Berthold Schwarz facts for kids
Berthold Schwarz (also spelled Schwartz) was a famous German alchemist from the late 1300s. Some stories say he was Danish or Greek. He is often given credit for inventing gunpowder in books from the 1400s to the 1800s.
Schwarz supposedly lived and worked between the late 1200s, when gunpowder was first mentioned in Europe, and the mid-1400s, when cannons and other artillery became more common.
It's not clear if Berthold Schwarz was a real person. Some experts think he was a real alchemist who developed gunpowder in Germany. Others believe he is just a legend.
Who Was Berthold Schwarz?
Some people think Berthold Schwarz might have been Bertold von Lützelstetten. He was a scholar known as "Master Bertoldus" at the University of Paris from 1329 to 1336. Other ideas suggest he was Konstantin Angeleisen (or Anklitzen). This person was in trouble for being an alchemist and had to run away to Prague. He faced serious punishment there in 1388. Some old writings even say Berthold Schwarz was of African descent.
It's also possible that Schwarz was not a real person at all. His name might come from Schwarzpulver, which means "black powder" in German. This is the German word for gunpowder. So, he could be a made-up inventor whose name comes from the invention itself.
Stories About Him
The first mention of Berthold Schwarz is in an old book about fireworks from around 1410. This book, found in many copies from the 1400s, says that an alchemist and Master of Arts, "Master Berthold," accidentally found gunpowder. It doesn't give many details about when or where this happened.
More details appeared later, thanks to Franz Helm. He was a writer in Landshut in the 1520s and 1530s. Helm was the first to call him "the Black" (niger in Latin). Helm wrote:
- "Here it is told who first invented powder and guns. This was a monk from the Bernhardine order named Bartoldus nigersten ... in the year 1380 ... bartoldus niger was put to death for the art he had invented in the year 1388."
A historian named Feldhaus (in 1910) thought these early stories about "Master Berthold" should be taken seriously. He believed there was a real alchemist named Berthold, called "the Black," who was part of the Order of St. Bernard. Feldhaus thought Berthold developed a good recipe for gunpowder around 1380. He might have even been punished as a magician a few years later. The gunpowder recipes in German books from the 1400s might have come directly from Berthold's recipe.
Feldhaus compared this historical Master Berthold to James Watt. Watt didn't invent the steam engine from scratch. Instead, he made big improvements to an earlier invention by Denis Papin. These improvements made the steam engine truly useful. In the same way, Berthold might not have invented gunpowder from nothing. But he could have made a recipe that was so good it led to the growth of gunpowder warfare in the 1400s.
His Legacy
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In 1853, a monument was built for Berthold Schwarz in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. It was designed by Josef Alois Knittel.
Johann Anzengruber, the father of Austrian writer Ludwig Anzengruber, wrote a play about Berthold Schwarz. This play was shown in Vienna in the 1800s. It was famous for a big explosion at the end!
See also
In Spanish: Berthold Schwarz para niños
