“Momma…Where do Landsknechts come from?”

[hsifeng]

Over the years, I have heard a number of creation stories for the originals of that mysterious creature, the US Landsknecht. As I started reenacting 16th C German in the Ren Faire scene, and in California, I have the specific idea that this group of young scallywags are to blame for all things “Germanified”, at least on the West Coast.

Comments

[kass_rants]

You know, they don't look half bad for a bunch of guys who didn't have access to the Internet!

The Landsknecht groups I know on the East Coast, one kinda inspired the other. And the older one (the Maryland group), their leaders came from California originally. I don't know if they did Landsknecht out there before they moved East, but it would seem that the phenomenon is spreading West to East.

[docryder]

We (sstormwatch and I) know a guy who left this area to go back there in the '90's. He was into the Landsknecht history. Wonder what influence he had...?

[hsifeng]

Chances are, if he is doing Germans with a group in Maryland, he's with Das TeufelsAlpdrücken Fähnlein. I have a friend who went back there recently, after a couple of great years with DHF down in SoCal, we recommended him to their care. But I think he went back to doing rendezvous - the man likes to shoot long rifles and wear a breech cloth. *chuckle*

[hsifeng]

I believe that anjabeth (author of "Deutsche Weibstrolle von Holle", the original how-to-be-a-German-campfollower handbook) was one of the co-founders of Das TeufelsAlpdrücken Fähnlein: The Maryland Germans.

I have seen the photographic evidence of anjabeth back in her California days. I think she did both RPFN & RPFS (although I think RPFS was her home event?), but I don't know what year was her first year in German's.

anjabeth?

[bedpimp]

Perhaps we should hunt down Don John. Even if he doesn't know the specifics, I'm sure he knows the people who did it...

[hsifeng]

It is very possible. One of the versions I know gives major credit to Carl and Elizabeth Ontis (I don't believe they were married at the time), and their friends at RPFN.

[ext_118772]

If anjabeth is known as Paula and her husband is Larry, then yes, they were influenced by the germans of Northern Ren Faire. It would have been the late 80s to about 1991/92 when work took them back east. They weren't there in "the" beginning because I think my participation predates them by a year or so and I started in 1986. (I remember them fondly and haven't been in touch so I miss them dearly

[hsifeng]

I am half tempted to follow up on this in greater detail. I guess the question would be, would the project do anything other than satisfying my own curiosity? I will get back to you if I decide to move forward with this idea. In the meantime I am just enjoying getting a sense of what people have heard “through the grapevine” over the years, and what those who were there remember.

Beyond California

[ext_118772]

Oh and BTW, I would be interested in Landknecht groups prior to anything we have been doing. I have a 1928 National Geographic that shows a group of men clearly dressed as Landsknecht. And I found this photograph of a 1910 shooting club in a small exhibit in Mühlhausen:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottm/79240635/

You know, the whole idea of Californians (and other Americans) having a fascination with the Landsknecht reminds me of how Germans have a fascination with America's Old West (largely based on the fiction of Karl May who wrote his stories before he ever saw the West). Perhaps we should find a German sociology grad student who would want to write a paper about such and odd phenomenon.

Re: Beyond California

[hsifeng]

"Perhaps we should find a German sociology grad student who would want to write a paper about such and odd phenomenon."

*THAT* would be so cool!

I was talking about this with a friend last night: I guess you would first have to define the difference between people who dressed up as Landsknechts as a part of town pageants and so forth (like people dressing up as Pilgrims for Thanksgiving) vs. those who dress up as a part of a larger living history experiance (those who dress up as Pilgrims to go work at the Plymouth Plantation as guides).

Re: Beyond California

[hsifeng]

Tiny...but a nice little score from eBay.de from Chris Triechel: