Bremen rifle and folk festival in Oberneuland
The Bremer Schützen- und Volksfest zu Oberneuland was organized in 1846 by the Bremer Schützenverein founded three years earlier and took place near Bremen in the then still independent rural community of Oberneuland . It was the first shooting festival in Bremen and also caused a sensation across the region. The event, which was also announced as a folk festival , met with criticism and was only repeated once, in 1847, in the same form and in the same place.
history
Organizer, location of the fairground
The Bremer Schützen- und Volksfest zu Oberneuland was held from June 14th to 16th, 1846 by the Bremen Schützenverein , which was founded in 1843 and at that time had its club domicile in the Hakenburg in front of the Bremen Hohentor . Already in 1835 the were shooting sports enthusiasts from Bremen in the then independent municipality Woltmershausen (since 1902 Bremen properly) a shooting range built; According to information from the club's chronicle, the association gave itself the name Bremer Schützenverein in 1840 at the latest.
The almost 2 hectare large fairground of the first Bremen rifle festival was outside of the former Bremen city area in the Bremen rural community Oberneuland (belonging to Bremen since 1921/23 and 1945) on the Hohen Kamp , which is behind on Oberneulander Straße (today Oberneulander Landstraße ) the much-frequented excursion restaurant "Jürgens' Holz" was located at the time. The distance from the center of Bremen to the fairground was about 10 kilometers . The shooting ranges were separated from the actual festival area by a specially constructed moat, and access was via a wooden walkway. In the middle of the Hohen Kamp there was a single oak tree that could still be seen there around 1913.
Regulatory measures
The landlord on the right bank of the Weser , responsible for the Bremen rural community of Oberneuland, issued separate police regulations a week before the festival, on June 7, 1848, because of the shooting festival in Oberneuland , in order to “maintain the necessary order”. The ordinance contained, among other things, regulations for ( carriage ) traffic to and from the fairground, a restriction of “booths and dispensing tables or other sales tables ” to the fairground itself as well as regulations for the private catering of such guests in the private homes of the residents lodged. In addition, "all kinds of hazard games were strictly prohibited".
Entertainment and festivities
The following festival and restaurant tents as well as stalls and other amusement facilities were located on the square fairground (see picture in the introduction):
In the center stood the main tent adorned with pennants and garlands, which was designed in the form of a large rotunda and contained tables set up in rays and in the middle a raised platform for the orchestra . The Bremen flag, designed as a huge pennant with the key coat of arms held by two lions , waved from the top of the canopy . The tent belonged to Christian Friedrich Thielebeule, who ran a restaurant in Bremen with a wine tavern in the "Wall Pavilion", Am Wall 83B .
In the main tent, with a total of 20 tables, there was space for 50 people each, 1,000 guests could have lunch at the same time. On the first and third day of the festival, toasts “to the city of Bremen, the Senate, the rulers, the rifle club, the festival committee, the strangers, the women and virgins were made there during the“ table d'hôte ”(communal table) while outside from firecrackers joy shots "fired.
The three tents on the “left side of the square” (see picture) were from front to back: 1) the restoration tent of Ludwig Friedrich Papenhausen, who ran the “Recreation” bar in downtown Bremen at Ansgarikirchhof 1, 2) a small lot and 3) the tent of the manufacturer Heinrich Wilhelm Engelhardt, whose cigar factory was in the suburbs near the Stephanitor ; here the festival visitors could take refreshments .
On the “right side”, also from front to back, were: 1) the dance tent with restoration, which served as a “shady Kursaal” during the day, by Johann Heinrich Stüren, who ran a coffee and wine tavern in the Contrescarpe 85 house, and 2) the tent of the Swiss pastry chefs Nicolaus Stehely and Johann Friedrich Josty, who opened the first Bremen café in Domshof 12 in 1844 and ran the Stehely & Josty pastry shop there . On the first evening of the festival there was “dancing from 8.30 p.m. to 7 a.m.” in Stüren's dance tent.
