Solingen is still the centre of the German knife manufacturing industry with companies such as Zwilling, Wüsthoffm, Böker. If you look at the equipment of any good chef, chances are he uses knives from Solingen. It's really fascinating how some town can retain its competitive edge (see what I did there?) in some specialized industry for centuries.
I'm from South America and knives with Solingen blades made at the end of the 19th century are still very well sought after to this day. Those have legendary status around here and can fetch some really high prices.
@@dundschannel Solingen is a town. connected to coal and iron mining areas. surrounded by forest and river landscape. it was only natural to develop the steel industry there. Krupp company started just few kilometer north from it. Also today Solingen is gone. some factories are left but they are mostly on support of tax payers and used German Steel imported from China and Russia.
@@jefreyjefrey6349 What are you on about? Of course there are bigger knife producers out there (e.g. Wilkinson Sword but they still have their German branch in Solingen). Over 90% of all German cutlery is still produced in Solingen though. Germany doesn't have any active iron mines anymore, of course they're going to import iron ore. Most of which is from Australia though. Mind you that while Germany does import all their iron ore, they are actually barely importing more steel than they are exporting. The EU is the scond biggest steel producer in the world after China.
@@Poggle_der_Geringere dont mind his bs... LUTZ Blades, Martor, United Salon Technologies, Wilkinson Sword, Wüsthof and Zwilling J. A. Henckels are still active in solingen and making big fking money without having that many employees...
Since the Fifties, German manufactures absolutely dominate the glider plane market. Schleicher, Schempp-Hirth, Glaser Dirks Glasflügel Grob and Rolladen Schneider pretty much defined the evolution of glider design. There were and are excellent gliders from other countries, but their impact on the international market never came anywhere near .
Hey Matt, why not come around to us in Solingen once in the future? Might be interesting to make an appointment with someone from Deutsches Klingenmuseum (Official German Sword/Blade Museum) there and have a chat. Could also become a nice fan meeting for western Germany 😊
If someone wanted a modest sized, but notable sword collection, finding three or four identical blades from different countries with different hilts and mountings might make an interesting display.
The modern kitchen knife companies Wusthof and Henkel both trace history to blade making from the era you are referring to, and are still based in Solingen. Wusthof is still in the same family as the founder.
Very interesting! Thank you! However, as a German historian, I would disagree that Germany only became a country in the 19th century. The "Old Empire" had a head, a constitution, a supreme court, etc.
All true, but that only matters if you assume that the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire founded in 1871 are the same state or nation or whatever you want to call it. There are arguments both for and against this hypothesis. What we do know for a fact is that Germany united in a single state under one administration existed since 1871. The Holy Roman Empire was completely different in terms of organization and also cohesion of state.
@@HH-hd7nd Never heard of that hypothesis. It's pretty clear that it's two entirely different states/entities. The Hohenzollerns however liked to think of themselves as continuing the German Empire in spirit since Austria was out of the picture at that point.
Thanks, a lot of foreign commentators really overstretch the point that "it wasn't *really* Germany before 1871". Although there was no unitary state, there was very much an understanding of what "Germany" was (after all, there had been a German king since ca. 900 AD and the HRE "of the German nation" since the 14th century). It makes perfect sense to speak of "German blades" without any asterik or qualification before 1871.
@@dxpsumma383 True, however I would be careful taking the existence of a title as proof of a polity existing. In the case of medieval Germany though we can make the point that there was a kingdom (at least during the 10th-12th century) that sometimes would be called something you could translate as "Germany". It mainly existed in opposition to Italy and Burgundy but would otherwise be pretty identical to the HRE at large. Geographically speaking there was no doubt that Germany "existed" since contemporaries used to call it that all the time.
@@Siegbert85 Even if not for the polity, the ppl still had a common understanding, the term "Deutschland" in it's more archaic forms already existed, the language commonly defining the german "realm" and "Deutsch" was a common nomer for the german speaking population within the HRE. The self understanding of a ppl through an established state is mostly an anglo saxon understanding, less a continental european one where nations saw much bigger breaks in the continueity of state systems.
And, of course, there were also plenty of German swords and sword blades imported into the United States and the Confederacy.. I've seen plenty of Model 1840 US Dragoon sabers and US Model 1860 Cavalry sabers with German blades. All 20,000 US Model 1906 cavalry sabers had German blades.
@@markjohannsen Nope, they didnt have the man power, the army of the Union was twice as big and then there were also the slaves that started joining the union.
There were a number of samurai who visited Europe during the Nanban trade period. At least one of them went to Solingen, and was GREATLY impressed by both the quality of the blades and the quantity of good blades. He supposedly claimed that the blades were superior to any produced in Japan.
You mentioned Solingen a lot, but maybe you should make a Video about the other famous place of sword production in Passau. The Passau Wolf sign was very common(and often copyied) on blades from the middle ages up to the 18 century
@@henninghesse9910 True, this certainly played a part in their decline. A profound research about the italian Ferrara blades would be also interresting.
Yes, got a NOS Emil Ern knife from the 70ies, gets scary sharp like a carbon steel knife. But long gone, todays producers are mere fraction of what was 100 years ago
When someone gets stabbed there's a saying" He got a postcard from Solingen" since solingen still produces knives and razors etc. I remember a report from thirty years war or later, been a while, where they made big shipments of blades to the scots and even etched or stamped something along the lines " may god protect the scots" in and after that also delivered blades to england. Pretty funny how business always the same. I remember that almost all scottish two handed swords that were examined in a report had german made blades. Some were from Solingen others from the Stantler.
Reminds me of another video where Matt showed us a bunch of his bowie knives, many from Sheffield. He pointed out that there are plenty of duplicate knives from the same maker, but the blades engraved with slogans from opposing sides of the US Civil War. "Okay Hans, we're done with 'god protect scots' now, switch the stamp to 'god save the king' for the English shipment."
Just going to show that the same *blade* can be hilted in multiple ways! Sometimes with the same dynamics and the same handling; sometimes with the same dynamics but being preferred to be handled (literally) a bit differently; and sometimes with even slightly different dynamics and just handled differently. The upshot being every application had its strengths, its weaknesses, in its contexts--and what (to its extent) worked ... worked.
They also dominated during the dark ages, the Frankish version of the Spatha and evolved through the end of the Viking era. The term Ferangi goes all the way back to then. Fun fact, in Thailand today European race foreigners are known as "Farang". Comes from same term.
During this historic period this term was also used for the French. Often in distinction to Germans. In Arabic Germany is called "Allemaniya" still today.
2:22 Prior to 1620 there were no quality sword blades made in England at all. That only changed when two swordsmiths from Solingen (Joseph Jenekes & Johan Kindt) moved to Hounslow Heath and opened a sword smithy there.
I've got a pen knife with 'Solingen' etched on the blade. Never knew this was a place with an important blade-making tradition. Not saying the knife is awesome because of this, but it actually is awesome. I've had it 30 years.
