History of the Shire of Turmstadt

As everyone knows, dragons have a long memory and tend to carry grudges, so I'm not responsible for any draconian grumpiness found herein!

This page is a work in progress and will be updated as soon as I get the difficult parts of the story sorted out.

Prehistory

Accounts Of The First Year (1991)

Accounts of the Second Year (1992)

Accounts of the Third Year (1993)

Appendix

Pre-history

Of the earliest times
It has been told by Michael Apenteger, aka Diesel von der Rapsölmühle, aka Der Nu Wieda, then of the incipient Shire of Dreieichen, that he once went to an event held in Bamberg by the Incipient Shire of Flußstetten. These are the earliest tidings. (Discounting, of course, the tales told by Peter of El Kulmbacho, which are of doubtful origin, not to mention bad taste.)

Accounts of the first year

Of the First Filk Story
Shortly after the Schwabach Demo, Wolfgang, already counting himself as a member of the SCA, although no official papers had yet arrived, made a far speaker call to Inge, who was working in Frankfurt at that time and had missed the whole thing. Then it was that the first filk story (Dormitory Fighter Practise) was told, founding the First Turmstadt Tradition, and Inge decided to join the SCA as soon as she got back to Erlangen.

Of Turmstadts Proud Archers
Since Wolfgang already owned a bow, archery was among the shire's first activities. They got a range, a target and a dozen arrows (which left them broke for weeks and lost their tips all the time) and met every Saturday, come there rain or snow or storm (they all came).The regular participants were Wolfgang vom Bruch, Gernot von der Felchmühl, Ingeborg Thorulfsdottir and Cristina von der Heide who quarreled endlessly with Gernot, even while aiming.
When darkness fell, they drove to Inge's place to cook dinner and drink tea, sing every even vaguely period song that Inge could teach them, told tall tales of the past and made glorious plans for the future. And there the Second Turmstadt Tradition was founded.

Of the Many-Headed Serpent Bureaucracy
While the small band of Turmstadt's archers dreamed of future glory, the SCA bureaucracy did not sleep. It sensed missing pieces and sent demands for reports to Flußstetten's officers who weren't there anymore. Their not-yet-sucessors read the bad news in Mathieu's Dragon's Tale and seized the unoccupied offices. It worked well with the MoAS and the Herald, offices that were soon held by Inge and Gernot. It never worked with the Seneshal. The woman whose name was found in the Dragon's Tale had vanished without a trace. Wolfgang and Mathieu sent wagonloads of letters to the principality seneshal, begging and pleading for information about what to do with the re-forming shire they had at hand, and all they got were letters counseling them to be patient and seek the aid and permission of their seneshal, and reprimanding them for adressing people they had no right to adress.
After some months of this everybody was sick and tired of it (with the exception of Mathieu, who had the patience of a saint even then). They decided to do without a seneshal.

Of Wolfgangs Battle with the Serpent
But Wolfgang, well versed in the ways of mundane laws and necessities started to ask more questions, backed by the other archers. He dared to ask about things like insurances and legal responsibility and ignored all attempts to guide him away from such distasteful subjects. He even dared to ask the seneshal of the then-incipient shire of Dreieichen how they managed to balance mundane requirements vs. SCA-Rules. So his name fell out of favor with nearly every Drachenwalder of power and standing.
You see, Wolfgang wasn't even a rebel at heart. He just was a rather Prussian character who believed in the law, in responsibility and justice.
These guys are the worst.
And thus he founded the third Turmstadt Tradition.

