Peasants Turn Out with Pitchforks and Torches

Crowds with pitchforks and torches still turn out to chase out unwanted visitors in small towns near us. 

Photo for Nordbayern.de © Verena Masopust

For a couple of years now, the nationally owned German Rail company (Deutsche Bahn, DB) has been searching for a suitable site to build a maintenance facility for its high-speed trains (ICE). It has been looking at various sites around the city of Nuremberg. Everywhere they go, the local people protest against the imposition on the local resources and destruction of natural beauty.

Most recently, two representatives of the DB traveled to the town of Harrlach to pitch their ideas for locating the new facility in a chunk of the Bann forest adjacent to the town. Needless to say, the local residents were not crazy about having so much of their forest destroyed. After the DB representatives made their pitch, the residents sent them off, voicing their disagreement by reviving an 18th century farmers' tradition. Much noise was made and, typical for Germany, a rhyming song accompanied the occasion.

A sample of the text (chosen from among the 18 verses) with which the DB representatives were sent off follows. You won't find some of these words in the dictionary, because they are in thick Franconian dialect:

„Wir san die Harrlacher Haberfeldtreiber, wir stelln uns quer, wir machen immer weiter. Wir san do bei der Nacht, wir san do am Dooch, des merktster, Deutsche Bahn, wir loun net noch!“

„Vom ICE waschns jede Muckn; Bei uns do falln die Brunna truckn.“ 

 „Zehntausend Kloschüsseln, sauber wäi gmolt; Frag amal wer des Abwasser zohlt?“

„Hundert Fragen stellst der Bahn; als Antwort kommt bloß: Raumordnungsverfahrn. (...) Da fällt der Bannwald, Hieb für Hieb; so grün ist der Staatsbetrieb.“  

 "The Harrlach Haberfeldtreiber are we, we dig in our heels, resist perpetually.

We're here by night, we're here by day. You see, Deutsche Bahn, we will not cave!

"From the ICE, they wash each fly; all the while our wells run dry.

"Ten-thousand toilet bowls, clean as if new painted. Guess who pays the costs of water tainted?

"The Bahn's only answer to a hundred requests is the "regional planning process" ... So falls the Bann forest, tree by tree. How green can the state's operation be?"

Most German trains run on electricity from lines above the tracks, like street cars do. Even though the Deutsche Bahn prides itself on using "green" sources of electricity to run the trains, this search for a new site is going off the rails.  

The event is called a "Haberfeldtreiben" meaning "to drive someone out through the oat field," Haber is local dialect for Hafer=oats. The custom dates to the 1700s, came from upper Bavaria, and provided a way for the peasants to voice their opinions to the nobles. They would gather after dark, chanting while dressed in black with blackened faces or wearing wooden masks representing devils (see our blog about the Perchtentreiben), carrying torches, cow bells and pitchforks. 

So this is a great demonstration of several themes that we have observed in our time here, including the Franks' (pron. "Frahnks" = Franconians') love of trees and the revival of old traditions, some of which draw on ancient pagan rites. The rhyming chant is also typical of how certain occasions are marked. Fans shout chants and sing songs at soccer games, and groups at beer gardens have traditional ditties. Trick-or-treating children sing a song when they come to the door at Halloween asking politely for candy. To express their gratitude, kids are even expected to recite a poem or sing a verse before they open their Christmas presents! And on the feast of Epiphany, the kids dressed as the three "kings" go door-to-door singing a song at each house as they ask for donations to that year's charity. (on the 2014 Christmas/2015 New Year's blog, scroll to the end to see the section about the Epiphany in Germany)

Unlike the French, who are notorious for going on strike at the drop of a hat, the Franks are notorious for being laconic and it takes a lot to get them angry. On the jubilant end of the spectrum, they are so restrained, they only get publicly crazy and silly on certain occasions such as Fasching (Mardi Gras), which they make into a week-long party season prior to Lent, the yearly Kirchweih (beer festivals), soccer games, New Year's Eve, ... and I can't think of any other occasions!