The German art of perfectionism! Also a few German inventions: - Incandescent lamps (Heinrich Göbel 1854) - The Telephone (Johann Philip Reis 1859) - The dynamo and tram (Werner von Siemens 1866) - The 35 mm camera (Oskar Barnack 1925) - Nuclear fission and atomic bomb (Otto Hahn - emigrated to the Americans during Nazi Germany - 1938) - The ship chart (Jürgen Dethloff and Helmut Gröttrub 1969) - Periodic Table (Julius Luther Meyer 1864) - Jeans (Levi Strauss 1873) - The recorder, player - with which the first films were possible (Emil Berliner 1887) - The Aspirin - Which all great athletes felt used to relieve pain, And which saved countless lives (Felix Hoffmann, Klausi Alder.. 1879) - Spark plug (Robert Bosch 1902) - Thermos flask (Reinhold Burger 1903) - the toothpaste (Ottomar Heinsius von Mayenburg) - The coffee filter (Melitta Bentz) - Cassette recorder (Fritz Pfleumer 1928) - Teabag (Adolf Rambold 1929) - The jet engines - Essential for all jets and rockets + First war rockets V1, V2 of the Nazis (Hans von Ohain 1929) - First rocket (in general, Hans von Ohain) - The helicopter (Heinrich Focke 1936) - The first car (Carl Benz - With honorary Schnauzer - 1886) - First Computer (Konrad Zuse 1941) - First 3D film (during the Third Reich) - Fanta (Yes THAT Fanta.. Also during the Nazi era) - The typewriter (Peter Mitterhofer - 1869) - NASA (actually the US buyed thousands of German engineers to build NASA because they can't do it themselves) The first letterpress Mashine (Which was probably the best invention of all time because now they could start printing books, Johannes Gutenberg - 1440) - the trigger of the gold rush (Johann August Sutter was a Swiss but actually German since he was born in Germany, but Swiss and German are one blood anyway, Who triggered the gold rush in America. Not an inventor but cool fact - 1848) Well, as you saw, the Germans changed the world with their inventions many times. Where we would be today without the German art of thinking. Germany the land of poets and thinkers - that's how it was known (Actually)
First German industrial (r)evolution really started in the 1550s and was water power based, with ever increasing size of bloomeries and water powered hammers to work the bloom into iron ingots and steel. Germany has lots of rain and lots of hill, and thus had lots of mills of all kinds already in 1500. Renaissance and Luther pushing for education accelerated things a lot. The iron bloom that could be produced in one go went from 50-100kg in 1500 to around 800kg around 1600. In some Austrian places, with the Alps providing lots of water in high places and thus potential energy, they reached 2t around 1620, with some outliers peaking at 4t (though those generally proved too big to economically produce and handle). Before Ferdinand I put in an embargo, Austria exported 1,5 million knife blades / year to the Ottomans alone. Scythes were produced in the hundred thousands in shops cutting the work into 40 distinct steps, modern factory style, with different workers using different water powered hammers for each step. The devastations of the 30yw (with destroyed production centers and worse, 1/3 of the local customers dead) combined with the little ice age (less precipitation, thus smaller snow and ice packs on the mointains, thus less reliable water overall) in reducing the size of furnaces after 1650 back down to the 800kg range that could be run with much less water power. Bronce producers in the Rhineland where already using coked coal as a resource, and simple steam engines did pump water out of Spanish silver mines by 1620. Without Ferdinand 2, the bungling idiot, the industrial revolution probably would have happened in GER, not in England...
I wonder what role the 30 Years War played in the big German export. The German states had massive demand for weapons, especially after Wallenstein massively increased the size of his armies. He equipped them by standardizing kit and having it mass produced. He also lowered the price by investing in machinery and infrastructure. Those methods were then copied by the other combatants. Would explain the price advantage and would nicely fit the timeline. But just a theory, I have no research to back that up.
Yeah but the 30 years war had devastating effects on the trade within the Empire - not surprising considering that millions of people where killed or died because of famine and disease. Between 4-12 million people died in that war, with some areas loosing as much as 70 % of their pre-war population. It's hard to produce great quantities of anything when population numbers are in free fall and on top of that armies march through the lands and requisition anything they want.
That Indian 'Farangi' Sword is beautiful, and even though you said its use in the Caribbean would likely have seen the blade mounted to a cutlass hilt, I kind of like the image of Blackbeard wielding that beast with both hands, after firing off his last shot.
WKC ( Weyersberg, Kirchbaum & Co) has bought some machines, when Wilkinson stopped sword produktion. Some years ago , after a long time, also Eickhorm started production of two sword types again, but i don' t know if they still do.
I am proud to live near the " Bergisches Land",with Solingen as the heart of knivemaking and blades in general. 3 things were importand for this industrial development. Coal, from the Ruhrgebiet /Ruhr area. Metal, brought by ship. And water, wich was needed for the forging-mills. ‐------ After your report, Im a little bit proud, to have that heritage.... 🙂
Perhaps it's also partly a function of geography. Germany sits more-or-less in the middle of Europe so they could have exported products in every direction without having to cross too many borders or very long distances. While that doesn't fully explain how they came to be exported as far as China, it could be a factor in how Germany came to be such a powerhouse in the manufacture of swords. Of course, once they had it thoroughly industrialized, they could crank them out in overwhelming quantities and eventually supply them to such distant realms.
its a bit of that and a bit of resource luck too. With the over-flow method of power generation from water wheels, the rivers in germany allowed for many powerful forges to be made. Couple that with the vast amounts of iron and coal in the region and you have a location that is great on a purely industrial level.
Plus the early monasteries were always the most powerful places within the realm with a lot of industrial and academic research and the main Administration serving the King/Emperor. The Ulfbert swords are the best examples of this technical innovation.
The Germans have always been expert metal-smiths. Even back in Roman times there were smiths in Germania who produced masterwork weapons and armour. Who despite having more primitive forge equipment, rivalled in skill the best metal-smiths of the Roman empire. German swords were top quality. They could sunder armour and break other blades without themselves breaking. Which was the most desirable quality of a sword. Legends about these "magical" swords spread all over the world, and soon everyone was buying them.
That's all true for modern day Germany (which indeed functions as a huge transportation hub for all EU and European trade in general) but it is not true when looking at historic trade. The location is more or less the same of course, however it is a massive mistake to assume that there wheren't many borders to pass - it is the exact opposite in fact. The Holy Roman Empire consisted of more than 300 individual countries, and most of them raised tariffs on goods crossing their borders. This massively affected trade - to make trade viable under these conditions you either have to mass produce great quantities or produce singular pieces of exceptional quality (which is only a tiny percentage of the trade in total of course). To make things even worse there was constant infighting in the Empire. This changed in 1806 when Napoleon restructured the Holy Roman Empire into less than 30 states to ease trade without creating a large power that could rival France. However with this land consolidation he layed the groundwork for the German unification 65 years later.
Germany actually was a unified country when swords were still being used in earnest. The Holy Roman Empire wasn't always as divided as during the 30 Year's War.
Except from the fact that it was not called Germany. And it was a very multinational entity. In fact the term nation in the modern political sense was not known until around 1800 a.D.
@@piushalg8175 the HRE was known from the end of the 15th century onwards as "Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation", so "Holy Roman Empire of German Nation" and while it was multiethnic and multilingual there was definitely already a sense of national union among the "Germans" of that time. It was mostly defined through the language they spoke.
@@piushalg8175 The 'Kingdom of Germany' officially existed since the 800s and already the B.C. Romans refered to the region of Germany as one nation/people with a common language and culture but differing tribal allegiences depending on the region, sorta like states within a country nowadays and called that region 'Germania'(eng. translation: Germany). So you are actually wrong and your knowledge of history is very off.
@@piushalg8175 And why do you even talk about a 'modern political sense' ? That's completly irrelevant to the topic at hands and even nonsensical to bring up.
+scholagladiatoria *Thanks for the historian perspective.* Solingen, NW, DEU, manufactured sword blades of quality for centuries. Don't know how many Battles for Solingen were fought in the 30 Years' War.
One of the reasons for Solingen hegemony in blade manufacturing was their smelting and purification processes. One method I read about in college involved feeding crushed iron ore mixed into chicken mash to flocks of fowl. The digestion process was believed to remove many of the impurities before smelting.
To be honest this sounds more like misdirection than reality. For example, a claim I have heard and seems plausible is that in ww2 the German Luftwaffe was surprised at the rate of interception during the battle of Britain of their aircraft. The rate was so high due to Radars, now the British mislead the Germans by claiming that British pilots ate lots of carrots which improved their eyesight and thereby interception. This was false, there are vitamins in carrots that improve eyesight but you can not reach that effect by eating cooked or raw carrots. Now while there probably was some process that removed impurities before smelting, I doubt it would be feasible to distribute the ore to chickens and then gather it up again in the amounts needed for smelting. It does sound like the perfect rumor to send your competition down the wrong rabbit hole though.
