Bell Market
The Beller Markt near Bell in the Hunsrück, with a centuries-old tradition as a farmers' market and cattle trading center, is now a popular tourism event and meeting place for the population of the entire region. It attracts many thousands of visitors every year. An average of four hundred market merchants, showmen and restaurateurs offer guests a mixture of market trade and fairground attractions. Many local traders also exhibit their products there.
history
Bell in the Hunsrück is a Celtic village by name ('hill', 'settlement on the height') and settlement history. The uncovering of the burial place of a Celtic prince in 1938 , who, according to the custom of his culture, was buried on a chariot in a barrow in the Beller Wald, made Bell known to the professional world.
A Roman manor east of the church, which was explored in the middle of the 19th century and secured as a "ground monument", and a Franconian manor, which adjoins it immediately to the south, and it by the field name "In den Hupfeldern", the fields belonging to the courtyard ', which was verifiable and the foundation walls of which were exposed during the development of the new building area there, give an idea of the importance of the place in the time of the Franconian conquest as well as the early construction of a church, which was replaced by a larger stone building at the end of the 13th century and is the mother church (oldest bell "Maria" from 1313) of the large Beller parish, to which Kastellaun also belonged as a daughter church.
The Franconian "Hont", the Hundertschaftsführer, built his new home in Hundheim . The Hunsrück possibly got its name from such "Hont": Early maps designate two areas of Hontschaften near Laudert and in the Idar area as "Hunnesrucha" / "Hundsric", "ric" = (dominion) of a Hont, his legal and judicial district "Dog reprimand"; the “complainant” was a judge; (in the Rhenish Netherlands: the “thing”, → “dog (s) thing”; cf. “ Thingstätte ” = place of assembly for jurisdiction).
Bell only reappeared in history in the High Middle Ages under the rule of the Counts of Sponheim : Count Simon II granted Kastellaun , the small town near his castle , town charter in 1305. In 1309, Kastellaun and Bell received market rights from King Heinrich VII , the brother of Baldwin of Luxembourg , Archbishop of Trier.
The reasons for the increasing number of markets in the following centuries lie in the money needs of the landlords: In the centuries before, their own farms brought sufficient income in kind. Wars, building castles and holding courts all cost money. In addition to barter, the rural population had to be given the opportunity to sell cattle and field produce. Only in this way could the cash benefits demanded by the gentlemen be raised.
The Beller Markt took place as a daily market for the parish fair as a “curb” on the “Wednesday after Jacobi ” (St. James's Day: July 25th), the last Wednesday in July. The Bell Church is thus a St. James church, located on Mönchstrasse (the "Minnichstroß"), one of the access routes to the St. James Way to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwest Spain.
Because, in the opinion of the market visitors, it rained too often on the Wednesday after Jacob's Day and the Bellers were of the same opinion, from 1950 the market day was brought forward to the “Wednesday before Jacob's Day”, i.e. the penultimate Wednesday in July.
Nevertheless, the rain did not stay away at this time either - for many weeks in the summer of 1980: the market had to be canceled because the market area was completely soaked to the ground. But the Bellers would not let “their” market be taken away, they celebrated it in the middle of the village with all the traditional rituals.
Geographical location
For many centuries the market square lay on the Beller Heide, in the vicinity of the old barrows to the east of the old highway. The Beller Heide was used jointly by the Kastellauner and the Beller farmers as cattle pasture. Since the ban and district boundary did not run into one with the pasture boundary, this always resulted in new disputes.
The constant disputes with the town of Kastellaun, whose population only exceeded that of Bell at the beginning of the 18th century, over the Wildland and Novalland (an area of partly newly developed and partly cleared land) on the Beller Heide led in the years 1678–1680 on a legal dispute that was only settled in Prussian times in 1816 after a failed attempt at unification under Palatinate-Zweibrücken rule in 1782.
When on July 20, 1629 on the Beller Galgenberg, the place of execution for Kastellaun, after terrible torture Elisabeth von Roth was executed as a so-called witch by the sword and then burned, a large crowd gathered on the adjacent Pfingstwiese. According to oral tradition, in addition to the dispute with Kastellaun, this could have been a further trigger for the "Old Market" to be abandoned and the Beller Market to be held above the "Pfingstwies" in the following period, where common land was about twenty hectares in size: On the former Thingplatz, directly to the west of the Iron, Celtic and Roman era trunk road, today's Hunsrückhöhenstrasse . The “Pfingstwies” had been the place for the village celebrations and festivals until then; it is located on Bahnhofstrasse, opposite the old Totenacker, which is shown by old aerial photographs of the district. However, some Bellers do not expect the “move” until around 1750.
In front of the gates of the town of Kastellaun, various markets were held as weekly and annual markets; Nevertheless, the Beller Markt gained increasing importance as an almost pure cattle market due to its favorable location near important road crossings. The commissioning of the Hunsrück Railway in 1902 was to be decisive for its future .
Instead of long walks with the cattle, it was now loaded onto the train early in the morning, it was only a few steps from the cattle ramp in the Beller Bahnhof to the Neuer Markt. By the end of the 1950s, the Beller Markt had become the largest field cattle market in the wide area, with an increase in the number of hundreds of head of cattle.
Expiry of the market
From 1925 at the latest, the market became a kind of village “national holiday”: The children now had no school on that Wednesday. And after the "clearing up" the Beller celebrate their "Kereb" in the big marquee on Thursday evening.
