Die Landshuter Hochzeit
Trip Start
Jul 07, 2005
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3
14
Trip End
Sep 03, 2005
Landshut,
Germany
Sunday, July 10, 2005
I arrived in Munich late Saturday evening. Early Sunday morning I boarded the train for Landshut, which celebrates the "Landshuter Hochzeit 1475" every four years. The "Hochzeit" re-enacts the arrival of Princess Hedwig from Poland for her wedding to Duke Georg, son of Duke Ludwig the Rich. The wedding represented a strategic alliance of the Wittelsbach family with the Kingdom of Poland. Lots of important people were there, including Kaiser Friedrich III and his son Maximilian (often called "The Last Knight").
Arriving about 09:15, I took the bus into the Altstadt and wandered around for a little bit. It was drizzling, so not much was happening yet. I did go into St. Martins Church, the "Dom" or cathedral. My first sensation upon entering the church was the odor of incense. I could understand older writers' use of the term "the smell of the holy." Priests, nuns, monks and other religious persons would carry the smell of the incense with them even when they left the church. Since they were considered holy people, the smell of the incense both in the church and on them would be considered a "holy odor" (as opposed to "holy order" :b). Then I walked around the town a bit more. By this time the rain was coming a bit harder.
At 11:00 I attended the "Festspiel," a humorous play that tells the story of the wedding negotiations, the trip from Krakow to Landshut, tensions between "Hof und Stadt" (Court and City), the arrival of the Princess, the wedding and following celebration.
01 Landshut in the morning
All of the actors are residents of the city - in fact, all of the actors for the entire pageant are residents, and that includes upwards of 1,000 people. The play was funny and well done. Many medieval elements were incorporated into it, including the distinction between the noble spectators and the gallery for commoners. When the troupe of players depicted things a little too realistically, Duke Ludwig objected. There was also a lot of interaction between "audience" and players. And, as always, they included the "Totentanz" (Dance of Death) as a reminder of how fleeting this world is.By the time the play was over, it had stopped raining, and the sun was trying to come out - not very successfully, though. I got a couple of Wurst for lunch and found my seat for the parade, i.e. the princess' arrival in Landshut. While we waited, street performers wandered around to entertain us. I was particularly impressed by an acrobatic troupe. They built pyramids, did feats of strength and performed handstands and other acrobatic stunts. One stunt consisted of the troupe forming a double row and tossing one of the members into the air between them. The guy being tossed did flips and other tricks in the air. A couple of kids around 12 or 13 were part of the troupe, and they did all of the things that everyone else did, including being tossed into the air and standing at the very top of the pyramids. I couldn't help but wonder how that would go over in the U.S. We seem to be getting so concerned about possible litigation that our youth are prevented from experiencing life and testing themselves.
02 The Festspiel 1
(Okay, off of soapbox.)Just about the time the parade started, it began to rain again. The attendants asked us not to use umbrellas, because people in the upper rows wouldn't be able to see. A very nice lady next to me offered me a rain cap, so I managed to stay relatively dry. About halfway through the parade, the rain let up. A couple of policemen and workers from the "Technisches Hilfswerk" decided they were supposed to stand in front of our grandstand instead of 5 feet over in front of the non-paying onlookers, so that interfered a bit with my taking pictures. Other than that, though, the parade was enjoyable. Commoners, guards, knights, nobility, royalty, even the Kaiser and his son, were in the parade. At the very end came "das fahrende Volk" (i.e. gypsies). The parade lasted about an hour. Then there was a short pause, and everyone came back, only much more quickly. The way the parade route was laid out - and because there was no way for the wagons to go other than the parade route - they had to return the same way in order to get to the festival grounds. So, we got to see the parade twice.
As the parade passed the second time, the onlookers left the grandstands and followed the parade to the festival grounds. There they had an encampment and the tournament field. Prior to the tournament there was entertainment: jugglers, acrobats, etc. Then the nobility began arriving. After everyone was in place, the first contest was the "Rolandspiel," or "Iron Knight." Riders tried to strike a spot on a shield with their lances.
03 The Festspiel 2
If they were successful, the bullseye section of the shield flipped back. If they struck the shield anywhere else, the mechanism spun around, and a flail would strike the rider in the back. In medieval times, this was a metal ball on the end of a cord. For modern times, they switched the metal to leather - but they said that it still gave riders bruises. The winners received a "Buchsenkranz," or wreath of boxwood, as a prize.Then came the flag twirlers. In the Middle Ages this was a male pursuit. The flags were each at least 1.5 by 2 meters with the pole about 2/3 of a meter longer than the flag's width and weighted at the bottom. Among other things they tossed them to one another over distances of 20+ feet. Each performer was supposed to catch the flag and continue without the flag ever touching the ground. The flags they used were heraldically correct for the areas represented at the "Hochzeit," so it would be an insult for the flag to hit the ground. (Unfortunately, a couple of them did.)
Next was the ring spearing contest. Concentric rings were hung from a beam, and riders attempted to spear the innermost ring with their lance. The culmination of this event was a pair of riders that simultaneously speared the same ring.
After some more flag waving and tossing, the knights entered for the joust. The purpose was to shatter one's lance against the opponent's breastplate rather than to injure or unhorse the opponent. While perhaps not as exciting as what is done at Excalibur and Medieval Times, it was more authentic as far as what was done at the time of the wedding.
04 Street Performers
And it still made for a nice spectacle. They cut the joust short because it suddenly began to rain again. I'm certain the concern was for the safety of the horses and riders, since they were jousting outdoors on grass (and mud). The grandstands erupted in a sea of umbrellas as everyone stood to leave as well.Most of us went to the encampment where they were also selling food. The actors had several areas: the bridal party was under a tent with a royal feast; guards had their area; common folk had a couple of sheds; even the gypsies had an area. Several open fires were going, but there was no danger of it getting out of control since everything was soaked from the rain - which had been going on for several days. Eventually the rain stopped, and people began moving around a bit more and coming to the edge of the encampments to talk to the tourists and townspeople not in the pageant. Some of the children started playing an interesting game: they stacked blocks of wood beneath the anchor point for a rope tied to a beam set about 10 feet high. At the other end of the rope was a weight. One person holding the weight stepped back several feet and released the weight. The idea was to knock over the blocks. Given long enough, of course, the weight would knock over the blocks. Sometimes it took quite a few swings of the weight to do so, though.
It finally was getting late, so I headed back to the station to catch the train for Munich. The "Landshuter Hochzeit" was very enjoyable, and I was impressed by how much the city got behind the event. They probably understand how important those tourist and visitor euros can be to the local economy. Now I'm looking forward to next Saturday when I go to the "Kaltenberger Ritterturnier." Just from the advertising, I think it will be more "spectacular" than the Hochzeit - but I'll have to let you know. For now, though . .
wuensche ich Euch nochmals Gottes reichsten Segen!
Robert
