| The Official Newsletter of Das TeufelsAlpdrücken Fähnlein. Published monthly, or whenever I get around to it. Any opinions contained herein are strictly my own, as are any typographical errors. For external use only - but you may read this inside. Entire contents copyright 1996 by Paula Peterka, unless otherwise noted or authored. Yeah, like you'd WANT to steal anything out of here! Prices shown for comparison only, options extra. |
| Volume 3 | Issue 4 |
Date Unknown | |
Marching Through Time at Marietta Mansion took place on April 13 & 14, 1996. The weather was perfect, the re-enactors were friendly, and the crowds were enthusiastic. This was a timeline event, and many of the groups who were at MTA also came to MTT. We fielded 15 members for the event, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
Our camp has grown steadily since its first appearance at Marietta two years ago. This year we boasted three pavilions, a cook's tent, a woven lean-to, a sapling dome frame shelter, and more gear than you could shake a stick at! Our camp seemed to be fairly popular, attracting a steady stream of interested visitors throughout both days.
Highlight's of this year's event included continuing plans to bathe Heidel in the large cauldron, (Didn't actually do it, though. Maybe next time.), Mike, Don, and Tim, all in full armor, "taking a walk" to help security deal with the "loony-tunes" patron, the premiere of Derek Schleicher (Mattias), new Pikeman extraordinaire, the unit's "Coming of Age" by being refused service at the Horn and Horn smorgasbord on Saturday night, (the Leutnant says you're not a real reenactment unit until you've been kicked out of at least one restaurant/bar), and, of course, Sunday morning's Battle at the End of Time, which featured the War of 1812 Grenadiers hurling oranges and dirt-filled plastic Easter eggs at the Scottish Jacobite line, and Paula (Anjabeth) single-handedly killing four American Civil War soldiers who were flanking the Landsknecht unit, but weren't paying any attention to the campfollowers!
In addition to the reenactments on Saturday and Sunday, Marietta also hosted local elementary school groups on the site on Friday, in order to promote the event to the community. Larry (Hauptmann Manferd), Mike (Heinrich), Charlie (Gunther), Kellie (Danica), Jen (Heidel), and Linda (Wilhelmina) came out on Friday to talk to the children and their teachers, which was greatly appreciated.
The meal fee for this event was $7.00 per person. Those of you who still haven't paid (and you know who you are), need to get your money to Paula as soon as possible. The groceries were not paid for from unit funds, but came out of Larry & Paula's pocket. 'Nuff said.
Everyone worked well together during this event, and hopefully had a lot of fun. Things seemed to flow very smoothly during the day, thanks, perhaps, to the practice gotten at Jamestown and Winter Campaign. The unit commanders were very pleased with the group, saying that everyone had "done a very good job", and thanking them for all their efforts.
Yes, even the Landskonnections staff makes mistakes. In addition to the numerous typographical errors in last issue, the May calendar erroneously listed the Pennsylvania Musterung as taking place on MAY 18 & 19. It is actually scheduled for JUNE 14, 15, & 16. We regret the error, and apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused.
The first monthly drill practice went well, with 10 members attending. These practices are designed to give everyone more opportunities to get together, work on characters and group interactions, and practice with the pikes and other weapons. By having these practices in costume (if possible) and in public parks, we also hope to recruit more members, and get more publicity for the group.
They are scheduled for the third Sunday of the month, which means that the next one will be held on May 19, and will begin at 1:00 p.m. The site for this practice is Lake Elkhorn park, in Columbia, Maryland. We will met at Steve Denz's house at 12:30 p.m., and then troop over to the park. If you arrive late, directions to the park will be posted on the door. We plan to drill from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., and hold a business meeting from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., after which we will head out to dinner. There are plenty of restaurants in the area, including McDonald's, Bob Evans', and the Olive Garden.
We will move the sites every month, so if you know of a suitable park in your area where the unit will have room to drill and attract attention, call one of the unit commanders to let them know.
The practices are not mandatory, but it will be helpful to have as many members as possible attend. Additionally, for the purposes of these practices, and to allow the unit to practice a wider variety of tactics, the campfollowers will be able to learn and practice the pike drills with the soldiers, if they wish. Last month's practice was very sucessful, and the soldiers and campfollowers showed a marked improvement by the end of the afternoon.
