Bolzano Festival of Lights
The Bolzano Festival of Lights was on 10. November 1861 in Bolzano against conservative - clerical forces directed event to mark the inauguration of the municipal gas lighting . Deliberately held on the day of the Schiller Festival, the celebration marked a high point in the Tyrolean culture war .
prehistory
The Tyrolean Kulturkampf encompasses the resistance of the Tyroleans against the legal equality of the various denominations with the Roman Catholic Church, against school reform and against Viennese centralism. In short: the resistance of Tyrol against the restructuring of Austria in the sense of a liberal conception of the state.
Gas lighting was no longer a specialty in 1861. In Bolzano, however, it signaled the entry into a new era and offered the newly come to power national liberal mayor Dr. Joseph Streiter the opportunity to play freedom and progress against the intolerance , traditionalism and the spirit of submission of the conservatives.
The choice of the date was already a provocation, as it is the birthday of Friedrich Schiller , who was highly venerated by all German-national-minded citizens as the greatest German poet, and also that of the German reformer Martin Luther .
event
The festival of lights began the day before with a prologue in the city theater and the performance of a play by Karl Gutzkow . The day began on November 10th with a wake-up call and a parade of bands and rifle corps. At lunchtime, Streiter opened a festival of several days with a German-Patriotic speech in which he expressed his hope for the unifying power of the constitution, through which Germany should also be included.
The highlight of the day, however, was a masked pageant, which was supposed to represent the old and the new times with the farewell to the past (oil lanterns, night watchmen, infernal torments of the dark ages) and the arrival of modernity (herald of modern times and the light with the sun banner). Next to the wagon, which represented the old days, a rickety figure rode on a donkey each, representing the stripped prelate and nobility . Poor peasants in worn out costumes followed behind.
consequences
The answer of the conservatives to the festival of lights was a counter-shooting in Lana , which was later called "dark shooting". From him came a conservative alliance of ideas and interests of the Tyrolean nobles and peasantry.
Aftermath
On November 10, 2011, the Bolzano Museum Association organized a commemorative event for the 150th anniversary of the Festival of Lights and issued a publication on the historical background.
literature
- Josef Fontana: The Kulturkampf in Tyrol 1861-1892 . Athesia, Bozen 1978, p. 55 f .
- Christine Mumelter: Joseph Streiter 1804–1873: A forgotten mayor? Athesia, Bozen 1998, p. 206 ff .
- Bruno Mahlknecht : Bozen through the centuries . tape 1 . Athesia Spectrum, Bozen 2005, ISBN 978-88-6011-020-6 , From street lighting in old Bozen, p. 105 .
- Bolzano Museum Association : In memory of 150 years of Bolzano Festival of Lights 1861–2011 . Self-published, Bozen 2012.