Shiels

Storm shields or storm walls (German: Setztartsche or Tartsche; Middle Low German: stormtharze) are large, man-high shields with a slight curvature that are wide enough to provide protection for two people and in whose cover crossbowmen or riflemen could comfortably reload their weapons.

Storm walls were fitted with iron spikes and support poles with which they could be safely erected (set). The shields could be carried with the aid of folding handles and the support poles. Many storm walls had one or more peepholes, some of which were reinforced with swivelling flaps or perforated plates to protect them from incoming projectiles. When assaulting enemy fortifications, archers could carry the storm walls on their backs with the two support poles over their shoulders in such a way that they had both hands free and were protected from enemy stone throws.¹⁾ In addition to relatively simple storm walls, there were also those with artistic, decoratively designed fronts, as surviving originals from Bohemia, Kaufbeuren, Erfurt, Prague and Ravensburg show.²⁾

No shields have actually survived from Hamburg; they were either not kept or were destroyed by the flames of the various city fires. However, there are written references from the accounts of the city of Hamburg.³⁾ These contain several entries on shields, which were listed here as "tarse", "tartze", "tarze" and "tharze". However, these entries do not provide any information as to whether the shields were mounted, hand or set shields. The entries at least reveal the city's expenditure on some shields, for example the treasurer calculated the following in 1350 "Ad balistas: … Pro tarsen 1 ℔"; 1361 "12 ß vor tharzen"; 1362 "Ad turrim: Domino Hinrico Crowel. Alberto de Ghellerssen. Ad reparandum unam novam tarsen 2 ₰"; 1364 "Ad diversa: Ad reducendum de Lubek quedam instrumenta per Rumelive, videlicet tartzen, balistas, ollas, caldaria et alia diversa instrumenta. 10 ß pro 1 balista amissa" und 1365 "8 ß Alberto Middeneuntwey pro una tharzen".³⁾ In the Hamburg Burspraken, which were written in Middle Low German, in which the city council regularly proclaimed laws and ordinances in public, they were referred to as "schild" or "schilt" in at least seven Burspraken during the 15th century.⁴⁾ Here the city council of Hamburg regularly determined which citizens had to keep shields ready for the defence of the city, but even these entries provide no information about their type and size. The relevant section of the Petri-Bursprake from 1436 is reproduced here as an example:

"So buth de raed, dat eyn iewelick erfsetene borger, renteneer vnde cop man schal syn harnsch vnde were heb ben vnde heb ben dar to schilt, hoed vnde eyn gued armborst mid enen hundert verdiges schotes. De jungen bruwere, de neen eghen erue hebben, vnde eyn iewelick amptman, de sines sulues is, schal tome mynsten yo hebben schilt, hoed, armborst vnde eyn halfhundert verdiges schotes."⁵⁾

In contrast, explicit mentions of storm tarts come from entries in the Tresslerbücher (accounts books) of the Teutonic Order, where in 1405 it issued "… 2½ m. for 23 stormtarczen zu bessern …" and just one year later, in 1406 "… 10 m. an 8 scot for 150 stormtarcze zu bessern yo vor schilde 4 sch[illing]". The separate mention of "stormtarczen" (storm shields/walls) and "schilde" (shields) leads to the conclusion that the former were large setting shields or storm walls.⁶⁾

Reconstruction

Originals

When making our tartsche, we modelled the dimensions, structure and metal fittings on those of the tartsches in the Bernisches Historisches Museum¹⁾, the painting was modelled on the storm walls in the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen, the Erfurt storm shields⁷⁾, as well as from Wiener Bürgerlichen Zeughaus (former Vienna Burghers Arsenal).⁸⁾⁹⁾ Wegeli describes no less than ten Bernese storm walls, these have heights of 195 to 200 cm, widths of 88 to 97 cm and peepholes of approx. 10 cm edge length. Their weights range from 24 to 29 kg. They all have iron, swivelling flaps in front of the peepholes, iron handles, stand tips and fittings for support poles. Their core consists of fir wood beds with a cross strap. Glued on top were layers of tow, fabric and occasionally leather. The front sides of two storm walls were black, the others are unpainted.¹⁰⁾ The most detailed work on historic storm shield or storm walls to date was published by Martin Siennicki in 2020 as part of his diploma thesis. He not only provides an extensive historical outline, a wealth of primary sources, preserved originals, including descriptions, but also a meticulously detailed examination of a Kaufbeuren original, including its exact reconstruction.¹¹⁾