Here's the link to the original article: Harrlach residents up in arms, protest against the Bahn: our wells will run dry

Riemenschneider's Last Supper and Rothenburg

 It was a beautiful fall day on Halloween, so we made a day trip to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Galgentor (Gallows Gate)

We took the train and walked from the station to one of the city gates. The medieval town is surrounded by a city wall that you can climb and walk around the city on.

Walking the city wall

 

 

The city's history goes back to the Hohenstaufen dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire, which included Konrad III, who ruled from 1138 until his death in Bamberg in 1152. Holy Roman Emperors did not collectively have a permanent residence; instead each had a home base. Konrad did not have a home base large enough for someone of his position, so he decided to build one on a hill overlooking the Tauber river.

Pilgrimage route

Konrad built his castle in 1142, and of course a village grew up around it. Konrad built his castle at the crossing of two important pan-European routes. Of the three most important pilgrimage destinations in Christendom (Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela) Rothenburg was along a north-south route to Rome, and also along one of the east-west routes called St. James' Way to Santiago de Compostela, where the tomb of St. James is located. The most important church in Rothenburg is St. Jakobskirche (St. James Church), built next to the north-south route. When the church was enlarged with an addition to its west end, the addition had to bridge over the pilgrimage route, because you know you don't change pilgrimage routes! 

Coat of Arms

Rothenburg obtained official market rights in 1172, which was a big deal because of the money that could be made. (Have you read Ken Follett's novel Pillars of the Earth?) Rothenburg gained in importance, and in 1274 the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf I, made Rothenburg a Free Imperial City, meaning that it did not belong to one of the Princes, Dukes, Counts or other rulers that made up the empire. Rather, it belonged to the emperor himself. As such, the city also obtained a Reichskammergericht, (Imperial Chamber of Justice), which is represented by the small building between the two towers in the city's coat of arms. By 1400, Rothenburg was second only to Cologne in size. The first fortress walls surrounding the city enclosed a relatively small area. Part of the original wall was made of a Spital, which was a combination hospital, old-folks home, and hotel for pilgrims. These people were associated with disease, and that is the reason for not letting them stay long inside the city. Monastic orders also put up pilgrims in the monasteries overnight, even though they were inside the city walls, but religious buildings were officially part of the Roman Church and did not fall under the jurisdiction of the city.  

Röderbogen (Markusturm in background)

One of the remaining towers from the old inner wall is the Markusturm (Markus tower), shown with its city gate (Röderbogen) in the photo. Another is the Weißer Turm (White tower). You can see some of the many business signs extending from the buildings and hanging over the street. They are very decorative, and original to the medieval situation when people were illiterate. So the signs had to show what business was located in the shops. A tour guide told us that the city fathers knew very well how important the signs were, and so imposed an "air tax" on the signs hanging over the street. The business people were clever, and they put the signs on hinges in order to bring them up against the buildings.

Weißer Turm

High Altar in the chancel of the church

 

 

 

 

 

Inside the first town wall is the Jakobskirche, mentioned earlier. The current church was started by the Teutonic Order of Knights in 1298. Only the chancel (the part occupied by the priest and monks) was built in the first of three stages. It was butted up against an older Romanesque church, and when the chancel was complete in 1322, the Romanesque church was torn down. 

The chancel contains a stone altar piece with an early depiction of the trinity as the Father, the Son, and a dove as the Holy Spirit all together. The beautiful colors must be older than 1544, because after the Reformation came to Rothenburg at the end of the Peasants' War, the church became protestant, and colored statues did not adhere to Martin Luther's ideas. One reference I read said that Friederich Herlin, the same person who made the altar, also painted the older stone altar. 

Early depiction of the trinity

Behind the high altar are scenes painted on the wood. There are several scenes of St. James, and in particular of the transport of his dead body to the church in Santiago de Compostela.  The painter of the scenes had never been there, so he used Rothenburg instead. The result is the first depiction of Rothenburg's market square and city hall and the first aerial view of a city to be achieved in southern Germany.

