![The wheellock pistols used in the 1659 duel were not reliable, so the horsemen had to shoot at point blank range.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/duell-solothurn-titel-300x173.jpg)
Pistols sing the song of death
Why did two respectable Schaffhausen noblemen have a duel on a freezing cold January afternoon in 1659? And in Solothurn? The story of a long-standing family feud.
![Portrait of Hans Friedrich Im Thurn, who was violently beaten by Christoph Ziegler and his brothers in 1654.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/im-thurn-213x300.jpg)
Insults by messenger
![View of the town Solothurn, dated 1659, the year when the duel took place.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/solothurn-1-300x227.jpg)
Double duel
![Wheellock pistol made by gunsmith Felix Werder from Zurich, circa. 1640.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/pistole-300x113.jpg)
![Duel on horseback between Heinrich Im Thurn and Christoph Ziegler, anonymous, circa. 1660.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/duell-solothurn-300x121.jpg)
Revenge of the Im Thurn family
![Memorial near Riedholz which commemorates the event of 1659 near the location of the duel.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kreuz-216x300.jpg)