Don't Let the Parade Pass You By!
At the ad hoc meeting after our last drill practice, the unit decided to participate in both the Hyattsville Parade on May 11 and the Brentwood Parade on June 1. These parades will provide good exposure and publicity for the unit, and might even garner us a few recruits.
The Hyattsville 110 Anniversary Parade will begin at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 11. We will form up in the staging area at 4307 Jefferson Street at 11:30 a.m.. The Award Ceremony will take place at approximately 3:30 p.m. near the Community Center in Magruder Park.
The Brentwood 74th Anniversary Parade will begin at take place on Saturday, June 1. We will form up in at the corner of Windom Road and 34th Street at 9:00 am. Trophies will be awarded in a number of categories. Further information on the Brentwood Parade was not available at press time, so unit members will be contacted when it is received. If you can march with the unit, please call Larry, Drew, or Paula as soon as possible, so that we can get an accurate head count.
Additionally, we are discussing whether we want to participate in the Takoma Park Fourth of July parade, which offers a prize of $100.00 for first place in the costumed group category. If you know of any community historic or heritage events in your area that would be good opportunities for publicity and recruiting (especially recruiting), please let the officers know about them. The unit is always in need of new members, particularly soldiers.
The next business meeting will be held on Sunday, May 19, after the drill pactice at Lake Elkhorn Park (see related article). It will begin at approximately 4:00 p.m. Items to be discussed include upcoming events (including the Maryland Renaissance Festival), unit trips to educational places (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Higgens Armory, etc), group goals for the remainder of the year, and the unit bugdet and upcoming purchases. This will be an important meeting, so please plan to attend.
The unit received another very nice letter from Paul Zona (Herr Derek) of Der Sonnen von Krieg, pointing out the error on our May calendar (see above Landskorrection), and expressing his hopes that some of us would join him and his unit at their second Landsknecht Musterung, June 14-16.
Although many unit members have expressed an interest in going, at press time, only Mike, Larry, Paula, Drew, Bob, Barbara, and Joe have indicated that they will attend, and only Mike has turned in the camping fees. In order to accomodate any Landsknechts who are running late, Paula will delay sending in our group registration until May13, after the Hyattsville parade. If you want to attend with the unit, you must get your money to Paula by then.
The Musterung is sponsored by the SCA Shire of Eisenthal, in their East Kingdom. It will be held at the Ukrainian Homestead in Lehighton, Pennsylvania. The site opens at 4:00 p.m. Friday and closes on 3:00 p.m. Sunday. This event will include a rattan tournament emphasizing Zweihänder and Polearms, an Archery range, an Arts & Sciences competition (including a codpiece contest), a merchant's area, and a swimming pool. Unfortunately, no gunpowder is allowed on the site, so they will not be able to fire their cannons and arquebuses, but they have said they would like us to do a pike demo if we have enough people. The food plan includes a buffet breakfast and a lunch sideboard Saturday, a feast limited to 125 Saturday evening, and a hot breakfast Sunday morning. The fee for this event is $18.00 for both nights, and $11.50 for one night or a day-trip. This should prove to be a fun event, and give us yet another chance to hobnob with fellow Landsknechts.
Drew has requested that all members pay their yearly dues by April 30. By May 31, the membership lists will be revised, and anyone who hasn't paid their dues will be dropped from membership, unless they have made prior arrangements. They will also be dropped from the mailing list. This will not affect anyone on the "Friends" list, who receives complimentary issues, or those who pay for newsletter subscriptions only. Paying your dues keeps your membership current, supports the unit, and entitles you to all rights and privileges of membership. Dues are $20.00 for individuals, and $30.00 for families.