Reconstruction

The body of our Tartsche consists of eleven spruce boards. In order to achieve an even curvature, we first planed the ends of the boards at an angle. The boards were then glued together and braced against each other and the supporting structure to dry. After a week's drying time, the front was roughly sanded, the four corners rounded and the shield body thinned towards the edges. In the next step, a layer of tow was glued to the front and back with hide glue across the grain of the wood. The peephole was then sawn out. A layer of linen fabric was glued to the back and the protruding edges were folded over to the front. This was followed by a layer of linen on the front, the protruding ends of which reached far onto the back. A second layer of linen was then glued to the back and folded over to the front. Finally, the front was given a last layer of finer linen fabric, the ends of which were folded back and glued. After drying for several weeks, several layers of chalk primer were applied to both sides. The reverse side was painted in a single colour with red egg tempera. Before varnishing, a coloured print of St. Barbara and a painted label with our coat of arms of the parishes of St. Peter and St. Pauli were glued to the back and painted on both sides with linseed oil varnish. The iron fittings: Timm Esemann had forged the flap for the peephole, the carrying handle, the tips and the fittings for the poles. These were riveted on by Bastien Lhuissier in his forge. Finally, the Tartsche got a further coat of linseed oil varnish as weather protection..

We chose a wild man as the motif for the obverse, a popular motif of its time, to which ambivalent characteristics were attributed, some of which date back to pre-Christian times. On the one hand, wild men were considered primitive, primitive, wild and strong, while on the other hand they embodied innocent life, overcoming the threat of nature and symbolised traditional archaic stages of development, but also the longing for lost paradisiacal ideals. A concept which, by today's standards, comes closest to "in harmony with nature", but which was largely incomprehensible to historical people. This commonality made wild men popular heraldic emblems. Our wild man wields a club in his right hand and rests his left hand on the shield of Hamburg. The motto in the banner: "dex[tra] domini fecit virtutem", roughly: The right hand of the Lord did mighty things, comes from a Gregorian offertory from the 9th-12th century and goes back to Psalm 117 verse 16 of the Bible. The motto can be found in this form on the pommel of a kidney dagger from around 1450, presumably from northern Italy, from the Baumann Collection in the Rothenburg Museum, Rothenburg o.d. T. (Bavararia, Germany).¹²⁾

As construction progressed, the weight of our tartsche gradually approached the weights of the Bernese tartsche described by Wegeli. Unfortunately, Siennicki's work on the construction and reconstruction of a Kaufbeuren tartsche only reached us after our shield on the relevant construction sections had already been completed for some time. Fortunately, however, it turned out that we were on the right track with our thoughts on our reconstruction attempt in comparison with his research results. In contrast to our construction, the Kaufbeuren specimen was made of two glued and fire-bent boards, the lamination consisted of beaten animal sinew and the covering of rawhide.¹¹⁾

The completion of the Tartsche took over ten years for several reasons: on the one hand, there was no vehicle in which it could have been transported due to its dimensions, on the other hand, a suitable opportunity was needed to continue painting the face and other details of the front motif, then it would not have been ready in time for suitable events, and finally there was a lack of motivation from outside to finish it endlessly. In the end, all concerns were put aside and the work was completed for the tenth anniversary of the Bummsbrigade Hamborch in September 2023.

With the two support poles and the iron tips, the tarp can be positioned securely and firmly. With the help of the carrying handle and the support poles, the tarp can be carried comfortably by one person by lifting the tarp by the handle with one hand, supporting it against the back and guiding it by the support poles with the other hand.

References

1. Wegeli (1920)
2. A Bohemian tartsche from a 1994 art auction, now in private ownership; Erfurt tartsche in the Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg, Metropolitan Museum of Art New York; Praque shiels at Musee de'l Armee Paris and the cities museum Prag; Ravensburg shields at Dänischen National Museum Copenhagen, the former Berlin Armoury Inv. 8936 (lost aber WWII) or the Koninklijk Museum van het Leger en van de Krijgsgeschiedenis Bruxelles.
3. Kämmereirechnungen der Stadt Hamburg: 1350-1400)
4. Bolland (1960)
5. Bolland (1960): 17.27
6. Engel (1897): S. 197-198
7. Horn (2019)
8. Mayr, Steinkellner (1977)
9. Singer (1980)
10. Wegeli (1920): S. 14-17
11. Siennicki (2020)
12. Baumann (2010): S. 592

Curreny symbols: ℔ talentum (Poound) / ß solidus (Shilling) / ₰ denarius (Penny)

Text: Andreas Franzkowiak
Photos: Andreas Franzkowiak, Andreas Vollborn-Rahn