Of the Discovery of another German Shire and the feud with Dreeichen
It has already been told in another chapter of this chronicle that back in the olden times when Turmstadt was founded, there existed an incipient shire populated by natives far to the Northwest where the river Rhine leaves the hills and wine gives way to beer. The shire's name was Dreieichen. The restless natives of Turmstadt were directed to the inhabitants of that shire for help and advice.
But alas! it was not to be. For the uncrowned rulers of this shire found all things to the best in their own domain and so, as often is the way of those blessed by luck and circumstance, had little understanding of the trials of others.
This alone would only have led to polite indifference between the shires, but it also happened that amongst the material sent by Dreieichen there was a newsletter which included an article (translated from English) on politeness and courtesy in the Middle Ages. Wolfgang and Inge read it carefully and considered it lacking in usefulness as well as in scientific merit, since it referred mostly to books on gentlemanly conduct written in the times of Queen Victoria. They discussed whether it was worth it to send a detailed critique to the author of the original paper or to the editor of the newsletter, but refrained from doing so because it would not be polite to criticize other people's work without good reason.
But the damage was already done. By means unaccounted for, the news of their less-than-enthusiastic response reached the editor of the newsletter, Lady Hedy, and she never forgave what she considered a personal affront.
Add to that the fact that the Turmstadters were desperate for answers on legal and organizational matters and wouldn't take any hint that those things were not to be discussed in polite company, another Turmstadt Tradition was founded, although it's not counted among the Great Ones: That there should be feud between Turmstadt and Dreieichen until all involved were dead, burnt out or mellowed with age.

Of the Name Turmstadt
The native speakers hadn't been too happy with the name 'Flusstetten' from the beginning. Sure, it sounded nice, but there wasn't a decent river in all of the shire! It was decided to change the name, and Alexander, whom they soon lost to a world more fantastic even than theirs, found some period pictures of Nuremberg: City of Towers, Gate to the East, and so the shire got its new name: Turmstadt.
During the after-archey-meetings a device was designed, showing the towers in a field of green and the early rays of the sun behind them, and the design was accepted by the Shire on a shire meeting in February in Damiano Petrolino's flat in Fuerth.

List of Officers: First year (and many thereafter)
SENESHAL: vacant (later: Ygraine of the Seven Oaks, still later: Lord Ito Kiomoto)
HERALD: Gernot von der Felchmühl, 16th century Franconian highwayman
MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS: Wolfgang vom Bruch, 16th century heretic and fugitive from the Holy Inquisition
MINISTER FOR NON-INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS AND FIGHTING MARSHALL: Mathieu LaCroix, 12th century French crusader
MINISTER OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: Ingeborg Thorulfsdottir, 10th century Danish Viking
EXCHEQUER: Damianus Petrolino, Italian mercenary, later: Michael Apenteger, Peasant
MINISTER OF COMMUNISM (Keeper of Common Property): Cristina von der Heide, practising witch.

Accounts of the Second Year

NEWS AND CHANGES: Michael Apenteger, formerly of Dreieichen, shows up in February. Shire Meetings are held about twice a month at Damianus Petrolino's flat in Fuerth, later in the Erlangen Barracks. Archery continues to be held at the northern range in Erlangen on Saturdays until late spring. Inge writes a flyer and becomes MoAS. The Shire's name and device are sent to the Schwarzdrachen Herald. Damianus becomes Exchequer; Michael, his deputy, tries for months to convince the Americans that the SCA cannot open a bank account at a German Bank. Ygraine of the Seven Oaks reappears on the scene and reclaims the seneshalate. Whitey, an aquaintance of Cristina, appears. Inge starts regular A&S meetings, most common activities are singing, cooking and discussion of history. In November, Ito Kiomoto comes to Turmstadt and is named seneshal. At the end of the year the Principality Seneshal changes the borders of the shire according to postal codes, creating much confusion.

Of the Far East
Early in '92, Wolfgang, while trying to get support of the SCA from the City of Erlangen, found out that Erlangen had a twin town in Russia: Vladimir, the old Russian capital, 100 miles east of Moscow, and that Vladimir had its share of reenactment geeks. He tried to make contact, which was hindered by political upheaval, highwaymen preying on mailmen and stagecoaches, and all the other ills that tend to befall caravans venturing into far away lands. Exchange of letters, pictures, ideas and information was tedious, but it bore fruit more then 5 years later, when the quasi-shire of Vildenburg was founded in Russia.

Of the May Demo

Preparations
Unparalleled amongst the events in Turmstadt's early history stands the May Demo, held on the occasion of the German-American Fest in Erlangen.
There had been a lot of planning going on in advance -- all for naught, because none of the promised resources were available, with the exception of a place beyond the baseball diamond, at the edge of the woods (far away from any casual stroller), a GP-medium tent full of Kuwaitean sand, and some camp beds. Fortunately, the heavy rainstorm the weather forecast had promised wasn't available, either.
Of the SCAdians who had promised their support, only a few came, amongst them Sir Moe, Karl and Leia -- quite illustrous names. Of the shire itself, nearly everyone attended -- plus a curious newbie who would soon become one of the most indispensable and yet most modest members of the Shire: Andreas of Nuremberg-South. (Later known as Henricus von Fischbach.) They had breakfast, chopped wood, did some archery and grew very hungry before the day had gotten old.

