1595 Meister Lorenz Römer, Freifechter

Master Lorenz Römer was already an old man, when he came to settle down. He was a Freyfechter and entitled to hold Fechtschule - the fencing school and tournament. Next to his duty as a fencing master he was catching birds and selling them. He was remembered in a poem written at his death by Bartholomäus Ringwaldt, pastor …

1478-1523 Marxbruder Nicklaus Bruckner

Nicklaus Bruckner the knife maker, entered the house of the Nürnberger Zwölfbrüderstiftung on Monday 6th of November 1519. The Nuremberg Twelve Brothers Foundations had been a non-profit organization, which should allow the old and no longer capable of working craftsmen a well-supplied age in a monk-like community. There Bruckner died on the 5th of April 1523. He had been a …

1544 Fechtmeister of the Marxbrüder Ludwig Stollen of Mainz

The following open letter was made for the Marxbrüder Meister Ludwig Stolle of Mainz listed in the The Marxbrüder chronicle from the Cod.I.6.2o.5 for getting his Master tittle in 1532. The letter was given by Albert of Prussia (17 May 1490 – 20 March 1568), the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, who after converting to Lutheranism, became the first monarch of the Duchy …

1542 Marxbrüder Meister Caspar Steringer of Erfurt

The following letter of 1542 describes the regulation of the bout between two fencing masters in the 16th century of Brandenburg. One of the masters is listed in the The Marxbrüder chronicle from the Cod.I.6.2o.5 for getting his Master tittle in 1543. His name is Kaspar Steringer, he is a furrier in his trade in the city …

1561 Onophrius Sockh, a Marxbruder and veteran of war of Vienna

Onoferus Sockh was the owner of a house in the Krämergässchen in Vienna in 15644, later owned by Adam Forberg. And he was a member of a well-known fencing guild as we can see from his coat of arms. This coat of arms is to find in 1561 and in 1571 in the List of the …

1492 The signum of the Frankfurt fencing masters

On folio 1r in the codex I.6.2°.5 of the Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg we find a date by a year number "1491" and the title "Memmorj der Maister dess Lanngen schwerts jnn Franckffurt etc." ("chronicle of the Masters of the Long Sword in Frankfurt"). But the most remarkable is the symbol on this page, which looks like a very special key (link to …

1582 a bloody Fechtschule in Brieg, Brzeg

On page 24 in 1870s Wassmannsdorf "Sechs Fechtschulen" {1} he is largely citing a book of 1861 titled "Reisen und Gefangenschaft Hans Ulrich Kraffts" (1861). The book was released by the Litterarischer Verein of Stuttgart, Dr. K. H. Haszler. Starting from page 383 there is a description of a Fechtschul (fighting/fencing show) and it's accidents. This transcription …

Chronicle of the Fencing Guilds in Augsburg

Augsburg was a center of fencing activity like Nürnberg and Frankfurt. It's early fencing show (Fechtschule) tradition starts at the beginning of the 16th century and ends in the 18th century, when the fencing house was demolished. There had been two buildings connected with fencing in the city. The first is the famous "Tanzhaus" a …

1606 Regulation of the fencing in Breslau, Wrocław

It is reported that the Fechtschul (fencing school) was a big amusement, with high intense of emotions often ending in fighting and a brawl. Not very much differing from modern wrestling or boxing events, but a lot less civilized. Thus the city councils thought about not allowing or restricting the fencing schools. We have it …

1745 a Fechtschul of the Marxbrüder in Frankfurt

One of the late accounts of a appeal for Fechtschul is found in the "Vollständiges Diarium von der höchst-erfreulichen Crönung des allerdurchlauchtigsten, grossmächtigsten und unüberwindlichsten Fürsten und Herrn, Herrn Franciscus, erwehlten römischen Kaysers" by Jung, 1746. It is the description of the events surrounding the 1745 crowning of Francis I (Francis Stephen; 8 December 1708 – 18 …