Connected to the 'Net, that is. Many Landsknechts are getting access to the Intertnet and the World Wide Web. If you have an E-mail address and wish to be on this list then send E-mail to Lpeterka@ids2.idsonline.com and you will be added. If you find any interesting Web sites, send their addresses also, and we will publish them.
| **NOTE** This is an OLD list. Most of these addresses are quite out of date. If you want to get on a current mailing list, please go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/landsknecht and sign up. Thanks! - The Webmistress | |
| Steve Denz | Croaker@Ichang.com* |
| Don Haithcok | Don@NS2.pgcc.net |
| Janet Gillis | Jgillis@nova.umuc.edu |
| Kender Green | Kender@wam.umd.edu |
| Larry Peterka | Lpeterka@ids2.idsonline.com |
| PaulaPeterka | Paula_Peterka@AirNSun.blkcat.com |
| Tee Morris | Teemonster@Aol.com |
| Victor Nazarian | VicNaz@Eworld.com |
| *(May change in near future) | |
| **NOTE** Again, these are old addresses. The current Official Page is at http://members.tripod.com/~DNR. I think that the Graf Museum Homepage is actually the Landeszeughaus in Graz, Austria. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a website for the Landeszeughaus. If you know the site please e-mail me. Thanks! -The Webmistress |
Weapons & Armor by Larry Peterka and Bob Kriner
We plan to make this a semi-regular column in the newsletter, in order to give some basic information about the weapons and armor with which we should be familiar. Other members or interested parties are welcome to comment or submit similar articles. This installment covers armor styles and the names of the basic pieces in several languages. You can tell many things about armor simply by looking it: the type of warfare for which it was designed, when it was made, and even its nationality. Figure 1. shows a basic time line for armor development. This is in no way complete, as there are many sub-styles and transition armors that are not shown. Our unit has just come from the Italian Campaigns of the 1520's. It is proper for us to have a mixture of armors: we are Mercenaries, we will pickup and use what we can.
The armor in Figure 1. dated 1515 is a very typical german style. It is called Maximillian or Maximillian Fluted armor. This was very effective, and therefore very popular. However, it had to be made for or fitted to an individual to be effective it. The distinctive fluting adds strength to the armor as well as decoration. Field grade armors, sometimes called munitions grade, follow the same styles as their more decorated counterparts, but tend to be plain in manufacture. These could be turned out in mass quantities to outfit whole armies in a very short period of time. This type of armor did not generally have pieces that required individual fittings. The armor that Tim and Mike wear are good examples of field grade German armor.
The armor in Figure 1. dated 1535 is the style towards which European armor is changing. We obviously would not have a suit of this type, since our unit is from 1529. However, we would have transition pieces: armor that has characteristics of both, showing how the earlier evolves toward the later. Larry's armor is a very decorative transition piece that is often called "Black and White" armor because of its black and silver finish. One of the distinctive things about German armor is its gorget (Kragen - See Figure 2 for the names in English and German) Germans for many years wore oversized Kragens with Spaulders (We don't have a good translation for Spaulders, However Spaulders are smaller versions of Pauldrons - (Achsel)) Because of this German Breastplates (Brust) tended to be lower cut, and were seldom worn alone. Breastplates were worn with either a Kragen, a mail mantle, or a mail capelet. It is acceptable to wear only a mantle or capelet of mail, it is not acceptable to wear only a Kragen. This does not start appearing in woodcuts until after 1550 and does not come into widespread use until the early 1600's. Because we are mercenaries, it is acceptable for us to wear older styled things, but it is impossible for us to wear future styles.
The armor that Don wears would be considered "old" armor. The breastplate (Brust) dates from about 1490-1500+, and is one of the styles that Maximillian armor replaced. This is acceptable for a pikeman to wear. Many old pieces of armor were reworked into newer styles or picked up and used "as were" by mercenaries when they looted castles and cities. Germans liked to decorate their armor, and many extant pieces have very detailed engravings on them. A popular motif was religious scenes. Some of these were done by the soldiers in the field, but more complicated decorations, such as chasework (Larry's breastplate), gilding, or inlays would have been done by a master armorer. Figure 2. lists many of the armor pieces to which I have referred, giving names in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. We would like people to learn the German words for many of the armor pieces and start using them. As we find other translations we will give updated lists. In future issues we will discuss helmets and other armor parts not covered here. We will also give some recommended reading for more information on a particular subject.
Figures 1. and 2. are from a small book on the history of arms and armor, from the collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We neglected to photocopy the title page, for which we apologize; however, it was originally printed in the very early 1900's, and is most certainly out of copyright by now. We hope.