The May Demo Shopping Spree
Deciding that something had to be done to keep everyone from starving, they agreed to send Wolfgang (proud owner of a silver wagon) to shop for groceries. Inge gave him her purse which contained her housekeeping money for that month. Wolfgang drove off while the rest did some more archery, told tales, did some fencing and passed the time, getting hungrier all the while. Three hours later, Wolfgang came back with a wagonload full of groceries -- which proved unedible without further preparation. Fortunately, the soup Cristina had been preparing since noon was nearly done by that time, so no-one was forced to eat their boots.
The wagon full of groceries was sent to Inge, who, after all, had no housekeeping money left that month.

Wolfgang's Great Shot
Shortly before the May Demo, Wolfgang had gotten a new 75lbs-longbow. At the Demo, he wanted to use it to test if the length of the archery range was adequate. He drew the bow as far as he could, tried for the perfect angle and let go... and off the arrow went, over the baseball diamond... over the shrubbery... over the tent... over the wood... over the roof of the house behind the wood... and then it vanished from sight. For minutes, everyone stood frozen, waiting for a scream. None came.
But they never found that arrow again.

The Great May Demo Binge
By eleven in the evening the party had died down some and the guests were ready to leave. Wolfgang went home to walk his dog and the rest cleaned up the site and got ready for bed, deciding that it had been a nice but rather boring event. But at midnight Wolfgang returned, furiously waving a letter the contents of which shall not be told here. Sufficent to say that it was bad news -- and everyone reached into their bags for something to dampen the impact with. Before long, there were many bottles of mead and sweet brandy on the table, and the Greatest Turmstadt Drinking Binge Ever was in full swing. Fortunately, Mathieu fell asleep before witnessing any behaviour unbecoming for SCAdians, while the rest drank and sang and generally partied on until the first light of morning, when Gernot and Inge were the last two left standing (if they held onto the tent poles) and were chosen to escort Wolfgang home. What they did, altough no-one quite remembers how.

Of the Day After
The next day they held their first Fighter's Practise.

Of Emerald Glen's Proposal
Emerald Glen had become Turmstadt's sponsoring shire, since it was not only close to Turmstadt, but a strong shire that could easily afford generosity. In Summer of '92, Sebastian, Seneshal of Emerald Glen, made a proposal to Turmstadt: Emerald Glen wanted to become a barony, but couldn't quite scrape together the necessary membership. So they asked Turmstadt, whose trouble with officers and official papers was well-known, if they'd like to become a canton in their barony-to-be.
After giving the matter careful thought, Turmstadt declined, mostly because they didn't see any advantage in adding another administrative layer, and also because the withdrawal of the American troops from Germany was already in full swing, and Turmstadt doubted Emerald Glen's ability to hold barony status for more than a year.
They were correct.

Of the First Event
And so it happened that they decided to hold their first event. It was April '92, spring was in the air, all the hopes were high and there was a castle for rent in August, Burg Rabeneck near Ebermannsstadt, with a beautiful view into the Wiesent Valley, a large tree on a high castleyard, meadows for heavy fighting and archery and an open grotto made for an evening fire below.
Unfortunately, good things seldom come cheap and this was to cost 34 Marks per person -- in advance. On the sunny side, a feast would be included so they wouln't have to worry about cooking. Follwing the advice of more experienced SCAdians they made reservations (and paid) for 50 people. (About two months' income for the average shire member.) Following the advice of some LARPers they fixed all the arrangements with the owner in writing.
The event, while fun, was a disaster. Of the fifty people expected, 27 came. Putting up the SCA-signs took a five-hour-march before dawn on Saturday, because the promised wagons didn't arrive. The food ordered for 50 barely fed 27, it rained, the loos got locked at 10 pm and the autocrat sought solace in a bottle of Tullamore Dew.
But the guests, while few, were most generous and when a ragged-looking autocrat went around on Sunday, crying for donations, he got enough so that the shire could reduce losses to about 50 Marks per member and no-one starved that fall.
Among the guests were Karl Hellweg and Leia, Sebastian of Emerald Glen, Coen of Perilous Journey (once of Dreieichen), Bernwart of Dreieichen and a few others.
(Note: By other accounts the event had 43 visitors. Still it lost money.)

