Ringen (Medieval German Wrestling)
Wrestling of the German martial art of the 14th to 16th century. Taught with the sword, one manual is attributed to master Ott, and the first wrestling print appeared around 1507.
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About Ringen (Medieval German Wrestling)
Ringen is wrestling that was taught in the fencing societies of the German lands in the 14th and 15th centuries with disarming techniques called Ringen am Schwert. Green (2001) places it in the German martial art (Kunst des Fechtens) alongside the longsword and the knife Messer. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1875) states that in earlier times wrestling teaching was linked to fencing.
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The ADB attributes one wrestling teaching to master Ott. The collection of Lew the Jew introduces it with the words that it is wrestling composed by master Ott, a baptized Jew, and according to Jaquet (2017) it follows that Ott was no longer alive at the time of writing. The ADB calls him a wrestler of the Austrian lords. His original text is lost or unknown according to Jaquet, and copies are, according to Rainer Welle, in the collections of Talhoffer, Peter von Danzig, Ringeck, Lew, Hans von Speyer, Paulus Kal and in the Kraków manuscript. Wrestling was also printed. According to Jaquet, the first printed fencing book ever is the wrestling book by Hans Wurm of Landshut, dated to around 1507. In 1539 Fabian von Auerswald published in Wittenberg, with Hans Lufft, the book Ringer kunst of eighty-five techniques. Green writes that it describes throws, takedowns, locks and a number of traditional grips. Today historical wrestling is practiced in the HEMA movement. According to a census in the journal Acta Periodica Duellatorum (2021), it was taught in Germany at 50 locations, or 40 percent of the reported locations.
History
Green (2001) states that the German fencing societies of the 14th and 15th centuries systematically taught wrestling techniques called Ringen and disarming techniques called Ringen am Schwert. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1875) writes that independent manuscript manuals of wrestling appear only in the 15th century and one of them is attributed to master Ott, a baptized Jew and wrestler of the Austrian lords. Green adds that Ott was apparently so esteemed in his native land that he overcame the limits of the antisemitism of his time.
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According to Jaquet (Acta Periodica Duellatorum, 2017), Ott's original text is lost or unknown. Rainer Welle showed in his 1993 dissertation that two versions are apparently missing in the line of copies. Copies are in the manuscripts of Talhoffer in Gotha, Peter von Danzig in Rome, Ringeck in Dresden, Lew the Jew in Augsburg, Hans von Speyer in Salzburg, Paulus Kal in Vienna and in Kraków. According to Jaquet (2020), the first printed fencing book is the wrestling book by Hans Wurm of Landshut, dated to around 1507. The earlier dating to the nineties of the 15th century comes from 19th-century bibliographies. Bauer (2016) mentions two more small wrestling prints from Strasbourg and Augsburg from around 1510 to 1512. Fabian von Auerswald, born in 1462, lived according to the ADB at the court of the Saxon electors, and his book Ringer kunst: fünff vnd achtzig stücke came out in 1539 in Wittenberg with Hans Lufft. The ADB states that the pictures were drawn by Lucas Cranach or were made after him, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art attributes them to Cranach the Younger. According to Rainer Welle, whom Keller's dissertation from Regensburg (2017) cites, wrestling lost its social importance between 1600 and 1800 and gymnasts such as Jahn, GutsMuths and Vieth were unable to reverse this.
How it differs
Italian manuals, according to Green (2001), describe close-range holds under the name gioco stretto, and their German counterparts were Ringen am Schwert and Schwertnehmen. According to Green, Pietro Monte called wrestling the foundation of all combat, but criticized the wrestling of other nations, most of all the German one, whose ground fighting he considered dangerous. Some authors distinguish wrestling books (Ringbücher) from fencing books (Fechtbücher). Jaquet (2020) considers this an inappropriate division taken over from the historiography of the late 19th century and states that wrestling is to some extent contained in all fencing books.
Technique
Green (2001) writes that the German martial art also included techniques without weapons, among them wrestling and ground fighting called Unterhalten, that is, holding down. According to him, the German fencing master mastered takedowns and close-range grips called Ringen am Schwert and disarming techniques called Schwertnehmen. Hans Talhoffer's fencing book has several pages of illustrations of an unarmed wrestler entering sword range and taking the sword from an armed opponent, and other books show throws, takedowns and arm locks. The manuscript Hs. 3227a states that all fencing arises causally and fundamentally from wrestling. Keller's dissertation (2017) reads it as saying that sword fencing does not end in wrestling but arises from it. Lexikon des Mittelalters reads the same passage the opposite way, as wrestling in the role of last resort. Keller says the manuscript's author sees the one-handed long knife as a stage between wrestling and two-handed sword fencing. According to Green, Fabian von Auerswald's book of 1539 describes throws, takedowns, joint locks and a number of traditional grips of German wrestling and ground fighting. According to Keller, Rainer Welle regards wrestling as an essential part of the medieval martial art that largely shapes the style of fighting with weapons too.
Today
According to Keller's dissertation (2017), Karl Wassmannsdorff published on wrestling from 1866 at the latest and in 1869 published, with G. H. Schmidt, a new edition of Auerswald's book. Today Ringen is practiced in the HEMA movement. A HEMA census in the journal Acta Periodica Duellatorum (2021) states that in Germany historical wrestling was taught at 50 reported places (40.32 percent), and in 2019 at 52 places. Longsword was taught at more than 88 percent of places. In Austria historical wrestling was practiced in 2021 at 10 of 34 HEMA places. Together with the long knife, dagger and sword and buckler, it is among the disciplines taught in Germany at 40 to 44 percent of places.
Did you know
The collection of Lew the Jew from the Augsburg university library presents Ott's teaching with the sentence Hie heben sich an die Ringen die maister Ott gedicht hat, der ein getauffter Jud gewesen ist, that is, here begins the wrestling that master Ott composed, who was a baptized Jew. Keller's dissertation (2017) names Ott among the masters about whom we know biographical details and places his death in the middle of the 15th century. Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1875) states that Auerswald's book captures wrestling as his world-famous wrestling masters taught it to young princes and nobles under Elector Ernest.
Frequently asked questions
Who was master Ott?
Master Ott is the author of a German wrestling doctrine copied in a number of manuscripts. The collection of Lew the Jew describes him as a baptized Jew and the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie as a wrestler of the Austrian lords. According to Jaquet, his original text is lost or unknown, and Rainer Welle placed seven manuscripts in the line of its copies.
Was Ringen part of fencing?
Yes. Green (2001) places wrestling in the German art of combat alongside the longsword and the knife Messer, and Jaquet (2020) states that wrestling is to some extent contained in all fencing books.
When was the first printed book on wrestling published?
According to Jaquet (2020), the first printed fencing book of all is the wrestling book by Hans Wurm of Landshut, dated around 1507. Fabian von Auerswald's book was published in Wittenberg in 1539.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.