Recently I've been looking for Landsknecht's stuff in the range of 1487- 1527 years. However, what I most had difficulty finding was regarding how was the use of Kriegsmesser (or even other types of Messers itself) among them. I mean, although these swords are ALWAYS associated with them, I did not find more than two pictures representing them. In fact, the only sword that really seems to be popular is the Katzbalger, which is better suited to fight in pike formations (and I guess it would be cheaper than messers). This ends up leading me to think that this type of weapon was not necessarily used by common Landsknecht but by Doppelsoldners.

The Doppelsoldners were the only ones who could use other weapons that weren't the pikes: halberds, zweihanders, partisans and arquebuses. In fact, what really made me think that they were used by Doppelsoldners was the illustration of a Arquebusier with a kriegsmesser or grosse messer (I do not exactly know the difference) on his waist.
[ Linked Image ]

But they were necessarily more common among arquebusiers than others? Why it was a less popular sword that Katzsbalger even among Doppelsoldners?

Can we could see these few representations as an evidence for a not so significant popularity? What kind of soldier usually had this type of sword in 15th/16th's Germany?