One reason why German blades found their way into India in such large numbers is most likely due to the fact that there was a very substantial trade of goods going the other way, and no it wasn't just spices, gems or finest, gold embroidered textiles, but enormous quantities of black powder, produced in the Mughal empire. The 30 years war was mostly fought with Indian gun powder and its end in 1648 meant that there was a greatly felt dwindling of income for the Mughal empire, weakening its economic powers to a degree that ultimately contributed to its downfall. Globalisation isn't a new phenomenon, economic relations over long distances existed long before the 20th/21st century and it sometimes created the same kind of boom and bust for certain parts of the world that we witness in our days. One reason that helped giving Solingen its cpmpetitive edge with blade production is due to the ingenious ways of them harnessing water power, to drive all kind of machinery, from massive hammerworks to grinding wheels of every size, both crucial to sword and knife production. This type of early mechanisation enormously reduced the necessairy workforce needed to churn out the desired numbers of blades at a much quicker pace than a blacksmith with his assistants could do in an Indian village or any other place in the world.
The Mughal Empire peaked under Aurangzeb who asended the throne in 1658. The revenue was at it's highest after Aurangzeb's southern conuest in 1680s. Its downfall was due to Auranzeb's fruitless war with the Marathas which lasted for 30 years and bankrupted the Empire. With regards to Gunpowder, I have heard similar stories about the American Civil War where the Union managed to block Secessionists' access to Indian gunpowder.
Very nice Talwar hilt, that one is southern, from the Malabar coast. These straight swords are locally called Kayamkulam vaal, not very common, especially silver-plated :-)
Nice, I always find it interesting to learn how the economics and manufacturing worked in the past - not many channels that I know even touch the subject. Thank you
the Solingen Knife makers in the beginning we Protestants made to emigrate from the Steyr Valley in Austria. The Valleys of Enns, Steyr and Krems in Upper Austria, downriver from the Erzberg ("Ore Mountain") was the biggest center of Iron products. Knife makers were concentrated in the Steyr Valley. There is a small Museum in Grünburg, and a Scythe -Maker Museum in Micheldorf. my Grandfather was a Scythe-Smith before becoming a Railway man. In the Steyr Valley, only one Knife maker is left, LSM in Molln.
My family is originated in an area in Germany where in the past iron mining was very important. There are archaeological finds of iron smelting from 3500 years ago - probably the oldest finds north of the alps. In my eyes, there are a few rationales for german blades being that economic to produce: 1. Rivers: Rivers are the best way to transport heavy items like iron ore, coal or sword blades. Transport on a boat or raft is far easier, quicker and cheaper than transport via ox wagon. Where I'm from, the iron was mined near the shores of a smal stream. Melting took place downstream (at a place where the Romans tried to build a city at around the same time they lost the battle in Teutoburg forrest) from there, the raw iron or raw steel could be transported easily downstream and via the Rhine to places like Solingen. Another trip downstream and you are in the Netherlands or Britain and can ship the finished blades to everywhere in the world. 2. Socio-economic structures: In Germany you have somehow differing socio-economic structures depending on the region you are at. Most of the area east of Elbe river for example was settled only during the middle ages and had a strong influence of Junkers and was a german style of a plantation economy. In other parts of the german lands, peasants were either more or less free. In my area, a lot of the agriculture but especially the forestry was cooperative. This way, no one got extraordinarily rich, but everyone had some spare time to work in the mine or at a furnace. This kind of cohesion or togetherness is typical for areas in Germany, where traditionally mining industry played a big role. 3. Lack of other income sources: Germany has not that much other sources of income. When we look at my home region again, that becomes clear: After one of the last big contracts had expired (Swords for the Imperial Japanese Army somewhen around 1920-ish), the mines weren't profitable anymore and were nearly closed. Only Hitler and WWII brought them back to life. And soon after the war, the mines were unprofitable agein and closed in the 50s and 60s, wich lead to a drastic impoverishment of the whole region. Iron was the only valuable good and for hundreds of years, everything had been build around iron smelting and export and as soon as that was over, people realy had to struggle to find a job to put food onto their plates.
I would wager that also most high quality armor worn by the kings and wealthier nobles of England before the founding of the Royal Almain Armoury in Greenwich by Henry VIII. were made somewhere in the HRE, (future) Germany or Italy.
Guy from western Europe here. I always wondered where the terminology Ferengi in Star Trek came from, I didn't expect that it basically described the region I live in a few hundred years ago from a Persian perspective.
Good old fashion "made in germany" was always a mark of quality. Once on the Dominicanian Market day in Gdańsk, Poland i bought this old Chocolate bar with hugo boss eagle on it's cover. It was 70 years old and still good to eat! and after this snack I haven't sleep 4 days it was so much fun!
Solingen actually to this day is often referred to as "Klingenstadt" or "Blade-Town" in Germany with a strong local culture based around blademaking and remembering the history of Solingen in context with sword manufacturing.
Solingen’s reputation was such that when French king Louis XV wanted to create a blade factory in Alsace in 1730, he recruited 10 blade smiths from Solingen. The first blades were marked “Klingen-Schmiede im Ehn-Thal”, (blade forges of the Ehn valley), but this was rapidly shortened to Klingenthal (blade valley), which gave the name to the village built around the factory. Klingenthal’s peak production was during the Napoleonic wars, over 70,000 blades per year to equip the Grande Armee, by nearly 700 workers.
an interesting facet of bladesmithing is that while steel production technologies changed, smithing techniques largely stayed the same and had to be transmitted via instruction to apprentices by bladesmiths, resulting in very long chronologies of expertise in particular regions. Solingen is a classic example, which may date back to the 900s with the Ulfberht phenomenon and be rooted in the lower Denmark cultures that produced the pattern welded swords at Nydam around 200AD. Another example is the swordmaking complex in Bizen in Japan, which is thought to represent a traditoon stretching back to before 1000AD.
Yeah and they are losing now because the Chinese manufacturers are using the same tactics to dominate tge world market. Imagine you could get German made quality items en masse for a similar price as China made "just good enough" items...
The cultures who bought German sword blades were fully capable of making their own swords, but why do that when the German sword blades are so affordable? Besides, you can buy them in bulk and attach them to the hilt of your choice 👍
Consistent quality for a competitive price. At that time India, Asia, Africa did not have mass steel manufacturing of similar consistent quality. Most probably similar quality blades to make locally was more expensive and more time consuming.
@@SLAYS863 Klingenthal is in the Bas-Rhin region of the Alsace/Elsass which was part of Germany for 500 years then became part of France for 200 years and returned to Germany in 1871. After WW1 the locals had enough and declared independence at which point France invaded and annexed the Alsace/Elsass. When the Bugatti brothers moved to Mulhouse in 1910 they technically emigrated to Germany. When did those swordmakers move there?
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 dont now the date must be around 1780, Klingenthal produced sabers for the french military. Ive been to the museum there wich is closed now.
Cool video, I've been learning a little about European history on RUclips, and and the history of Germany is a pretty complicated subject. Prussia was the major military power, it was really interesting to learn about Frederick the Great. I wouldn't have guessed that they were exporting weapons to this degree, this video adds a lot to my understanding of what was going on in the world back then!
Frederick the Great, the first European monarch to fully embrace freedom of religion. As he said:'If they contribute to society all are welcome. If they are Jewish we will build synagogues and if they are Muslim we will build mosques.'
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 That's right, he was a very interesting historical figure, he spent a lot of time with Voltaire, and encouraged the development of the arts as well.
Love the video and the history. It’d be fascinating to find some sources that cover the merchants who traded these blades far and wide. It amazes me how robust and diversified the trade networks were during this period and back through the Roman Republican era.
Ferdinand Magellan mentioned in his log, that a quantity of "the cheapest german knifes" was loaded on his ships as one of numerous trading goods. They wanted to trade them for spice cloves.
interchangeable parts of sword parts that are kit bashed make sense. If you have a broken blade and your in a foreign land you make do with what is around. even if it is not optimum fit.
So your later comment about pipe-backed swords I had to look up as I was not familiar and the top search item was your video from four years ago on pipe-backed blades.
Today German "craftsmanship" is still on par or better than anything around, BUT you can no longer just assume that German-made means quality, longevity and all those other good things. Many brand names have been sullied by their management, due to the short-sighted greed to enhance profit.
That's true, but it doesn't really matter, because most people are smart enough, to not associate quality with a brand, but instead from the region it comes from. Companies sullying their reputation doesn't change the fact that some of the best craftsman in any speciality have always often come from and continue to be from germany and therefor the reputation of them remains in tact. It's really bound to our blood.
