Rosa 'Tan08973' STÖRTEBEKER hybrid tea shrub rose (Tantau)

Klaus Störtebeker was a German pirate from the late 14th century who plied the waters of the Baltic and the North and until there are many myths and legends about his life. During the Swedish-Danish War, when he was as a sailor, he and his men were hired by the Swedes to fight against the Danes and to help supply Stockholm. He somehow grew fond of the battles so despite the end of the war he continued to raid merchant ships and appropriate their goods and wealth, in other words he became a pirate. The most widespread, but now debunked, legend says that he and his 73 companions were captured in 1401, and in Hamburg they were sentenced to death for piracy by beheading. Their heads were allegedly impaled on stakes along the Elbe River as a warning to other pirates.

Nevertheless, records have been preserved that indicate that Klaus, who was called Johann by the way, had already died the year before, along with 30 companions, though of unknown reason. Even though he was a negative character as a pirate, Klaus Störtebeker became a German icon about whom novels were written, an opera was composed, he has a statue in Hamburg, and there is an annual festival held in his honor in Rügen Island. And what does it have to do with roses? At least one mistake: there is a portrait of Kunz von den Rosen, the court jester of Emperor Maximilian I, which is often mistakenly identified as a portrait of Klaus Störtebeker.