Of the Divan
On a cold and dreary day in October 1992 Ygraine of the Seven Oaks called for a meeting of all the shire in her place in Fuerth. Important things had to be discussed, new projects needed volunteers, papers needed signing. So Ygraine called and they all came, from Nuremberg and Fuerth and Erlangen and Bamberg and the villages south of Nuremberg.
But vanitas vanitatem, what are the plans of mice and men before fate? One of the guests had brought a mechanical bard who told tales of the last great war and showed colourful pictures of armies and battles of the great kingdoms, and the far-travelled among the shire members were enthralled by those stories.
Always willing to honor a storyteller, the native shiremembers were nevertheless less than happy, because they had travelled far in rotten weather to talk about local politics, not foreign wars. So they gathered in the drafty hall and made a far-reaching decision, which echoes in legend and myth even today: They took a solemn vow that, from this day on, they would take local affairs in their own hands and do everything necessary to keep the shire working, even if it broke official regulations. This sworn group named itself the 'Divan', because they knew this to be a title of the seneshals and counselors of eastern princes, and because a sofa is a great place to sit down on and drink tea.
There, a young man with pale hair who was known by the name of Whitey and for whom Cristina vouched, volunteered to act as a liasion to the Americans and to apply for the office of deputy senshal. Relieved, Wolfgang handed him his badge, for he had carried this burden for a year now and he was tired of it.
The Divan existed until the 17th of January 1995, when it disbanded officially because the Shire didn't need it anymore. But to this very day the name of the Divan strikes fear into the hearts of the unenlightened.

Of the Counter Attack on the Serpent Bureaucracy
Wolfgang hadn't been idle. He had widened his research on matters of insurance and liability and found out that for the SCA to get an insurance in Germany, it had to be a club according to German law. It didn't take a lawyer to see that no amount of smooth-talking and re-naming would make the SCA meet these demands. In sheer desperation Wolfgang cried out: 'What we need is a whole new club!' And then, calmer: 'OK, lets do it.'
So they started to do just that, keeping Sir Justin, the Principality Seneshal, and Karl, who was to be the next Prince of Drachenwald, informed of their progress, whether the two dignitaries wanted it or not.

Of the First Spieletage Demo
The first Demo at the Erlanger Spieletage was held in November '92 and became a permanent fixture.

NEWS AND CHANGES: An attempt to establish something like a precursor to the Drachenwald Yellow Scrolls fails due to the East Kingdoms distrust of the non-profit-nature of this endeavor. Michael takes over the Exchequer's job from Damianus. Contacts to Austria are made at Peasant Beltane. The planned visit of the Russians fails. Solveig, Aesthan, Bernwart (formerly of Dreieichen) and Stephan join the Shire. Many of the Americans return to the States, leaving Emerald Glen depopulated. Shire Meetings are held twice a month, alternatingly at Sabine's place in Nuremberg-Eibach and in the Erlangen Barracks. Ito Kiomoto names Whitey his sucessor-to-be. Drachenwald becomes a Kingdom. Lady Mairi is Principality/Kingdom Seneshal. An Interregnum is caused by Prince Karl's and Princess Leia's return to the States before their sucessors, King Elfin and Queen Vanna are crowned, but the expected revolution or civil unrest does not take place. Ceridwen, Gwydion and Anna form the Shire of Falkenhain in the Muenster area with Turmstadt's support. Uli travels to Ireland with greetings and Duct Tape for the Shire of Lough Davanree. Michael threatens to resign from the Exchequer's office since he cannot get the necessary paperwork from either Damianus or the Kingdom Canchellor of the Exchequer. Ekkehart von Wartstein starts to rebuild Emerald Glen with Turmstadt's support. Emerald Glen is still officially Turmstadt's sponsoring shire. Mathieu's marshalate gets canceled, leaving the shire without a fighting marshall. Solveig is nominated for the seneshalate in December.