It is especially the Rhineland inside Europe that dominated international trade, partially thanks to the river dominating it's name. The Rhine was a massive river long before deepening and straightening of rivers made many more rivers navigable in parts that they previously weren't. Thus being located in the Rhineland you had access to a prime highway for trade that just so happened to also carry many raw materials from further downstream that were needed for economic action. It is not that other places couldn't manufacture similar products, it's that the combination of factors coming into the location allowed for prices nobody else could easily match.
German firearms had substantial influence in America too. Pennsylvania German settlers put out their long muzzleloading rifles, which only morphed into Hawken rifles, Post Revolutionary War. And as the movement westward uncovered more and dangerous bears. Hence the need for bigger firearms.. Germans lost the arms race until Paul Mauser began designing magazine repeating rifles. By then the west was tamed by Sharp's buffalo guns and Winchester lever rifles. Then Springfield had to pay for borrowing its 1903 rifle design from Gewehr 98. Teutonic influence is always close to the stars & stripes.
One of the reasons the Dutch Golden Age happened was that almost the entirety of Europe was at war with itself, and we sold weapons and supplies to everyone. So I would not be surprised if Dutch traders brought those blades to Asia as well.
Hello Matt. During the 17th and 18th century was it common that difrent armys had guns and Cannons purchased from the same location. Sweden was big gun and cannon manfuctring contry during 16th to 18th century and you can find swedish cannons all over Europe.
Have you ever done a video on the colonial Spanish espada ancha? Have seen a number of them recently (at museums) found around New Mexico, many lived long lives through several owners and look very individualized/non-standard as a result. On top of that, this area is where they seem to have most survived. Since you’ve done more on New World weapons, was wondering if you knew much about them
there is a nice blade and sword museum in Solingen today, if you ever get there. I guess, just like Toledo, the name Solingen stood for good quality for a long time, but with Industrilisation they became a mass-product and all "real" sword smiths died out and with them the quality.
I would say that German (HRE)-made swords dominated the Western World prior to the 17th century as well. Not only during the earlier Middle Ages with the Ulfbehrt swords, but also in the Late Middle Ages. Several (if not all) of the Castillon Hoard swords are believed to have been made in the lower Rheinland, Passau, etc., even though they were being used in France by English people. In any case, it sounds like Solingen (pronounced "ZOLL-ingen") swords were to the world what Sheffield knives were to the early American frontier: they were cheap and numerous, but they were dependable, and EVERYBODY wanted one!😁
@@carlosdumbratzen6332 , You're correct. That's actually the pronunciation that I was trying to indicate, but I guess my phonetic spelling was misleading! More along the lines of "ZOLE-ingen".
In pre-industrial times, transport was the most expensive factor. Some places in Germany therefore had a production location advantage in Europe because several factors came together here: ore deposits and energy in the form of water power and wood. Therefore, the German steel industry was basically not in a bad position when the industrial revolution began in England. For a while, the Germans then studied the technical innovations that came from England and then started out on their own. Although, to be precise, something was still missing at the beginning, and that was coal. There were hardly any known coal deposits in Germany, except in Silesia. And some Germans were afraid of the idea that they might have to burn up all the forests of their homeland in these new machines from England. So the discovery of new coal deposits was just as important for the transformation of the German steel industry.
That was very interesting. If so many different swords have exactly the same blade, how does the different hilts influence the perfonmance of the swords? I ask, because some of the more complexe RPGs try to make every single weapon unique, even if the hilt is the only difference.
I just want to point out that "the region today known as Germany" was also known as Germany in the 18th century. And in fact dating back into high medieval times. It's correct that there wasn't a modern nation state called "Germany" until 1871. But it's not like medieval people didn't understand that there's a cultural difference between the German parts and the Bohemian or Italian parts of the Empire. And it wasn't just a cultural difference, there were actual political and legal difference between the "Regnum Teutonicum" (literally the Kingdom of Germany = the German countries) and the others. And since the German parts were so dominant within the Empire, they called the whole country "Sacrum Imperium Romanum Nationis Germaniae" (Holy Roman Empire of German Nation) since the 16th century until the dissolution of the HRE in 1806.
Couldn't have said it better. By the late 18th century the HRE would commonly be called "Germany" or "Empire of Germany" since that's really all that's left to it by that point. The days of fooling themselves that it had something to do with Rome were long over.
I sat down to watch a video and I was taken to school. This is part one. Part two is teaching how very similar blades were used differently based on hilt type and region. Please porridge hot.
New channel Discord: discord.gg/VgdsV5YcQy
How is it still sharp?!
@@MaxBrodsky. do blades dull with age?????
The US union Amy imported lots during the Civil War.
Solingen is still the centre of the German knife manufacturing industry with companies such as Zwilling, Wüsthoffm, Böker.
If you look at the equipment of any good chef, chances are he uses knives from Solingen.
It's really fascinating how some town can retain its competitive edge (see what I did there?) in some specialized industry for centuries.
no it is not.
I'm from South America and knives with Solingen blades made at the end of the 19th century are still very well sought after to this day. Those have legendary status around here and can fetch some really high prices.
@@dundschannel Solingen is a town. connected to coal and iron mining areas. surrounded by forest and river landscape. it was only natural to develop the steel industry there. Krupp company started just few kilometer north from it. Also today Solingen is gone. some factories are left but they are mostly on support of tax payers and used German Steel imported from China and Russia.
@@jefreyjefrey6349 What are you on about? Of course there are bigger knife producers out there (e.g. Wilkinson Sword but they still have their German branch in Solingen). Over 90% of all German cutlery is still produced in Solingen though.
Germany doesn't have any active iron mines anymore, of course they're going to import iron ore. Most of which is from Australia though. Mind you that while Germany does import all their iron ore, they are actually barely importing more steel than they are exporting. The EU is the scond biggest steel producer in the world after China.
@@Poggle_der_Geringere dont mind his bs... LUTZ Blades, Martor, United Salon Technologies, Wilkinson Sword, Wüsthof and Zwilling J. A. Henckels are still active in solingen and making big fking money without having that many employees...
Up until WW1 Germany made roughly 90% of the violins in the world
So they didn't only dominate in swords.
Mittenwald!
And a lot of instrument manufacturers we have today were founded by germans too
The best violins are made by the famous Antonio Stella Bottom Tile.
After WWII German NSU was the biggest Motorcycle producer in the world.
Since the Fifties, German manufactures absolutely dominate the glider plane market. Schleicher, Schempp-Hirth, Glaser Dirks Glasflügel Grob and Rolladen Schneider pretty much defined the evolution of glider design.
There were and are excellent gliders from other countries, but their impact on the international market never came anywhere near .
Hey Matt, why not come around to us in Solingen once in the future? Might be interesting to make an appointment with someone from Deutsches Klingenmuseum (Official German Sword/Blade Museum) there and have a chat. Could also become a nice fan meeting for western Germany 😊
I'd be there
😂dude, why so specific on being west german
@@haemmertime Stasi Spies have to stay out!
I would be there too!
@@haemmertime Because that's where Solingen is?
If someone wanted a modest sized, but notable sword collection, finding three or four identical blades from different countries with different hilts and mountings might make an interesting display.
Shut up and take my money.
Not much of nationalism and unique martial art technique and equipment when all the blades are exactly the same made by the same manufacturer.
That's a great idea. Im currently doing something similar with a machete, falchion, messer and cutlass.
The first sword that has the hilt with the stalk is genuinely gorgeous. Fascinating video thank you
The modern kitchen knife companies Wusthof and Henkel both trace history to blade making from the era you are referring to, and are still based in Solingen. Wusthof is still in the same family as the founder.
This weekend is a knife maker fair in Solingen - and they also sell swords. 😊
Very interesting! Thank you!
However, as a German historian, I would disagree that Germany only became a country in the 19th century. The "Old Empire" had a head, a constitution, a supreme court, etc.
All true, but that only matters if you assume that the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire founded in 1871 are the same state or nation or whatever you want to call it.
There are arguments both for and against this hypothesis.
