I gotta say, in fits and starts, this is getting to be a pretty hip forum. Better questions, better answers. Maybe we really are making a difference.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katzbalger

The short sidearm you see in that image is called a katzbalger, a very specific type of sword associated with the Landsknechts, the (mostly) German mercenaries who formed independent companies in the 16th Century and remained militarily important until the 17th.

They differed from a lot of other mercenaries, notably the Swiss, in preferring these special type of cutting swords with S shaped hand-guards, usually quite short, as sidearms instead of longswords, bastard swords or messers. The Swiss also used the baselard as a sidearm but in war (in period art and also in records) you see them using longswords as sidearms quite a bit.

The shorter katzbalger (some katzbalgers were quite long, even two-handed versions existed) is handier in a close-press, arguably, in the middle of a mob of people during a rout or a retreat, or in that so-called "bad war" situation that all the infantry companies dreaded. The katzbalgers usually had broad, fairly heavy blades so were good at hacking off limbs and so on while being unlikely to break, and yet balanced by a stout brass handle, pretty nimble too. Unlike a longsword or a rapier they didn't require a lot of training to use.

But the Swiss arguably had a better record in close-combat so they may have been on the winning side of the argument, at least when (Landsknechts fought Reislauffer)

G