Solingen German Blade Museum (Sword Heavy Content)

[eisman]

As part of the annual knife show in Solingen, Germany the historical blade museum is open to the public and it's free for attendees of the blade show. This is a fascinating place and deserved more time than I gave it, but I had a tour of the Boker factory scheduled and did not want to miss that. I'll go back sometime when I'm not rushed. The permanent displays include very early edged pieces, including pre-Roman, and then moves into modern cutlery over several rooms. There's even a whole room full of tableware patterns if that's of any interest. A special event for the show was a room with a number of actual pieces from the collection that you could hold and examine, and curators available to answer specific questions.

Moving people from the show to the museum was done with a team of old (1950's) trolleys, and they got lots of attention from the town folks as well as the passengers. Unlike what people in the States are used to though, these were very German in their delivery, stopping to load and unload about half a mile from the museum.

Some of the earliest blades:

I found this small locked box to be very interesting.

 

[eisman]

Here are some of the pieces available for close study:

One of two Executioners swords:

This was pretty interesting, and the curator said they have given lectures on fakes and other "false" blades. I'm going to keep an eye out for one of those and they should be very educational.

 

[eisman]

This was a smaller, and lighter, executioners sword, and the east asian blade is one that was made specifically for the tourist trade in the 1800's.

 

[eisman]

Here are some of the knives from the collection.

This is a large (1 meter closed) multi-blade:

Early knives and forks:

 

[eisman]

If there's one complaint I have to make about this place (and too many other museums) it's that with all this fantastic, invaluable, stuff on display, why can't they take the money and use glass that doesn't reflect, and properly light the displays. I did what I could, but way too much of this collection is impossible to picture.

 

[eisman]

There are some modern pieces, I especially liked this one:

And this Pilgrim's Staff is the only one I've ever seen.

This is a copy of Simon Bolivar's sword, the original is in a bank.

And of, of course, the 20th century military stuff was represented also:

More executioners blades:

 

[eisman]

Solingen blades went all over the world, as these from western asia show:

Here are some European Basket hilts:

Small swords:

Court Swords:

 

[eisman]

And this set will wrap it up:

This is only a small portion of the collection. If you're seriously interested in this stuff it's hard to beat this collection. Prague has some fantastic stuff but most of it's been hidden away for decades (including a really outstanding amount of middle east and asian blades), and the arms and armor in Vienna are matchless, but you should put this on your bucket list.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks for taking us on the tour, very nicely recorded and what a museum they have, reminds me of a castle I toured while I was in Germany several years ago.
G2

 

[cutchu]

Very cool. Thanks for posting this and sharing some pics. I've long thought that swords are very interesting. At the risk of sounding nerdy about it, I always wanted to have a couple to hang on a wall as decorations. Particularly drawn to the Medieval stuff and Scottish Claymore type.

 

[lambertiana]

If there's one complaint I have to make about this place (and too many other museums) it's that with all this fantastic, invaluable, stuff on display, why can't they take the money and use glass that doesn't reflect, and properly light the displays. I did what I could, but way too much of this collection is impossible to picture.

A lot of history there. Did you happen to get closeup pictures of the two descriptions that are titled Das Hohe Mittelalter Zeit des Rittertums?

 

[eisman]

No, I didn't, the glass reflections were terrible and I was trying to see as much as possible before my time ran out. They may have that in the museum catalog though. I'll look. If not you might drop them an email. I found the curators very informative.

 

[LarryG]

Nice swords. I have a 200 year old Toledo sword hanging on my home-office wall. To eliminate reflections, you could use a polarizing filter over your camera or cell phone lens.

 

[TC]

Thanks for the extensive tour!

The castle at Bad Arolsen (~2 h(?) east of Solingen) has a great blade and weapons collection (Waffenkammer). Well worth a visit when in the area.

 

[JM2]

WOW that's cool as heck. I'll likely never get over there to see it in person, thank you for sharing.

 

[Triton]

Thanks for sharing these! Some I have only seen pictured in books, some I have never seen at all.

As a side note the one by Peter Johnson, is a modern piece, he is a very talented sword Smith from Sweden.

 

[jfk1110]

Appreciate your time and efforts!!