The market is officially opened by the village youth: In the past, two juniper bushes were brought in "from afar" because there was no juniper in the Beller district. One was intended for the two Beller innkeepers who ran the large festival tent that year, the other for the pageant. The "Kereb-Strouß" was and is still decorated with chains of blown eggs and colored ribbons. Until the 1980s, the village youth went with the bouquet, accompanied by music-making market traders, from the village up to the market square. The heavy, over two meters long, ostrich had to be shaken again and again, because when turning onto the rising Marktstrasse, today until the arrival in the marquee, all the eggs must have fallen off.
In addition the "Kereb-Schrei": "Who is Kereb?" - "Uus is Kereb!"
In the meantime, the “Kereb-Strouß” was carried through the long market street from the so-called “foreign barn” opposite the Beller Bahnhof with the same ritual; and the village youth occasionally made the music themselves. Since the 1990s, however, it has again been carried out from the village (parish hall) according to the old tradition, with the musical accompaniment of a small band. The bouquet is placed in the gable of the marquee with festive music from the marquee - brass band; it stays there during market day and on Thursday, carefully guarded so that it is not stolen.
In the night from Thursday to Friday, the village youth "buried the kereb": The bouquet is taken from the marquee and brought down to the center of the village. The youth stand in a circle around the bouquet, which is now being lit. A youth then gives the “funeral sermon” amid the pitiful groans and wailing of those gathered who join in with the cry over and over again: “Who was the Kereb?” - “Uuus!” Late at night until early in the morning, the young people move together through the village, stopping at the houses here and there and attacking the stocks of eggs, because only baking eggs together and the first very strong coffee early in the morning make a real market. It is not concealed that, of course, a lot of beer is also included.
During the wars of the 20th century, the Beller Markt failed, after the years 1915–1919 it started again in 1920. During the Second World War and two years later, the market failed from 1940 to 1947; the market did not take place again until 1948. In 1938 the market was canceled because of foot and mouth disease; and once it was postponed due to an overlap with the Kastellaun cattle market.
But political influence also impaired market activity: Jewish citizens had acquired a great deal of specialist knowledge in various areas, including the cattle trade, as the Christian clergy and authorities had not allowed them to practice so-called "honorable" professions for centuries. During the time of the National Socialist dictatorship with its racist ideology, the then Beller municipal council also became active. On September 19, 1935, he decided that “all communications with Jews in the Bell community should be stopped”. “No auction will be awarded to Jews”. This then became effective for the 1936, 1937 and 1939 markets.
In 1955 the market square was supplied with electricity, and many water and electricity connections were made in the following years. The sanitary facilities also became more numerous. Due to the steadily increasing number of visitors, the Bell Voluntary Fire Brigade is now also involved with control and on-call services; Medical services take over the health "protection" with the medical tent , KTW and foot patrol.
organization
Organizationally, the market is no longer planned in advance by the local council as it used to be, but for many years now by “market masters” on behalf of the municipality of Bell. They accept registrations, mark the stands of the market deliverers, indicate parking spaces, collect the stall fee, and pay the parking attendants. You exercise the house right on the market area.
For some time now, other events have been taking place on the market area: disco evenings , flea markets , but also, to a certain extent, as a link to the old importance of the square as a thing place, political gatherings and rallies: at Easter marches , human chains , the great peace demonstration against the Expansion of the nearby Pydna (missile base) , on October 11, 1986 with around 200,000 people who peacefully advocated peace in the world and against constant armament .
deals
Around four hundred stalls with belts, knives, housewares, flowers, sweets, silver and fashion jewelry, ceramics, underwear, shirts, sausage and cheese, numerous food stalls, wine and beer tents, carousels, boat swings, bumper cars, pony rides, shooting ranges, too changing special events such as horse shows , car shows, agricultural equipment and much more.
Bell market near Eckelsheim
In Rheinhessen there was an annual fair for the communities of Eckelsheim , Wonsheim , Stein-Bockenheim and Wendelsheim "until 1902 (after the feast of the birth of Mary on September 8th) at the Bell Church " .
Literature and Sources
- W. Boos, H. Bohn: Beller Market. History and Development
- Christel Fey, “Beller Verziehlcher” working group (ed.): Gerechdichkät - Gehäichnis - Gehannstroue. Beller tell their story (s) ; Bell 1999
- Otto Leonhard: History of the city of Castellaun. A contribution to German economic and legal history from 1300–1800 ; Verlag-Buchhandlung Wilhelm Prass, Castellaun, 1921
- Decision book of the Bell Municipal Council 1930 ff.
- Log book of the Bell Municipal Council 1931 ff.
- Bell school chronicle 1877/1884 ff.
- Photos by Otto Conrad from: Landesbildstelle Rheinland-Pfalz (Ed.): Hunsrück - Land and People. Pictorial documents from the thirties ; Rhenania-Fachverlag Koblenz; Volume 1: 1981, Volume 2: 1984
- various articles in the Hunsrücker Zeitung, now: Rhein-Hunsrück-Zeitung / further image material there in the archive and in the district image office in Simmern
- The parish of Bell 1560–1631. From the estate of Superintendent D. Friedrich Back . In: Monthly books for Rheinische Kirchengeschichte 5 (1911), pp. 257–266.
- Memories of conversations with old citizens of Bell
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 50 ° 3 '11.8 " N , 7 ° 25' 7.7" E