What we do know for a fact is that Germany united in a single state under one administration existed since 1871. The Holy Roman Empire was completely different in terms of organization and also cohesion of state.
@@HH-hd7nd Never heard of that hypothesis. It's pretty clear that it's two entirely different states/entities. The Hohenzollerns however liked to think of themselves as continuing the German Empire in spirit since Austria was out of the picture at that point.
Thanks, a lot of foreign commentators really overstretch the point that "it wasn't *really* Germany before 1871". Although there was no unitary state, there was very much an understanding of what "Germany" was (after all, there had been a German king since ca. 900 AD and the HRE "of the German nation" since the 14th century). It makes perfect sense to speak of "German blades" without any asterik or qualification before 1871.
@@dxpsumma383 True, however I would be careful taking the existence of a title as proof of a polity existing.
In the case of medieval Germany though we can make the point that there was a kingdom (at least during the 10th-12th century) that sometimes would be called something you could translate as "Germany". It mainly existed in opposition to Italy and Burgundy but would otherwise be pretty identical to the HRE at large.
Geographically speaking there was no doubt that Germany "existed" since contemporaries used to call it that all the time.
@@Siegbert85 Even if not for the polity, the ppl still had a common understanding, the term "Deutschland" in it's more archaic forms already existed, the language commonly defining the german "realm" and "Deutsch" was a common nomer for the german speaking population within the HRE.
The self understanding of a ppl through an established state is mostly an anglo saxon understanding, less a continental european one where nations saw much bigger breaks in the continueity of state systems.
And, of course, there were also plenty of German swords and sword blades imported into the United States and the Confederacy.. I've seen plenty of Model 1840 US Dragoon sabers and US Model 1860 Cavalry sabers with German blades. All 20,000 US Model 1906 cavalry sabers had German blades.
Not surprising. The USA also imported the steel for the railways from Krupp as well as the steel to clad the Chrysler Building.
is that why they lost ?
@@markjohannsen Nope, they didnt have the man power, the army of the Union was twice as big and then there were also the slaves that started joining the union.
There is even a katana and a tanto with German blades, a quite rare thing to happen in japan but it happened
There were a number of samurai who visited Europe during the Nanban trade period. At least one of them went to Solingen, and was GREATLY impressed by both the quality of the blades and the quantity of good blades. He supposedly claimed that the blades were superior to any produced in Japan.
The German military uses tanto style knives
@@ninototo1 it is a sword blade blade shortened and re shaped like a tanto, I think it is in the royal armory museum
Katana vs. German Long Sword
ruclips.net/video/ev4lW0wbnX8/видео.html
If I remember, that tanto was made via reshaping the blade, and giving it a different heat treatment so it can have a hamon.
You mentioned Solingen a lot, but maybe you should make a Video about the other famous place of sword production in Passau. The Passau Wolf sign was very common(and often copyied) on blades from the middle ages up to the 18 century
Mostly copied in Solingen😁
@@henninghesse9910 True, this
certainly played a part in their decline. A profound research about the italian Ferrara blades would be also interresting.
A book on Berlin Sabre fencing says it came from one individual smith and was then copied.
I stumnled over a YT vid about the items used during the coronation. According to it the coronation sword has a Passau made blade.
Solingen knives was still a mark of quality when I was a child in the 70-ies.
Germans just make good quality stuff.
they are still in bulgaria if some 1 goes germany every in village wants blades for butchiring
Though much German manufacturing uses casting where it used to use machining, so quality has declined in some parts
Yes, got a NOS Emil Ern knife from the 70ies, gets scary sharp like a carbon steel knife. But long gone, todays producers are mere fraction of what was 100 years ago
they good at making gas too XD
Made. Now they are green and inefficient.
I have a Cavalry Sabre that was probably used in the American Civil War that was made in Soligen.
When someone gets stabbed there's a saying" He got a postcard from Solingen" since solingen still produces knives and razors etc.
I remember a report from thirty years war or later, been a while, where they made big shipments of blades to the scots and even etched or stamped something along the lines " may god protect the scots" in and after that also delivered blades to england. Pretty funny how business always the same. I remember that almost all scottish two handed swords that were examined in a report had german made blades. Some were from Solingen others from the Stantler.
Reminds me of another video where Matt showed us a bunch of his bowie knives, many from Sheffield. He pointed out that there are plenty of duplicate knives from the same maker, but the blades engraved with slogans from opposing sides of the US Civil War. "Okay Hans, we're done with 'god protect scots' now, switch the stamp to 'god save the king' for the English shipment."
Just going to show that the same *blade* can be hilted in multiple ways! Sometimes with the same dynamics and the same handling; sometimes with the same dynamics but being preferred to be handled (literally) a bit differently; and sometimes with even slightly different dynamics and just handled differently. The upshot being every application had its strengths, its weaknesses, in its contexts--and what (to its extent) worked ... worked.
I own an original Peter Munich hand and a half sword and I have to say it's pretty fantastic!
They also dominated during the dark ages, the Frankish version of the Spatha and evolved through the end of the Viking era. The term Ferangi goes all the way back to then. Fun fact, in Thailand today European race foreigners are known as "Farang". Comes from same term.
Early Medieval Period*
During this historic period this term was also used for the French. Often in distinction to Germans. In Arabic Germany is called "Allemaniya" still today.
Not just Thailand, Farangi, Ferengi, Parangi is used in India, Sri Lanka, Persia etc too
@@SSchithFoo I just used Thailand as an example.
@@SSchithFoo Ferengi ? .... They're even known in startrek ;-)
Fascinating! That first sword looks like it could have been the inspiration for the LotR elven blades.
2:22 Prior to 1620 there were no quality sword blades made in England at all. That only changed when two swordsmiths from Solingen (Joseph Jenekes & Johan Kindt) moved to Hounslow Heath and opened a sword smithy there.
As a German, i say this very interesting and i have this not known, thanks for lesson. God research!
I've got a pen knife with 'Solingen' etched on the blade. Never knew this was a place with an important blade-making tradition. Not saying the knife is awesome because of this, but it actually is awesome. I've had it 30 years.
The German art of perfectionism!
Also a few German inventions:
- Incandescent lamps (Heinrich Göbel 1854)
- The Telephone (Johann Philip Reis 1859)
- The dynamo and tram (Werner von Siemens 1866)
- The 35 mm camera (Oskar Barnack 1925)
- Nuclear fission and atomic bomb (Otto Hahn - emigrated to the Americans during Nazi Germany - 1938)
- The ship chart (Jürgen Dethloff and Helmut Gröttrub 1969)
- Periodic Table (Julius Luther Meyer 1864)
- Jeans (Levi Strauss 1873)
- The recorder, player - with which the first films were possible (Emil Berliner 1887)
- The Aspirin - Which all great athletes felt used to relieve pain, And which saved countless lives (Felix Hoffmann, Klausi Alder.. 1879)
- Spark plug (Robert Bosch 1902)
- Thermos flask (Reinhold Burger 1903)
- the toothpaste (Ottomar Heinsius von Mayenburg)
- The coffee filter (Melitta Bentz)
- Cassette recorder (Fritz Pfleumer 1928)
- Teabag (Adolf Rambold 1929)
- The jet engines - Essential for all jets and rockets + First war rockets V1, V2 of the Nazis (Hans von Ohain 1929)
- First rocket (in general, Hans von Ohain)
- The helicopter (Heinrich Focke 1936)
- The first car (Carl Benz - With honorary Schnauzer - 1886)
- First Computer (Konrad Zuse 1941)
- First 3D film (during the Third Reich)
- Fanta (Yes THAT Fanta.. Also during the Nazi era)
- The typewriter (Peter Mitterhofer - 1869)
- NASA (actually the US buyed thousands of German engineers to build NASA because they can't do it themselves)
The first letterpress Mashine (Which was probably the best invention of all time because now they could start printing books, Johannes Gutenberg - 1440)
- the trigger of the gold rush (Johann August Sutter was a Swiss but actually German since he was born in Germany, but Swiss and German are one blood anyway, Who triggered the gold rush in America. Not an inventor but cool fact - 1848)
Well, as you saw, the Germans changed the world with their inventions many times. Where we would be today without the German art of thinking.
