Composite Stechzeug (Armor for German Joust; 2014.1164)
The Composite Stechzeug is located in the Medieval Gallery (109).
This Stechzeug -- heavy plate armor made for jousting -- was built to protect its wearer from the powerful impact of an opponent's lance. The suit weighs 64 pounds (without its lost thigh-guards) and is a quarter of an inch thick in the chest and neck. Suits of armor like this one were made in Nuremberg in the years around 1500 CE to prevent injuries and deaths from the joust, one of medieval Europe’s favorite pastimes. Not just a military or chivalric exercise, jousting was a cultural and social activity, too: noblewomen in the stands helped to oversee the event, and there would be feasting and dancing in the evening. Once the jouster was armored up, his attendant would adjust the helmet via a screw mechanism on the backplate to make sure that the knight could see out of the narrow eye slit. The jouster wielded an 11-foot spear, attempting to knock his opponent off of his horse through a strike to his shield. While the danger was real, and men lost their eyesight, limbs, and sometimes their lives during the joust, armorers developed specialized equipment like this to reduce the risks.
