The master drink

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Festival scene in the Kaisersaal

The master drink is a historical festival that takes place annually on the weekend of Pentecost in the small town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Central Franconia . Since 2016, the festival belongs to the German list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO .

history

The play, which is probably based on a legend dating from around 1770, was premiered in 1881 in the Kaisersaal of the Rothenburg town hall, where it is still performed today. The festival is a dramatic episode in the city's history during the Thirty Years War , the city was captured on October 30, 1631.

According to the play by Rothenburg master glazier and poet Adam Hörber , the following is said to have happened: After the resistance was broken and the city was stormed, the Catholic Generalissimo Tilly sentenced the councilors of the Protestant imperial city of Rothenburg to death and wanted to pillage and plunder the city to let. In their distress, the councilors offered him wine as a welcome drink in a splendid, brightly colored glass pumpkin that held 3¼ liters. This put Tilly in a mild mood, and said that if anyone could finish this tankard of wine in one go, he would spare the city. Former Mayor Georg Nusch volunteered and to everyone's astonishment he managed to empty the cup in one go. Tilly was so impressed by it that he spared the city.

It is said again and again that there is no historical evidence that the general Tilly entered the city that was conquered in the Thirty Years' War. However, Sebastian Dehner reports in his Rothenburg Chronicle, written in 1654:

“At noon the Imperial Generales all took their place as Generalissimo Mons. TILLY; Colonel Commiss: Ossa; Aldringen; Cronberger; Schoenberger; Lorraine (the peoples storm and plundered) and up to Wednesday in the place remained in the most prestigious mansions in the market and cattle market. "

- The Rothenburg Chronicle of Sebastian Dehner, folio volume no. 420 of the manuscripts of the Grand Ducal Badisches General-Landesarchiv zu Karlsruhe reproduced from "Rothenburg ob der Tauber in the century of the great war", edited by Karl Heller, Kgl. Prussia. Major aD Verlag Fr. Seybold's Buchhandlung, Ansbach.

In 2016 the festival was included in the nationwide register of intangible cultural heritage .

Web links

Commons : Historical festival "Der Meistertrunk"  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Max Döllner: History of the development of the city of Neustadt an der Aisch up to 1933. Ph. CW Schmidt, Neustadt ad Aisch 1950, p. 258.
  2. ^ Historical festival "Der Meistertrunk" at Rothenburg ob der Tauber. In: UNESCO.de (Nationwide Directory of Intangible Cultural Heritage). Retrieved June 9, 2019 .