Germany the land of poets and thinkers - that's how it was known (Actually)
And Nikolaus Kopernicus,actually German not Polish!
Some of my ancestors were bladesmiths from Solingen. I'd like to think the blades they forged ended up in interesting places.
First German industrial (r)evolution really started in the 1550s and was water power based, with ever increasing size of bloomeries and water powered hammers to work the bloom into iron ingots and steel.
Germany has lots of rain and lots of hill, and thus had lots of mills of all kinds already in 1500. Renaissance and Luther pushing for education accelerated things a lot.
The iron bloom that could be produced in one go went from 50-100kg in 1500 to around 800kg around 1600.
In some Austrian places, with the Alps providing lots of water in high places and thus potential energy, they reached 2t around 1620, with some outliers peaking at 4t (though those generally proved too big to economically produce and handle).
Before Ferdinand I put in an embargo, Austria exported 1,5 million knife blades / year to the Ottomans alone. Scythes were produced in the hundred thousands in shops cutting the work into 40 distinct steps, modern factory style, with different workers using different water powered hammers for each step.
The devastations of the 30yw (with destroyed production centers and worse, 1/3 of the local customers dead) combined with the little ice age (less precipitation, thus smaller snow and ice packs on the mointains, thus less reliable water overall) in reducing the size of furnaces after 1650 back down to the 800kg range that could be run with much less water power.
Bronce producers in the Rhineland where already using coked coal as a resource, and simple steam engines did pump water out of Spanish silver mines by 1620.
Without Ferdinand 2, the bungling idiot, the industrial revolution probably would have happened in GER, not in England...
Schola, I cannot express my envy for the job you have, but appreciate that you bring the information of your job to RUclips for all to learn. Cheers.
After Britain is nuked by Russia, the wealth of information Matt passes down via U-tube will become a significant part of British history and glory.
always learn something interesting thanks Matt
I wonder what role the 30 Years War played in the big German export.
The German states had massive demand for weapons, especially after Wallenstein massively increased the size of his armies. He equipped them by standardizing kit and having it mass produced. He also lowered the price by investing in machinery and infrastructure. Those methods were then copied by the other combatants.
Would explain the price advantage and would nicely fit the timeline. But just a theory, I have no research to back that up.
Yeah but the 30 years war had devastating effects on the trade within the Empire - not surprising considering that millions of people where killed or died because of famine and disease. Between 4-12 million people died in that war, with some areas loosing as much as 70 % of their pre-war population.
It's hard to produce great quantities of anything when population numbers are in free fall and on top of that armies march through the lands and requisition anything they want.
That Indian 'Farangi' Sword is beautiful, and even though you said its use in the Caribbean would likely have seen the blade mounted to a cutlass hilt, I kind of like the image of Blackbeard wielding that beast with both hands, after firing off his last shot.
I had absolutely no idea! Thank you, Matt, this is genuinely fascinating stuff.
As far as I know, Weyersberg Kirschbaum & Co is still active. They even have a website
WKC ( Weyersberg, Kirchbaum & Co) has bought some machines, when Wilkinson stopped sword produktion. Some years ago , after a long time, also Eickhorm started production of two sword types again, but i don' t know if they still do.
I am proud to live near the " Bergisches Land",with Solingen as the heart of knivemaking and blades in general.
3 things were importand for this industrial development.
Coal, from the Ruhrgebiet /Ruhr area.
Metal, brought by ship.
And water, wich was needed for the forging-mills.
‐------ After your report, Im a little bit proud, to have that heritage.... 🙂
Perhaps it's also partly a function of geography. Germany sits more-or-less in the middle of Europe so they could have exported products in every direction without having to cross too many borders or very long distances. While that doesn't fully explain how they came to be exported as far as China, it could be a factor in how Germany came to be such a powerhouse in the manufacture of swords. Of course, once they had it thoroughly industrialized, they could crank them out in overwhelming quantities and eventually supply them to such distant realms.
They would have exported via waterways if at all possible.
its a bit of that and a bit of resource luck too. With the over-flow method of power generation from water wheels, the rivers in germany allowed for many powerful forges to be made. Couple that with the vast amounts of iron and coal in the region and you have a location that is great on a purely industrial level.
Plus the early monasteries were always the most powerful places within the realm with a lot of industrial and academic research and the main Administration serving the King/Emperor. The Ulfbert swords are the best examples of this technical innovation.
The Germans have always been expert metal-smiths. Even back in Roman times there were smiths in Germania who produced masterwork weapons and armour. Who despite having more primitive forge equipment, rivalled in skill the best metal-smiths of the Roman empire.
German swords were top quality. They could sunder armour and break other blades without themselves breaking. Which was the most desirable quality of a sword. Legends about these "magical" swords spread all over the world, and soon everyone was buying them.
That's all true for modern day Germany (which indeed functions as a huge transportation hub for all EU and European trade in general) but it is not true when looking at historic trade.
The location is more or less the same of course, however it is a massive mistake to assume that there wheren't many borders to pass - it is the exact opposite in fact.
The Holy Roman Empire consisted of more than 300 individual countries, and most of them raised tariffs on goods crossing their borders. This massively affected trade - to make trade viable under these conditions you either have to mass produce great quantities or produce singular pieces of exceptional quality (which is only a tiny percentage of the trade in total of course). To make things even worse there was constant infighting in the Empire.
This changed in 1806 when Napoleon restructured the Holy Roman Empire into less than 30 states to ease trade without creating a large power that could rival France. However with this land consolidation he layed the groundwork for the German unification 65 years later.
Germany actually was a unified country when swords were still being used in earnest. The Holy Roman Empire wasn't always as divided as during the 30 Year's War.
Except from the fact that it was not called Germany. And it was a very multinational entity. In fact the term nation in the modern political sense was not known until around 1800 a.D.
@@piushalg8175 the HRE was known from the end of the 15th century onwards as "Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation", so "Holy Roman Empire of German Nation" and while it was multiethnic and multilingual there was definitely already a sense of national union among the "Germans" of that time. It was mostly defined through the language they spoke.
@@piushalg8175 The 'Kingdom of Germany' officially existed since the 800s and already the B.C. Romans refered to the region of Germany as one nation/people with a common language and culture but differing tribal allegiences depending on the region, sorta like states within a country nowadays and called that region 'Germania'(eng. translation: Germany). So you are actually wrong and your knowledge of history is very off.
@@piushalg8175 And why do you even talk about a 'modern political sense' ? That's completly irrelevant to the topic at hands and even nonsensical to bring up.
I have a non standard US M1840 staff and fild offices saber with a solingen blade.
Great video, as always !
Thank you very much.
+scholagladiatoria *Thanks for the historian perspective.* Solingen, NW, DEU, manufactured sword blades of quality for centuries. Don't know how many Battles for Solingen were fought in the 30 Years' War.
Most of my collection of Brazilian swords (19th and 20th century) have German/Solingen blades, even the English models or English inspired models
One of the reasons for Solingen hegemony in blade manufacturing was their smelting and purification processes. One method I read about in college involved feeding crushed iron ore mixed into chicken mash to flocks of fowl. The digestion process was believed to remove many of the impurities before smelting.
To be honest this sounds more like misdirection than reality.
For example, a claim I have heard and seems plausible is that in ww2 the German Luftwaffe was surprised at the rate of interception during the battle of Britain of their aircraft. The rate was so high due to Radars, now the British mislead the Germans by claiming that British pilots ate lots of carrots which improved their eyesight and thereby interception. This was false, there are vitamins in carrots that improve eyesight but you can not reach that effect by eating cooked or raw carrots.
Now while there probably was some process that removed impurities before smelting, I doubt it would be feasible to distribute the ore to chickens and then gather it up again in the amounts needed for smelting. It does sound like the perfect rumor to send your competition down the wrong rabbit hole though.
