GENGENBACH
FOOLS MUSEUM - NIGGELTURM
Fools Tower of the Black Forest
Upon
visiting Gengenbach and the Fools Museum in the medieval tower
and hearing of the Fools Guilds of Swabia and Alemannic, the first
thoughts which pop into the head - I didn’t know jesters had
unions – or are there still jesters if there are no kings left?
But the instinct of custom and language would be amiss. The fools
here in question to be found in the Niggel Tower (Niggelturm)
of this lovely town of the Black Forest are of the “5th Season” Carnival
variety of the pre-Lent celebrations.
Every
year, on a Saturday, three and a half weeks before Ash Wednesday
the town is awakened by the Hemdeglunker, the “Rogue”,
the main character of Gengenbach Fasend who lives in the tower.
Inspired by a legendary peasants uprising in the Swabian War of 1499,
a few
thousand residents of Gengenbach, celebrants of this particular version
of carnival season, gather at the town train station dressed in white
nightgowns and head through the streets of the old city to the foot
of the tower
where calls of “s'isch Fasendszit” accompanied by drums
,“Klapperle” noise makers and a blaze of fireworks lighting
the tower to awake the rogue fool who ceremoniously climbs
to the balustrade on the top and waves happily to the mob below.
Then, he descends to the bottom and delivers his annual traditional
poem, and takes the keys of the city from the town mayor to begin
the three and half weeks of the “fascination” carnival
when the Spättlehansel witches and other characters signified
by wooden masks and costumes take over the town.
The
Niggelturm is one of five watch towers, spread along the old city
walls which stood guard around the medieval town. Gengenbach
has been called “a pearl among the Black Forest towns” and
one of the romantic picturesque villages of the foothills of the
central Swabia region of southwest Germany. The first Benedictine
Abbey was founded in in Gengenbach in 725. Gengenbach was granted
status as a free Imperial City under King Charles IV in the 14th
Century when the town was walled for protection and the watch towers
built. The town suffered in the unrest of the Protestant Reformation
and the Tower inscribed in 1582 with the motto, “The
city that keeps its eye toward God and trusts in him will be well.
Its residents not robbed”. Though that didn't keep the town
from being plundered during the Thirty Years War and the nearly
burned
to
the ground
by the
forces
of France’s King Louis XIV in the War of Palatine Succession
in 1689 (see Castle
Heidelberg).
The
Niggelturm tower itself is 118 feet high and to reach the top takes
a climb of 132 steps, each one under the watchful eye of
a witch or a fool tucked into the stone corners and perches among
the rafters. The Niggleturm tower was originally built about 1366,
with later reconstructions
and additions, with the lower earlier portion topped by the
distinctive octagonal cap in the 1582 reconstruction. The Fools
Museum (Narrenmuseum)
inside the tower is seven levels of the costumes and traditions of
the Fasend festivities. Wide google eyes, long hooked noses and
ragged gapped teeth of the Hästräger, the witches, old
women and farmers, gathered in displays looking on the stairway.
Visitors can follow the Rogue’s climb up the stairs to the
top walkway with views out over the city and the surrounding wooded
hills of the Black Forest.
Visiting the Fools Museum of Gengenbach Niggelturm
If
you miss the Fasend, the museum is open April through October Wednesday
and Saturday 2pm to 5pm and Sunday 11am to 5pm. Admission
is €2.50 for adults and 1€ for children. Be aware that
the museum involves climbing the stairs. And yes, there is a union
for fools, the Association of Swabian-Alemannic Fools' Guilds formed
of 69 guilds from 68 towns in Baden-Wurttemberg, Swabian Bavaria
and Switzerland (see Carnival
Masks Lucerne) which maintain the
characters, costumes and tradition of the carnival festivals. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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See Also:
HOHENZOLLERN CASTLE OF THE EMPERORS
BLACK FOREST WINE BARREL HOTEL
BLACK FOREST CHRISTMAS MARKETS
PRINCE BISHOP'S PALACE - BRUCHSAL
