Peter and Paul Festival Bretten

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Medieval dances on the church square

The Peter and Paul Festival is a well-known city ​​festival in the small town of Bretten in Baden , which always takes place on the first weekend after the Peter and Paul Festival on June 29th. The festival in Bretten goes back to various shooting festival traditions and developed into one of the most important South German homeland festivals. The festival takes on the successful defense of the city siege of Württemberg troops under Duke Ulrich von Württemberg in 1504, as is the pre- March vigilante group. Over 3000 people from Bretten take an active part in a wide variety of performances and events in historical clothing.

history

In Bretten, a rifle society was registered as early as the 16th century, whose free shooting was occasionally associated with public festivals. A connection to June 29 is only documented in the 18th century, a first regular holiday tradition between 1805 and 1848. After that, the vigilante group was disarmed because of the Baden revolution. It was not until 1923 that the rifle club was re-established and, from 1934, with the support of the city, its club festival was expanded to become a regional festival with a corresponding propaganda theme. The Second World War ended this phase, and in 1950 the American military government allowed the festival to be reorganized.

In the anniversary year 2004 as Reenacting the Swabian army readjusted to Bretten the march. In terms of experimental archeology , over 500 participants had to adhere to equipment, discipline and military rules of the early modern era. The historical events of the parade in Illingen , the siege of Maulbronn , the capture of Knittlingen and the siege of Bretten were presented in this way. The book “Der Tross” documents this unique campaign in pictures and text.

In December 2014, the Conference of Ministers of Education announced that the Peter and Paul Festival in Bretten will be included in the nationwide register of intangible cultural heritage in accordance with the UNESCO Convention on the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage .

procedure

The Peter and Paul Festival lasts from Friday to Monday. After the restructuring in the anniversary year 2004, the Friday is under the motto "Bretten is getting ready", the Saturday under the motto "Bretten defends itself", Sundays and Mondays is "Bretten celebrates".

On Saturday afternoon you can experience the "battle" at the Simmelturm, on Saturday evening the fireworks take place, on Sunday there is the historical pageant through the city center of Bretten and on Mondays there is all sorts of spontaneous fuss in addition to the pork stomach parade and the children's festival. The special attraction of this festival is the opportunity to try out medieval folk dances and to see life around 1504 first hand by the more than 3,000 volunteer performers. Those are involved in a wide variety of groups, e.g. B. farmers, shepherds u. a. These groups guarantee an authentic presentation and also demonstrate numerous handicrafts.

The special feeling of diving into another world attracts thousands of visitors every year. Around 140,000 guests were expected in 2019.

The Peter and Paul Festival goes into the night unusually long, the curfew has been lifted this weekend. Using the example of Peter and Paul, the central role of such historical city festivals can be demonstrated not only in Bretten city politics, but in the “small German town” itself.

Others

  • In addition to the medieval attractions and performances, there is a fairground on the edge of the festival area with a few rides and a large beer tent. Here is also celebrated until late at night.
  • In 2018, SWR filmed a 45-minute documentary both before and during the holidays.

literature

  • Benita Luckmann : Politics in a small German town (= sociological contemporary issues. N. F., No. 35). Enke, Stuttgart 1970, ISBN 3-432-01618-2 .
  • The entourage. Historical military campaign 1504. Ed .: Gerhard Franck, marketing group of the Alt-Brettheim Association. Photos: Birgit Berger. [Alt-Brettheim] 2005, ISBN 3-928029-40-1 .

Web links

Commons : Peter-und-Paul-Fest Bretten  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Already forgotten? This is how the Peter and Paul Festival came about. In: BNN . June 30, 2012.
  2. ↑ 27 forms of culture included in the German directory of intangible cultural heritage. Press release from the Standing Conference. (No longer available online.) In: kmk.org. December 12, 2014, archived from the original on January 14, 2015 ; accessed on September 18, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Nico Roller: Peter and Paul Festival attracts thousands of visitors to the old town of Bretten. In: pz-news.de, June 30, 2019, updated August 2, 2019, accessed on August 29, 2019.
  4. ↑ Peter and Paul Festival in Bretten - time travel to the Middle Ages. In: swrfernsehen.de. SWR, June 16, 2019, accessed on December 21, 2019 .