Solingen is still known for it's blades today, my mom has a mix of old (100-200 year old) butterknives made there^^
One reason why German blades found their way into India in such large numbers is most likely due to the fact that there was a very substantial trade of goods going the other way, and no it wasn't just spices, gems or finest, gold embroidered textiles, but enormous quantities of black powder, produced in the Mughal empire. The 30 years war was mostly fought with Indian gun powder and its end in 1648 meant that there was a greatly felt dwindling of income for the Mughal empire, weakening its economic powers to a degree that ultimately contributed to its downfall.
Globalisation isn't a new phenomenon, economic relations over long distances existed long before the 20th/21st century and it sometimes created the same kind of boom and bust for certain parts of the world that we witness in our days.
One reason that helped giving Solingen its cpmpetitive edge with blade production is due to the ingenious ways of them harnessing water power, to drive all kind of machinery, from massive hammerworks to grinding wheels of every size, both crucial to sword and knife production. This type of early mechanisation enormously reduced the necessairy workforce needed to churn out the desired numbers of blades at a much quicker pace than a blacksmith with his assistants could do in an Indian village or any other place in the world.
The Mughal Empire peaked under Aurangzeb who asended the throne in 1658. The revenue was at it's highest after Aurangzeb's southern conuest in 1680s. Its downfall was due to Auranzeb's fruitless war with the Marathas which lasted for 30 years and bankrupted the Empire.
With regards to Gunpowder, I have heard similar stories about the American Civil War where the Union managed to block Secessionists' access to Indian gunpowder.
Solingen was known for blade making and Prague for high probability to get stabbed by some. HRE had both, makers and users :-D
Posts from both Skal and Mr Easton. What a great end to an odd and disturbing week. Thank you.
I feel like German swords were particularly the nicest looking swords too, in my opinion
Your opinion is wrong. (in my opinion)
@@valentinsvyatchenko8416 Your opinion is wrong. In my opinion.
@@gwynbleidd1917 All your opinions are right in my opinion
… opinions aren’t supposed to be wrong or right…
I’m my opinion. 😂
"OK, well, I guess that's just like your opinion, man."
Very nice Talwar hilt, that one is southern, from the Malabar coast. These straight swords are locally called Kayamkulam vaal, not very common, especially silver-plated :-)
gives a whole new meaning to German steel knives.
Nice, I always find it interesting to learn how the economics and manufacturing worked in the past - not many channels that I know even touch the subject. Thank you
the Solingen Knife makers in the beginning we Protestants made to emigrate from the Steyr Valley in Austria. The Valleys of Enns, Steyr and Krems in Upper Austria, downriver from the Erzberg ("Ore Mountain") was the biggest center of Iron products. Knife makers were concentrated in the Steyr Valley. There is a small Museum in Grünburg, and a Scythe -Maker Museum in Micheldorf. my Grandfather was a Scythe-Smith before becoming a Railway man. In the Steyr Valley, only one Knife maker is left, LSM in Molln.
My family is originated in an area in Germany where in the past iron mining was very important. There are archaeological finds of iron smelting from 3500 years ago - probably the oldest finds north of the alps.
In my eyes, there are a few rationales for german blades being that economic to produce:
1. Rivers: Rivers are the best way to transport heavy items like iron ore, coal or sword blades. Transport on a boat or raft is far easier, quicker and cheaper than transport via ox wagon. Where I'm from, the iron was mined near the shores of a smal stream. Melting took place downstream (at a place where the Romans tried to build a city at around the same time they lost the battle in Teutoburg forrest) from there, the raw iron or raw steel could be transported easily downstream and via the Rhine to places like Solingen. Another trip downstream and you are in the Netherlands or Britain and can ship the finished blades to everywhere in the world.
2. Socio-economic structures: In Germany you have somehow differing socio-economic structures depending on the region you are at. Most of the area east of Elbe river for example was settled only during the middle ages and had a strong influence of Junkers and was a german style of a plantation economy. In other parts of the german lands, peasants were either more or less free. In my area, a lot of the agriculture but especially the forestry was cooperative. This way, no one got extraordinarily rich, but everyone had some spare time to work in the mine or at a furnace. This kind of cohesion or togetherness is typical for areas in Germany, where traditionally mining industry played a big role.
3. Lack of other income sources: Germany has not that much other sources of income. When we look at my home region again, that becomes clear: After one of the last big contracts had expired (Swords for the Imperial Japanese Army somewhen around 1920-ish), the mines weren't profitable anymore and were nearly closed. Only Hitler and WWII brought them back to life. And soon after the war, the mines were unprofitable agein and closed in the 50s and 60s, wich lead to a drastic impoverishment of the whole region. Iron was the only valuable good and for hundreds of years, everything had been build around iron smelting and export and as soon as that was over, people realy had to struggle to find a job to put food onto their plates.
What kinds if any anymore of blade making still goes on there since so much stuff is imported from the orient
I would wager that also most high quality armor worn by the kings and wealthier nobles of England before the founding of the Royal Almain Armoury in Greenwich by Henry VIII. were made somewhere in the HRE, (future) Germany or Italy.
Italian export armor was pretty popular in France and England.
Guy from western Europe here. I always wondered where the terminology Ferengi in Star Trek came from, I didn't expect that it basically described the region I live in a few hundred years ago from a Persian perspective.
Good old fashion "made in germany" was always a mark of quality. Once on the Dominicanian Market day in Gdańsk, Poland i bought this old Chocolate bar with hugo boss eagle on it's cover. It was 70 years old and still good to eat! and after this snack I haven't sleep 4 days it was so much fun!
One of your best fun focused to the point video yet. Practical too! In the market
Solingen actually to this day is often referred to as "Klingenstadt" or "Blade-Town" in Germany with a strong local culture based around blademaking and remembering the history of Solingen in context with sword manufacturing.
Solingen’s reputation was such that when French king Louis XV wanted to create a blade factory in Alsace in 1730, he recruited 10 blade smiths from Solingen. The first blades were marked “Klingen-Schmiede im Ehn-Thal”, (blade forges of the Ehn valley), but this was rapidly shortened to Klingenthal (blade valley), which gave the name to the village built around the factory. Klingenthal’s peak production was during the Napoleonic wars, over 70,000 blades per year to equip the Grande Armee, by nearly 700 workers.
@@patrickehresmann2404ery interesting info is there a source I can read more about?
an interesting facet of bladesmithing is that while steel production technologies changed, smithing techniques largely stayed the same and had to be transmitted via instruction to apprentices by bladesmiths, resulting in very long chronologies of expertise in particular regions. Solingen is a classic example, which may date back to the 900s with the Ulfberht phenomenon and be rooted in the lower Denmark cultures that produced the pattern welded swords at Nydam around 200AD. Another example is the swordmaking complex in Bizen in Japan, which is thought to represent a traditoon stretching back to before 1000AD.
Thanks!
German Engineering in the house!
Yeah and they are losing now because the Chinese manufacturers are using the same tactics to dominate tge world market. Imagine you could get German made quality items en masse for a similar price as China made "just good enough" items...
The cultures who bought German sword blades were fully capable of making their own swords, but why do that when the German sword blades are so affordable? Besides, you can buy them in bulk and attach them to the hilt of your choice 👍
Consistent quality for a competitive price. At that time India, Asia, Africa did not have mass steel manufacturing of similar consistent quality. Most probably similar quality blades to make locally was more expensive and more time consuming.
The English were not able to make quality blades until two swordsmiths from Solingen moved there in 1620.
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 even the French had a Village near the German border with swordmakers from solingen in it...its still called Klingenthal!
@@SLAYS863 Klingenthal is in the Bas-Rhin region of the Alsace/Elsass which was part of Germany for 500 years then became part of France for 200 years and returned to Germany in 1871. After WW1 the locals had enough and declared independence at which point France invaded and annexed the Alsace/Elsass.
When the Bugatti brothers moved to Mulhouse in 1910 they technically emigrated to Germany. When did those swordmakers move there?
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 dont now the date must be around 1780, Klingenthal produced sabers for the french military. Ive been to the museum there wich is closed now.
Cool video, I've been learning a little about European history on RUclips, and and the history of Germany is a pretty complicated subject. Prussia was the major military power, it was really interesting to learn about Frederick the Great.
I wouldn't have guessed that they were exporting weapons to this degree, this video adds a lot to my understanding of what was going on in the world back then!
