Heavy cannonball from iron.
The object was a gift from the field hospital superintendent Johann Jakob Keidel to the Gewerbemuseum (Museum of Applied Arts) Ulm in 1921. From 1900/1901 on Keidel was deployed in the field hospital in Tianjin (Tientsin) in the garrison of the Ostasiatische Expeditionskorps (East Asian expeditionary corps), since 1901 called Ostasiatische Besatzungsbrigade (East Asian occupation brigade) and was therefore involved in the military operation of the German Empire in the Boxer Rebellion. During his two-year lasting stay in China, he collected different items, including Chinese pieces of clothing and tools or bullets from the context of the combat actions. He obtained the objects i. a. through purchase from Chinese merchants or as gifts. A selection of his collection he committed in several portions to the Gewerbemuseum Ulm as gifts or loans.
The cannonball was given to Keidel as a gift in 1901. It reportedly comes from the siege of the former monastery Peitang (forts of Peitang) in the north of Beijing by the Boxers who shot it on the monastery complex in 1900. On August 27, 1901, the Mother Superior gave the cannonball as a souvenir to Keidel when he visited the monastery.
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