Of the Investiture of Karl and Leia
The Investiture of Karl and Leia was held in Wiesbaden and attended by most Turmstadters. The picture taken at that event is more complete than most Shire Lists ever compiled, and everyone is laughing. (Probably because Inge and Michael had a scuffle just seconds earlier. Both didn't want to stand in the first row. As you can see on the picture, Inge lost.)
It was also the first event attended by Gwydion and Ceridwen of what came to be the Shire of Falkenhain, and Leia was the first princess in history to pronounce 'Drachenwald' correctly. One shadow fell on what would otherwise have been a great event: Whitey, who was Deputy Seneshal by then, told Cristina that he intended to remove her from the Chatelaine's office, since she had lost the shire property, and replace her with Sabine. While the charges were correct, they were also in extremely bad taste, because Cristina had lost the shire property along with her books, her cat, her flat and her boyfriend, as said boyfriend got a severe case of religion. They were also in poor judgement, but that didn't become obvious until July.

Of Peasant Beltane and the Founding of the GpM
By April Wolfgang's work had come into frutition and concepts and rules for a German local corporation that could act as the local SCA's 'mundane persona' were laid out. So he sent a note to Prince and Principality Seneshal and everyone who he thought would be interested, and on Peasant Beltane in the Shire of Polderslot seventeen gentles and not-so-gentles gathered in another drafty hall and officially founded the GpM, that is, 'Gesellschaft für praxisbezogene Mittelalterstudien', and nearly as funny a name as 'Society for Creative Anachronism'.
At the same event, Inge, Wolfgang and Utto (commonly known as Travelling Utto the Mad) got their Awards of Arms, although Utto had to be dragged out of his hiding place in the bushes by the Princess' Guard.
Princess Leia, not (openly) amused at Utto's disregard for the honour she was to bestow upon him, thought about a suitable punishment and in her wisdom decided that the most fitting punishment was to saddle Utto with the award he had tried so hard to avoid.

Of Whitey's Plans
In the meantime, Whitey White Wolf's (so his full name) energies weren't exhausted with shifting officers. He wanted the shire to be strong and wealthy and well-respected, and to accomplish that he used a two-fold strategy. First, he used techniques of group organization and -motivation he had learned in the strange land of Mundania to form a working team of the disparate individuals that made up Turmstadt, second he tried to initiate large-scale high-prestige projects like getting the Shire Members teaching jobs at evening schools, renting large historical sites like the Nuremberg castle, or buying and renovating a castle ruin with one wall and no roof.
But while most of the American shire members liked his plans well enough, the German ones didn't and tried everything to sabotage him, from sweet talking to plain ignoring what he said, thus gaining a reputation for ruthless plotting and scheming. On the other hand they were unwilling to outrightly crush youthful optimism, so they didn't take any decisive action.

Of the Principality Fighters' Collegium
Back in those times, it was custom to hold a Principality Fighters' Collegium once a year, and in the beautiful May of '93 the honour to host that event fell on Turmstadt, who still had access to American Military sites. During the planning stage in February, Inge offered to Feastocrat, but the job went to Thorin, who had, all in all, more experience. (Inge was, in fact, rather relieved when she was informed of this decision, and decided to take a holiday in May.)
By all accounts it was a great event, even if anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Promised resources weren't available, back-up-plans failed, and a panicked Wolfgang phoned Andreas, who plundered his mother's pantry and herb garden, confiscated his father's wagon and spent the Saturday in Wolfgang's kitchen to prepare food which could be taken to the event site.
Mathieu and Thorin, as Autocrat and Feastocrat got awarded a Dragon's Tear for a 'Great Event despite adverse conditions', and Inge, Wolfgang and Gernot got reprimanded for having made themselves scarce.

Of an Attempt to Re-structure
In that Spring, attendance to Shire Meetings was often low and the attendees less-than-enthusiastic, so Mathieu, the Divan and the Deputy Seneshal gathered and talked about a way to differ between organizational meetings and social gatherings. Organizational meetings would be attended only by Officers (i.e. the Seneshal, the MoAS, the Herald and Mathieu [whether as Fighting Marshal or as elder statesman].)
They intended to propose that change to the Shire as soon as Ito Kiomoto went back to the States and Whitey became Seneshal.