Frederick the Great, the first European monarch to fully embrace freedom of religion. As he said:'If they contribute to society all are welcome. If they are Jewish we will build synagogues and if they are Muslim we will build mosques.'
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 That's right, he was a very interesting historical figure, he spent a lot of time with Voltaire, and encouraged the development of the arts as well.
Been waiting for this vid for years
Love the video and the history. It’d be fascinating to find some sources that cover the merchants who traded these blades far and wide. It amazes me how robust and diversified the trade networks were during this period and back through the Roman Republican era.
Bookmarking this to use when I teach World History next year.
Ferdinand Magellan mentioned in his log, that a quantity of "the cheapest german knifes" was loaded on his ships as one of numerous trading goods. They wanted to trade them for spice cloves.
At these times, having a cheap knife is better, as having none.
Thanks for the good information as always ⚔️
interchangeable parts of sword parts that are kit bashed make sense. If you have a broken blade and your in a foreign land you make do with what is around. even if it is not optimum fit.
I have two Sudanese Swords with Great European Blades. As expected one is a running wolf 🐺.
So your later comment about pipe-backed swords I had to look up as I was not familiar and the top search item was your video from four years ago on pipe-backed blades.
A museum actually exists in solligen dedicated to blades and it is a very nice if a bit small collection
note how that map of the HRE also includes the low countries, rightly so in this regard, great metallurgy in Brabant, Flanders, Liege and Hainaut too.
Today German "craftsmanship" is still on par or better than anything around, BUT you can no longer just assume that German-made means quality, longevity and all those other good things. Many brand names have been sullied by their management, due to the short-sighted greed to enhance profit.
Stimmt genau
That's true, but it doesn't really matter, because most people are smart enough, to not associate quality with a brand, but instead from the region it comes from.
Companies sullying their reputation doesn't change the fact that some of the best craftsman in any speciality have always often come from and continue to be from germany
and therefor the reputation of them remains in tact. It's really bound to our blood.
And thanks to PC lowering of standards for the sake of diversity.
Yup for sure man
@@SeanWinters you mean the migrants don't hold the same values as Germans?
It is especially the Rhineland inside Europe that dominated international trade, partially thanks to the river dominating it's name. The Rhine was a massive river long before deepening and straightening of rivers made many more rivers navigable in parts that they previously weren't.
Thus being located in the Rhineland you had access to a prime highway for trade that just so happened to also carry many raw materials from further downstream that were needed for economic action. It is not that other places couldn't manufacture similar products, it's that the combination of factors coming into the location allowed for prices nobody else could easily match.
MILAN in Italy and Toledo in Spain were the other Prominent Swords and Arms production centres in Europe.
German firearms had substantial influence in America too. Pennsylvania German settlers put out their long muzzleloading rifles, which only morphed into Hawken rifles, Post Revolutionary War. And as the movement westward uncovered more and dangerous bears. Hence the need for bigger firearms.. Germans lost the arms race until Paul Mauser began designing magazine repeating rifles. By then the west was tamed by Sharp's buffalo guns and Winchester lever rifles.
Then Springfield had to pay for borrowing its 1903 rifle design from Gewehr 98.
Teutonic influence is always close to the stars & stripes.
USA is a germanic country.
One of the reasons the Dutch Golden Age happened was that almost the entirety of Europe was at war with itself, and we sold weapons and supplies to everyone.
So I would not be surprised if Dutch traders brought those blades to Asia as well.
Hello Matt. During the 17th and 18th century was it common that difrent armys had guns and Cannons purchased from the same location. Sweden was big gun and cannon manfuctring contry during 16th to 18th century and you can find swedish cannons all over Europe.
"I like swords."
Solingen seems like modern Longquan, as far as sword manufacturing goes.
(Yes, I know Longquan has a long sword smithing history.)
Hm, dass geht runter wie Öl. :)
Nice Video.
Greetings from a long time german subscriber!
This is why the royal ceremonial sword of the king of Norway, is a German Sabre.
Trivia: in Germany a knife stab was also called "Gruss aus Solingen" (Greeting from Solingen) 🙂
Of what time frame do you speak of? I'm from Germany and have never heard this.
@@philipzahn491 I'm an early millennial and I'm familiar with this phrase.
Naturally I do not seek greetings.
Love you brother
I have a söllingen knife from ~1900
Solingen-Murker make razor blades and DE shavers et cetera to this day.
They pretty popular in the DE shaving community.
Have you ever done a video on the colonial Spanish espada ancha? Have seen a number of them recently (at museums) found around New Mexico, many lived long lives through several owners and look very individualized/non-standard as a result. On top of that, this area is where they seem to have most survived. Since you’ve done more on New World weapons, was wondering if you knew much about them
there is a nice blade and sword museum in Solingen today, if you ever get there. I guess, just like Toledo, the name Solingen stood for good quality for a long time, but with Industrilisation they became a mass-product and all "real" sword smiths died out and with them the quality.
Fun Fact:
Furt means river crossing, and the city Frankfurt is the city where the Franks had a crossing.
Good to know Böker was active back in the day already.
Sort of like a 17th century kalashnikov.
I would say that German (HRE)-made swords dominated the Western World prior to the 17th century as well. Not only during the earlier Middle Ages with the Ulfbehrt swords, but also in the Late Middle Ages. Several (if not all) of the Castillon Hoard swords are believed to have been made in the lower Rheinland, Passau, etc., even though they were being used in France by English people. In any case, it sounds like Solingen (pronounced "ZOLL-ingen") swords were to the world what Sheffield knives were to the early American frontier: they were cheap and numerous, but they were dependable, and EVERYBODY wanted one!😁
No it is not pronounced zollingen ._. The o is long
@@carlosdumbratzen6332 , You're correct. That's actually the pronunciation that I was trying to indicate, but I guess my phonetic spelling was misleading! More along the lines of "ZOLE-ingen".
As a German I say "Soh-Lingen"
In pre-industrial times, transport was the most expensive factor. Some places in Germany therefore had a production location advantage in Europe because several factors came together here: ore deposits and energy in the form of water power and wood. Therefore, the German steel industry was basically not in a bad position when the industrial revolution began in England. For a while, the Germans then studied the technical innovations that came from England and then started out on their own. Although, to be precise, something was still missing at the beginning, and that was coal. There were hardly any known coal deposits in Germany, except in Silesia. And some Germans were afraid of the idea that they might have to burn up all the forests of their homeland in these new machines from England. So the discovery of new coal deposits was just as important for the transformation of the German steel industry.
I am going to Solingen in my summer holiday. :)
excellent stuff
That was very interesting.
If so many different swords have exactly the same blade, how does the different hilts influence the perfonmance of the swords? I ask, because some of the more complexe RPGs try to make every single weapon unique, even if the hilt is the only difference.
"Everybody was German sword fiiiiighting, those Berserkers was fast as lightning........"
I just want to point out that "the region today known as Germany" was also known as Germany in the 18th century. And in fact dating back into high medieval times. It's correct that there wasn't a modern nation state called "Germany" until 1871. But it's not like medieval people didn't understand that there's a cultural difference between the German parts and the Bohemian or Italian parts of the Empire. And it wasn't just a cultural difference, there were actual political and legal difference between the "Regnum Teutonicum" (literally the Kingdom of Germany = the German countries) and the others. And since the German parts were so dominant within the Empire, they called the whole country "Sacrum Imperium Romanum Nationis Germaniae" (Holy Roman Empire of German Nation) since the 16th century until the dissolution of the HRE in 1806.
Couldn't have said it better. By the late 18th century the HRE would commonly be called "Germany" or "Empire of Germany" since that's really all that's left to it by that point. The days of fooling themselves that it had something to do with Rome were long over.
I sat down to watch a video and I was taken to school. This is part one. Part two is teaching how very similar
blades were used differently based on hilt type and region. Please porridge hot.
to quote Rudolph von Strohheim: "Doitsu no kagaku wa sekai ichi!"
Love this! Like in todays world you can see the impacts of economy and globalisation in trade goods and armory
,,,,excellent research!
american civil war there are very many german made swords used then.