Rothenburg's market square above

 

Nave of St.Jakobskirche

 

 

The second part of the church was then constructed from 1372 until 1436: the part of the nave extending almost to the organ. Construction had to stop there, because the pilgrimage route was just outside. The third part of the church was constructed from 1453 until 1471, and it is the part that contains the organ and that bridges the pilgrimage route. It is also the part that contains Tilman Riemenschneider's Holy Blood Altar.

Riemenschneider carved the scenes in the altar from 1501 until 1504, and the main scene depicts the last supper. This is in keeping with the reliquary, which contains a piece of cloth with three drops of consecrated wine (hence, the blood of Christ). The reliquary is a piece of rock crystal mounted at the center of the crucifix.

The depiction of the last supper is unusual, because it depicts Judas in the center rather than Jesus, who is slightly to the left and higher. Judas is depicted with a back of money in his left hand. Notice that next to the bag is the face of the apostle John, who has collapsed onto Jesus's lap in distress.

 

Holy blood reliquary

 

 

Last supper by Riemenschneider

 

We had a wonderful day in Rothenburg, and we sat outdoors for a meal of venison cubes in a dark wine gravy with spaetzle and batter-fried carp, two traditional Frankonian dishes. The restaurant's outdoor seating was on the site of the former cemetery of St. Jakobskirche, and the former chapel building is still next door.

former cemetery chapel

The reason Rothenburg is so well preserved is that its significance waned after the destruction suffered from the Thirty Years' War (1618 to 1648) that left 2/3 of its inhabitants dead. The city never recovered from this era. The medieval architecture remained frozen in time. That anything at all survived  the war is, according to folklore, due to the mayor Georg Nusch (Nu-sh). In 1631, the troops of Catholic General Tilly with his army of 40,000 troops laid siege to the protestant town. The town was therefore threatened with starvation, and so the town sent out women and children to plead for the town, but the General was not deterred. Finally, the mayor made a wager with the general. The mayor claimed to be able to drink over 3 liters of Franconian wine in one gulp, known as the Meistertrunk (Master Draught). A recreation can be seen every day in the glockenspiel next to the city hall at noon, and also every year the Meistertrunk is reenacted during the town festival.

What survived until the 1940s was seen even by the Germans as the ideal German town and for the Nazis it came to represent the ideal German home town. So it was occupied by German forces when the Allies bombed it on March 31, 1945. Because the U.S. Assistant secretary of war, John McCloy, was told of the town's beauty by his mother, he ordered that no artillery be used when the Americans took the town. Luckily, the American forces were able to convince the Germans to surrender without a fight (contrary to Hitler's orders), and the town was spared further damage. 

However, 40% of the town's buildings had already been damaged, mostly on the city's east side. To retain its charm, the damaged buildings were rebuilt in a style as close to the original medieval style as possible. McCloy was later made an honorary citizen.

Besides the charming lanes and streets and towers and houses in the old town, one of the most famous attractions is the Christmas museum associated with the Wohlfahrt family. Their famous store is called Käthe Wohlfahrt; open year round, it offers Christmas ornaments made in Germany and it is so crowded with tourists that in the store itself, visitors are guided through the store on one-way only paths. But you don't have to go to Rothenburg to see a Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas store. There's one in Nuremberg, a 20 minute train ride away from us. 

Another attraction is the "Criminal Museum", which includes shudder-inducing authentic examples of common medieval torture devices, all instruments of what passed for justice in those years. Kathy remembers how disturbing her first visit to this museum was, and does not want to go back there. However, the museum has since added exhibits about how justice was perceived in the middle ages up through today, and there is information about the witch persecutions of the 1600s and 1700s. 

Today, Rothenburg is indeed charming. It is well worth visiting in the off-season, when busloads of tourists from all over the world no longer throng the streets.