing school to simple movements. For the parade he only allowed the blade, no longer, as in Italy a dagger or the wrapped left hand. Presumably he also further developed the rapier with a large guard blade , which had previously been widespread among students .

Kreussler's fencing method was passed on in several textbooks, including an experiment on counter-fencing on the right and left hand according to Kreussler's principles by Heinrich Friedrich Roux (Jena 1786), Karl Friedrich Bauer's instruction on shock fencing according to Kreussler's principles (1834) and the Kreussler shock fencing school by FRALW Roux (1857).

literature

• Henner Huhle , Helma Brunck: 500 years of fencing master in Germany: oldest privileged profession (= small writings of the Historisches Museum Frankfurt, 34). Kunz, Kelkheim im Taunus, 1987, ISBN 978-3-923420-08-7 .
• Christian Seemann-Kahne: The Kreussler in Jena. Vopelius, Jena, 1912, DNB 576143340 .
• Hans-Georg Kremer: Outsiders and eccentrics? The fencing masters of the University of Jena. In: Matthias Steinbach , Michael Ploenus (Hrsg.): Ketzer, Käuze, Querulanten: Outsiders in the academic milieu. Bussert & Stadeler, Jena / Quedlinburg, 2008, ISBN 978-3-932906-84-8 , pp. 40-54.