Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Prussian Camp in the SYW


Marshal von Schwerin and his dog Otto greet one of the residents of Potsdorf, where the King's Army is encamped. Click or double click all pix to enlarge the view.

Last evening I tore down my winter terrain, stashed it away and then set up a large Prussian encampment during the SYW. Please stroll through the camp at your leisure and inspect what is going on. Also, please feel free to click on the comments box at the end of this blog entry and leave a comment or two. I like to read what people think.

All buildings are made by Herb Gundt, model master supreme. The handsome church and some of the large trees are my latest editions of Gundt masterpieces to grace my wargame table. I made all of the terrain squares a few years ago. They are ceiling tiles covered with spackle compound, brown paint and flock and are fairly easy to make, but not very durable, so I use these tiles mostly for game in my basement, rather than taking them to conventions.



Musketeer regiments von Winterfeld (orange flag) and Alt Braunschweig (yellow flags) practice their steps on the marchfeld in front of the town of Potsdorf.



Jagers patrol the nearby woods to catch any deserters or worse yet, some of those pesky Croats.


A view of the Prussian camp area behind the town church (made by Herb Gundt). On the left hand side you can see the field forge, artillery repair area and the field bakery. The soldiers tents can be seen on the right with the officers tents next to the church.


Der Alte Fritz addresses his generals and gives them the orders for the day. Note the sentry box near the Royal Tent. A courier arrives with a message.



Meanwhile, back in the camp, one of the rank & file gets familiar with a camp follower.


The stocks await any soldier who gets out of line in camp.

12 comments:

  1. Yes, this camp is very very impressive . . . which is why I wonder why you have some bare metal figures (horses and men) in a couple of shots.


    -- Jeff

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  2. Dear Alte Fritz
    I am already one year an enthousiastic fan of your work in your blog - my compliments for all what you have done! You are very inspiring for me and my nephew, we collect the SYW in 40mm over a decade of years. I never will reach your monthly output of figure paintings and tabletop furniture - respect!

    After seeing your new post about the camp I decided to write you a short comment.
    Me, I am a prussian fellow who lived a long time in Berlin and Brandenburg, now in my "exile", in Bavaria. I would like to give you some advices about the prussian architecture of the 18. century (I am architect..) - because your prussian camp is marvellous and stylistically accurate - but: the brick houses and especially the church behind the camp are using architectural elements from the late 19. century and are never to be located in the time of SYW.
    The proportions and volumes of the private, prussian houses were more agricultural using a minimum of aristocratic decorations, e.g. symmetrical, simple, 1 floor + roof, and the format was more wide then high. the ground floor is 1m over the natural ground. The prussian brick is or yellow (Glindower Ziegel) or a dry, light brown-red (as in the monastery of Chorin). Also facade and roof are in the same colour (the prussian landscape is particular: very few contrasts). The top of the churchtower was rectangular and very simple - your church has a bavarian element, which arrived in Prussia not before 1880-1890.
    The majority of the prussian population lived in small, dirty and wooden houses (as my grandfather in East Prussia till 1920!), without any pittoresque effect.
    Please, don´t take this as a critic, I am full of adoration for your work - just as an architect´s advice. Go on with your fantastic world of the SYW, I follow you regularly. If you will find time and interest just click the link: http://scheckssyw.blogspot.com/
    and you will find us.
    I send you my best greetings from the cold and snowy Bavaria.
    Peter

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  3. Jim,

    I've always wondered what Ppotzdorf, the capitol of Carpania, looked like. Now, courtesy of the marvelous woks of Herb and you, I do.

    Jim

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  4. An outstanding camp scene!
    The terrain, buildings and painting are fantastic.
    I hope we will see some AWI scenes in the future.

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  5. An impressive and beautiful scene indeed. A camp I aspire to emulate for our Indostan games. The "Tits out Tuesday" scene made me chuckle.

    Frank
    http://adventuresinlead.blogspot.com/

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  6. Peter: thank you for the information about 18th century architecture in Prussia. That will be very helpful in planning future models made by Herr Gundt.

    I'm wondering if this style of church would have been acceptable in Saxony or Silesia? I note also that the church at Hochirch has the onion dome - would the dome have been added later in the 19th century? About 15 years ago or so, I visited Hochirch and took lots of pictures of the church so that Herb could make a model. More recently, I asked him to make me another Hochirch style church, only with a much smaller footprint for its exterior dimensions. That explains the information source for this newer model.

    I would imagine then, that Prussian churches were similar to the one at Elsnig near Torgau, being very plain and simple and rectangular.

    I like your web site by the way - nice work on the Saxon army.

    Jim

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  7. Dear Alte Fritz

    Thank you for your kind reply - yes, you´re right with the church of Hochkirch. But Hochkirch is saxon and catholic. Dresden had a famous century of baroque architecture, which was mainly created by the masters Daniel Pöppelmann and Balthasar Permoser between 1690 and 1730. This style influenced of course the region. Hochkirch is not far away from Dresden.
    Prussia instead was always protestantic, the church never had such financial possibilities to decorate their buildings like in the richer, catholic countries.

    I found for you some links about typical prussian churches in villages in Brandenburg:

    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Dorfkirchen_in_Brandenburg
    and:
    http://www.stiftung-brandenburgische-dorfkirchen.de/html/stiftung.html

    and another link about the region near Neuruppin, Fritzen´s Palace:

    http://www.kirschbaum-online.de/WarenMueritz/Vorpommern-Sued.htm

    you can see: the more you go to the south of Brandenburg, the bigger is the baroque influence.

    Prussia has and had always a certain melancholic ambiance, a combination of the flat landscape and the rough architecture of villages.

    I will look for some dwellings and private buildings and send you the links.

    Peter

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  8. Thank you Peter ! :) I enjoying studying architecture and learning more. I sometimes wish that I had been an architect. I will certainly check out some of your links.

    How did Silesian architecture compare to that of Brandenburg or Saxony? Since Silesia was a richer province, I'm guessing that its buildings were a bit better than those in brandenburg.

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  9. You have the talent to be an architect, Alter Fritz, because you have a good spatial understanding and imagination - it is easy to see by your dispositions in the pics, also a great feeling for colours and harmony!!

    The architecture of dwellings in Silesia is not very different from Brandenburg - both of them have slavic roots, were agricultural and were the area for the big "Ostkolonisation" of the Deutschorden in the 14th century (the migration to the east), importing christian architecture and this particular style of building in bricks. But you see in the cities, which had international commerce, the different influences (eg. Breslau - you were there I guess: rich decorated houses with imported style elements from Austria and Hungary - beside the typical Deutschorden-church in brick and with an heroic volume).
    Silesia and Brandenburg were in the hands of aristocratic landowners (also Seydlitz, Winterfeldt, Zieten,etc..) which gave them the richness and the social status. The lower society lived in small, simple houses.
    Examples for Silesia:
    http://boehm-chronik.com/stellenbesitzer.htm
    http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/20504942
    http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/19415030
    Peter

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  10. Wonderful pictures! Pro Gloria et Patria!

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