Golden hand celebrations
The Golden Handfeste of Bern (also: Berner Handfeste ) is a medieval town charter , allegedly issued on April 15, 1218 in Frankfurt am Main by King Friedrich II . They made Bern a free imperial city and de facto an independent city republic. According to the prevailing (but not undisputed) view today, it is a forgery created afterwards in the 13th century. It is kept in the State Archives of the Canton of Bern .
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The 54 articles or statutes of the Handfeste gave Bern extensive privileges, including the right to freely choose the mayor and to enact its own laws. It also provided for the establishment of an imperial mint , which minted the first Bernese pfennigs from 1228 at the latest . On January 15, 1274, King Rudolf I formally confirmed the festival, thereby recognizing the Bernese privileges. The Golden Handfeste can thus be regarded as the first constitution of the city of Bern.
The hand festival is called "golden" after the ornate golden bull that adorns the document as a seal . The front shows Frederick II on the throne with the emperor. Regaling lien scepter and orb , and the inscription: "Frederick, by the grace of God King of Rome, always of the Empire, King of Sicily."
Question of authenticity
The authenticity of the hand-held celebrations has been controversial since the 1860s. According to the prevailing opinion today, it is a forgery made in the middle of the 13th century. It is assumed that Bern's government wanted to put down in writing the rights that Bern de facto had since the Zähringers became extinct . Research indicates that the rights documented in the Handfeste were unusually extensive for the time, and that the handwriting resembles that of a contemporary scribe at Frienisberg Monastery . The monks of this time were masters of the pia fraus , the "pious fraud", which consisted in retrospectively adapting documents to the presumed will of a deceased founder.
On the other hand, contrary to expectations, x-ray examinations from 2002 did not reveal any evidence that the golden bull - which is undisputedly authentic - was removed from a real imperial decree and subsequently attached to the golden hand festival. The discussion about the authenticity of the festivities is not yet over.
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- Rainer C. Schwinges: Successfully forged - the Goldene Handfeste. In: Rainer C. Schwinges (Ed.): Bern's courageous time. Rediscovered in the 13th and 14th centuries. Schulverlag blmv AG and Stämpfli Verlag AG, Bern 2003, ISBN 3-7272-1272-1 , pp. 231-232.
- Barbara Spalinger: The golden bull of the festivals in the X-ray image. In: Rainer C. Schwinges (Ed.): Bern's courageous time. Rediscovered in the 13th and 14th centuries. Schulverlag blmv AG and Stämpfli Verlag AG, Bern 2003, ISBN 3-7272-1272-1 , p. 233.
- Fritz Häusler: From the founding of the city to the Reformation. In: Peter Meyer (Ed.): Berner - your story. Landscape and city of Bern from prehistoric times to the present (= Illustrated Bern Encyclopedia 2). Büchler Verlag, Bern 1981, ISBN 3-7170-0185-X , pp. 51–106, here p. 58.
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinrich Gottfried Philipp Gengler : Regesta and documents on the constitutional and legal history of German cities in the Middle Ages . Erlangen 1863, pp. 197-199.
- ↑ Document archive (CI a)