Of THAT Shire Meeting

Clouds Gather
Whitey had made it a custom to keep an open line for shire business every Thursday, and Inge used to phone him for a chat and some gossip. It was in one of those conversations in July of '93 that Whitey announced his intention to remove Gernot from the Herald's office and give it to Aethstan, a newbie who had appeared at a few shire meetings and seemed a nice enough guy.
Inge, never one to keep a secret, phoned Gernot and told him, then left him to cool off and phoned Aethstan to ask him whether being Turmstadt's Herald was really his heart's desire. Aethstan was surprised to hear that the office wasn't vacant, as he had assumed, and declared that he didn't wish to take any office away from anyone.
The Divan gathered and found itself in a quandary. Youthful optimism, well and good, but can you defend one of your own without hurting anyone? Do you have the right to? Were Whitey's actions a danger to the Shire or just an annoynace to some of its members? They debated a whole night and half a day and a lot of grievances were aired and talked through, and in the end they decided that they had kept silent too long already.

Thunder Rumbles
Time was running out, because the next shire meeting where Whitey intended to announce the change in the Herald's office was only two days away. They needed to talk with Whitey fast if they wanted to avoid a nasty scene at the shire meeting.
But fate and circumstance thought different about it: Whitey could not be reached until Sunday evening, and then he had no time to discuss the matter, for he had to iron his shirts. So Inge asked him to adjourn his plans until they had talked about it, or at least not to put that topic on top of the coming shire meeting's agenda, since they had a good half-hour drive to Nuremberg-South and needed to pick up a lady who was working until half an hour before the scheduled meeting time, and were likely to be late.

Lightning Strikes
When the eight people from Erlangen arrived at the shire meeting a quarter of an hour late, Mathieu was holding a class on SCA etiquette. It was quite interesting, and although they had urgent business on their minds, they listed for nearly half an hour. After which Whitey told them that he had conducted the office change business before they appeared, since their tardiness had led him to assume they weren't interested in the matter.
The Divan members turned several interesting colours and demanded the matter to be discussed again. Since there were many of them and they couldn't be talked into letting the matter rest, a lively discussion ensued, which threatened to escalate into a brawl more than once, but rye beer, chocolate and Mathieu prevented the worst.
Whitey left after 20 minutes, but the discussion raged on for another two hours, after which Kiomoto and Mathieu both were conviced that there was a problem somewhere.

After the Storm
The talk with Whitey that the Divan had wanted so urgently took place two days later and they came to the agreement that the Divan would restrain from revolutions and shouting matches and Whitey would restrain from making official decisions before discussing them with the Divan.
And for some months all was at least moderately well.
And the lady who had been working late on the day of THAT shire meeting was Solveig, who, after that, was never again shocked by anything that happened at a shire meeting.

Of the Drachenwald University in Nebelwald
The Drachenwald University that year took place in the Barracks in Nebelwald, where the clouds reach down to your head and the mud comes up to your knees. But the singing and drinking was fun, as usual.

Of the Turmstadt Julfest
The Turmstadt Julfest took place in December at the Naturfreundehaus in Erlangen.
There, a gentle new to Turmstadt but already well-known to most of its members appeared: Bernwarth von der Hüpp, once of Drei Eichen, who liked singing, drinking and telling everyone honestly what they least wanted to hear (a trait he was rather proud of).
Not knowing the last, the Divan invited him for tea and introduced him into the political intricities of the shire, including that they thought Solveig, although member of the shire for barely half a year, would make a good seneshal, and that he shouldn't tell that to Whitey, because he would be seriously unhappy and didn't really deserve that. Better, the divan said, give that matter some time, things are cooling down already.
Of course the divan made a grave misjudgement here: The first thing Bernwart did when he was introduced to Whitey was telling him that the shire wanted Solveig as a seneshal, not him. That was the last day that Whitey was ever seen in the shire, and so the situation was solved.

The accounts of the following years have not yet been transcribed.