A high climbing pole had been set up behind the round tent and a horizontal wreath was hung at its top, on which a silver watch, an umbrella and silk cloths were attached as prizes . The bar itself had been smeared with soap along its entire length. On the second day of the festival, a soldier was the first to manage to climb the slippery pole and get the prizes; he could take down the watch and a silk scarf. Near the climbing pole, there were other amusements that especially for the youth were thought such as " sack races , roller skating, Hahn shock (it was smashed blindfolded a pot; one including plug forming Hahn was the price) and the licking of coins hidden in a layer of syrup ”.
Access regulations
Access to the fairground and the facilities there was strictly regulated. Women and children were only allowed in when accompanied by men. No entrance fee was paid for them; This also applied to coachmen and other servants in livery , but they were only allowed to enter the dining and dance tents to serve their masters.
In the other entry conditions, a main distinction was made between those visitors who paid 48 Grote and those who only paid 24 Grote per day. The latter, identified by a yellow ribbon sign, were not allowed into the dining and dance tents. To compensate for this, the organizers had prepared a barn for them , which stood near the entrance, as a dance hall.
Public perception and criticism
In addition to various newspapers and journals from Bremen and the surrounding area, the Illustrirte Zeitung , published in Leipzig , published a detailed report on the festival, which was illustrated with wood engraving , including a general view of the fairground. These reports and illustrations, as well as files in the Bremen State Archives, give a detailed impression of what happened at that time.
The first Bremen rifle festival in 1846 was, along with the rifle festivals in Oldenburg in the same year and in Berlin in 1847, among the hundreds of "genuine folk festivals" that were organized and celebrated annually by larger or smaller associations of the German rifle guilds , as "special Great".
However, the entry conditions, which discriminated against the “ common people”, as well as the great distance of the fairground from the city of Bremen, which is not easy to overcome, especially for the less well-off, and the high prices for refreshments and consumption , met with criticism . They accused the festival that “it is not, as the shooting club claims, a folk festival”. It was then only repeated once, in the following year, in the same form and in the same place.
The Bremen Rifle Club of 1843 later and - with interruptions due to the war - held regular (differently held) rifle festivals in Bremen until modern times.
literature
- Hans Hermann Meyer: 1846: The first Bremen rifle festival - a folk festival? In: Festivals and Customs in Bremen. Contributions to the cultural and social history of the Hanseatic city. Festschrift for the hundredth birthday of the Focke Museum. Ed .: Die Wittheit zu Bremen , Red .: Hans Kloft , Martina Rudloff; Hauschild Verlag , Bremen 2000, ISBN 3-89757-042-4 , pp. 108-109 ( 1999/2000 year book of Wittheit zu Bremen ).
- Illustrirte Zeitung , No. 161, Leipzig, August 1, 1846, pp. 77-78.
Web links
- Club website of the Bremen shooting club from 1843
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Hans Hermann Meyer: 1846: The first Bremen rifle festival - a folk festival? In: Festivals and Customs in Bremen. Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 2000, ISBN 3-89757-042-4 , pp. 108-109 ( 1999/2000 year book of Wittheit zu Bremen ).
- ^ Chronicle of the Bremen rifle club from 1843 . On: Website of the Bremer Schützenverein from 1843 ; Retrieved May 4, 2014.
- ^ Lüder Halenbeck: 50 excursions in the area around Bremen. Eduard Hampe publisher, Bremen 1893, p. 119 ( URL , persistent URL at the State and University Library Bremen ).
- ↑ The landlord on the right bank of the Weser: Police regulations because of the shooting festival in Oberneuland. Bremen, June 7th, 1846. In: Collection of ordinances and proclamations of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Bremen 1847, pp. 37–40 ( online at Google books .)
- ^ Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden : The assemblies of German hiking clubs in 1847. In: Journal of the Association for German Statistics. Ed .: Association for German Statistics, F. Schneider & Comp., Berlin 1847, p. 977 ( online at Google books ).