Goetz von Berlichingen (of the Iron Hand), a German knight of the 16th century; was involved in turbulent movements, and lost his right hand at the siege of Landshut, which he replaced by one of his own invention made of steel; spent his life in feuds, and left an autobiography which interested Goethe, who dramatised his story, “to save,” as he said, “the memory of a brave man from darkness,” a drama that had the honour of being translated by Sir Walter Scott.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von * Gog and Magog