Lübeck official costumes

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The official costumes of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck developed from the 16th century and in some cases lasted until the end of Lübeck's statehood in 1937.

Councilors or Senators

The Lübeck senators are each flanked by a council servant at a ceremony.
The Lübeck senators in the reintroduced official costume, 1913; on both sides council servants in cloaks and bicorns
On January 25, 1928, senators and council servants followed the deceased Senator Paul Hoff in a funeral procession

In the last third of the 16th century, the councilors wore the Spanish costume in its German form, characterized by heavy fabrics, following upscale fashion . No color was used; black, perceived as dignified, dominated . The white ruff , a high, broad-brimmed Spanish hat with a stiff, tapering crown and the knee-length, sleeveless coat made of black silk fabric , trimmed with mink fur and held together at the front by a gold-plated silver chain, became permanent fixtures. The mayors were allowed to wear mink trimmings on the lower edge of the coat, while the common councilors were only entitled to a soutache there .

The Lübeck council retained this Spanish costume after a change in style in civilian fashion during the first half of the 17th century, which ultimately led to the disappearance of Spanish in favor of French clothing . As the council deliberately continued to wear a form of clothing that no longer corresponded to the taste of the times for official business, an official costume was created that clearly identified its wearer as a councilor.

The cut of the councilor's costume was occasionally modernized, similar to the Spanish costume that was also retained at the imperial court in Vienna , but always retained its basic features. A subsequent ingredient from around 1670 on were the allonge wigs , which initially simply corresponded to prevailing men's fashion; In the course of the 18th century, when this lush wig shape had already been supplanted in general fashion, it was retained as an integral part of official representative clothing as in many places in Lübeck until the beginning of the 19th century.

The Lübeck councilors donned the Spanish official costume with coat, hat, ruff and wig for the last time on February 16, 1811: on this day they were summoned by the French prefect to proclaim the decree of Napoleon Bonaparte , which led to the dissolution of the council and the Annexation of Lübeck by the French Empire were publicly announced.

After the liberation of Lübeck in 1813 and the re-establishment of the council in December of that year, the official costume was not reintroduced; the councilors wore bourgeois clothing from then on. A medal of honor for Mayor Johann Matthaeus Tesdorpf , designed in 1823 by Carl Friedrich Voigt and minted by Gottfried Bernhard Loos , which expressly showed him in the old official costume with a ruff and an allonge wig, was therefore factually incorrect and anachronistic.

In 1903 Senator Karl Peter Klügmann proposed the reintroduction of the historical official costume, but it was not until a decade later that it was actually revived after long discussions. For the first time, the Senate put on the Spanish costume, which was not a precise reproduction of a specific model, but rather a free replica for reasons of wearing comfort, for the centenary of the Battle of Leipzig on October 18, 1913. At the same time, it remained the last occasion, because after the First World War the historicizing costume was felt to be no longer up-to-date and was renounced to be used again until the end of the Lübeck state when it was incorporated into Prussia in 1937.

Council servant (riding servant)

House servant (left) and council servant (right), watercolor by Christian Peter Wilhelm Stolle

The riding servant or riding ends servants were originally a small stand-alone unit of horsemen that the stables were under and was used for order-, messenger and representative functions. The troop had existed since the Middle Ages, but for a long time there was only fragmentary evidence of their clothing: in 1532 they were prescribed uniform red clothing, a painting from 1625 showed them in green Spanish costume with a ruff. However, there was evidently no real uniformity; After complaints about the color inconsistency, which was perceived as annoying, the stables were ordered on November 30, 1741 to dress the servants on horseback in red outfits. This gave rise to her uniform-like official costume consisting of a tailcoat cut red skirt with gold buttons, a yellow waistcoat with white braids , yellow breeches , white stockings, black riding boots , a sword and a three-cornered hat (later a bicorn ). This 18th century style of clothing, which was very similar to the uniform of the Lübeck city soldiers of that time, remained in use when the horse servants lost their character as mounted servants around 1830 and became council servants. In 1841 the council servants still wore the powdered pigtail wig of the 18th century, which was not used in the following years. With minor modifications and additions, the official costume of the council servants lasted until 1937.

House servant

The house servants were liveried council servants who can be traced back to the early 17th century. Her official attire also referred stylistically to that time: black breeches, black vest with sleeves, red sleeveless coat, white ruff, black stockings and buckled shoes . Until their disappearance around 1841 - in 1839 the state calendar only named two of them - they wore powdered wigs from the 18th century.

Happy servants

Merchant's hat, 1754

The Frohnknechte were urban bailiffs under the orders of the Lübeck Vogt, who was responsible for the police. There are no descriptions of their official attire, but there are two surviving headgear in the St. Anne's Museum : They are tall, conical hats made of white felt, not unlike a grenadier hat from the 18th century. They have an embroidered Lübeck eagle with a crown and breast shield on the front and the year 1754 on the wide red lower edge. These eye-catching caps are also mentioned in a description of the ceremonial Vogt- or Echteding of 1787, which is held annually on the market , in which two mercenaries assisted the Vogt. In addition, none of the clothes of the merrymakers is mentioned in descriptions.

Splendid servants

Prachervögte, watercolor by Christian Peter Wilhelm Stolle

The preachers, also known as beggars and monasteries, were primarily responsible for monitoring beggars. In particular, they had to ensure that the Lübeck beggars adhered to the applicable regulations and seized beggars from outside the city and expelled them from the city. Later, the duties of carrying out the burial of the poor , maintaining order at funerals and supervising the inmates of the poor house in St. Anne's Monastery were added.

The first prince bailiff was hired in 1527, and a market engraving from around 1600 shows four of them clad in long coats and wide-brimmed hats with staffs. Since it is an uncolored representation, it cannot be said whether the clothing was designed in a uniform color and thus had a clear official costume character. Written statements on this from that time are missing. Only the poor house regulations of 1777 speak of red skirts with one red and one white sleeve. However, they should expressly not wear these skirts when they were out to watch the beggars in the streets, because they would have been too easily recognizable; They performed this service in civilian clothes with a concealed badge of the St. Anne's monastery worn on their skirt. In the 19th century, the Prachervögte wore long red overcoats that were high-necked and, like a vest, only had sleeve holes instead of sleeves, so that the dark blue sleeves of the jacket underneath were visible instead. On the left side, as a reminder of the fallen white sleeve, a wide white fabric was attached, which began about a hand's breadth above the lower hem of the coat, reached up to the shoulder and surrounded the sleeve hole. On the right side was a corresponding red panel. For this, the Prachervögte wore black top hats .

In 1834, due to a reorganization of the funeral system, the preachers lost their duties at funerals, in 1836 their official costume was abolished. In 1849 all of their tasks were transferred to the police, the city welfare authorities and the church bailiffs .

Lutheran clergy

See: Lübeck regalia

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