Ulrich Schmidl

Ulrich Schmidl or Schmidel, the sources also Utz Schmidl (* 1510 in Straubing, † 1580/1581 in Regensburg ) was a German mercenary in the service of the conquistadors, patrician, explorer, chronicler and councilman. Schmidl is beside Hans Staden, one of the few mercenaries who have written down their experiences.

Life

Ulrich Schmidl was born in 1510 as one of three sons of the respected Straubinger and patrician mayor Wolfgang Schmidl. Little is known about his youth.

It was not until 1534 we learn more about Schmidl, when he participated as a mercenary under Pedro de Mendoza of Cádiz in Spain from 3000 along with another soldier in an expedition into what is now Argentina (Río de la Plata). Schmidl lived and fought there for almost 20 years and became a co-founder of Buenos Aires in Argentina in February 1535 and Asunción in Paraguay. His journey took him across the Río Paraná and Río Paraguay into present-day Paraguay. From there he made several expeditions in the Gran Chaco, which led him to high in southeastern Bolivia. About his experiences on the Río de la Plata in 1567, he wrote a report in German language, which was published as wahrhafftige histories of a wonderful shipping in 1599 in Nuremberg, which he was Álvar Núñez Cabeza together with de Vaca for the first historians of Argentina and Paraguay.

The location of the conquistadors was marked by constant hunger to cannibalism. The conquest brought a little and the mortality rate was very high. Schmidl describes the brutality of the raids in the Indian territories. Due to the small prey, the conquistadors fought among themselves. The raids went to Peru. Schmidl describes his behavior as a mercenary, which was a constant killing, a battle for booty and the enslavement of Indians.

Motivated by a letter from his brother Thomas Schmidl returned on January 26, 1554 with a few spoils to Straubing back. Thomas died on 20 September 1554 and Ulrich inherited property from his deceased brother and was alderman. Because he pleaded to Lutheranism, but he had to leave and walked Straubing to Regensburg in 1562, where he brought it up to his death in 1579 to great wealth.