Appendix

1. Tell lots of filk stories. Make one up if you don't know any.


2. Drink lots of tea. You may drink scotch if you're out of tea.


3. Only start a rebellion if you think you are right.

AEQUITAS  LIBERALITAS  SAPIENTIA
(Gleichheit, Großzügigkeit, Vernunft)
(Equality, Generosity, Reason)

aequitas:

1. Geduld, Ruhe, Gleichmut, Gelassenheit


2. Gleichheit (vor dem Gesetz), Gerechtigkeit, Billigkeit


3. Billigkeit

liberalitas:

1. edle Gesinnung, Güte, Freundlichkeit


2. Freigiebigkeit

sapientia:

1. Einsicht, Klugheit, Verstand


2. Weisheit, Philosophie

Name	lbs.	40yds	30yds	20yds	20yds (sp.)	total
Gernot	40	9	--	--	3	12
Inge	40	--	3	4	6	13
Wolfgang	40	1	5	19	11	36
Wolfgang	50	2	4	5	5	16
Jörg	50	9	6	19	4	38
Ricarda	30	--	3	3	--	6

We are Turmstadt's proud archers, we are Drachenwald's pride
At the first sound of war we will look where to hide.
Our captain is bold, our captain is brave,
He will march in the front 'till he thinks it's not save.

On defense of our banner no forces we'll waste
Those four square feet of cloth can be quickly replaced.
We are training each day 'till we fall off our feet
Our only maneuver: disordered retreat.

Our financial status is one of reknown:
When we get near an alehouse all the shutters go down.
But at every event our banner you'll see
Just as long as you state that our drinking is free.

We are loyal and faithful to our king and the crown,
When he tells us to revel we won't let him down.
We are true to our king this is known far and wide
We'll just start a rebellion if we think we are right.

Brave fighters, move gently and slow, just be kind
So that Turmstadt's proud archers can follow behind!

        Wolfgang vom Bruch, 1992

From Ingeborg, MoAS of the Shire of Turmstadt (former Flusstetten) to Lord Richard Rowntree,
Greetings!
After reading in May's Dragon's Tale that You expect a report from Turmstadt's Canchellor of the Exchequer, I conferred with the Captain of Archers. We both admit the importance of getting the reports done, so I volunteered to write this letter, though it's not much of a report. The harsh truth is: There is no money -- so there is no CotE -- so there is no report. We cannot nominate anyone in the Shire as CotE, since holding this office in Turmstadt means more frustration than any sentinent human being can possibly bear.
To illustrate our desastrous financial situation, I can give you a few numbers. They are not necessarily exact, because all our bills are paid out of the personal coffers of the Shire members who dare not look too closely at their expenses.
In the last four months we have had expenses of roughly 1500,- DM, mostly for archery equipment (targets, a taper tool, a fletching gig, one bow and three dozen arrows for beginners without own equipment) and books for the A&S library, furthermore for rattan, leather, duct tape, tools as well as fuel and the costs for a demo. Our income figures out exactly 100,- DM, which are donations from non-SCA friends who take part in our archery practise sometimes and couldn't bear to hear us crying about empty pockets and pantries anymore.
As the demo took place only recently, our seneshal hopes to see some of the money back in form of site fees, but I am not that optimistic.
Being a 'group for historical studies and reenactment', we already asked for money from the city. They let us know this was the best joke they had heard in years.
Our next idea was begging in the streets (positively period!), but lords and ladies are excluded from the local beggar's guild.
Finally we thought about robbing the bank, but we dropped that idea because our only longbow did not fit into the violin case and our escape bicycles are still kept by the repair-shop since we coulnd't pay the bills.
To complicate the administration of the Shire's monetary ressources even more, most members of former Flusstetten have returned to the Old Kingdoms, and their sucessors are in office for less than four months. We don't know of any Shire bank account that might have existed once upon a time. If there is one, the knowledge has vanished. In case we should get access to any information concerning this topic, we will gladly pass it on to you.
Oh most noble, generous and mercyful lord, the fate of the steadfast heirs of glorious Flusstetten lies in your hands. Please open your heart and your coffers to our misery, or at least spare us from any dreadful consequences you might have in mind for non-report-and-bank-account-sending shires. (And please apologize my humble English).
In your service, Ingeborg, Shire of Turmstadt, 10 day of May, XXVII A.S.
     P.S. This report was not authorized by anyone but the MoAS and the CoA.