Nördlinger Whitsun Mass
The Nördlinger Whitsun Fair , also called Nördlinger Fair , was a long-distance trade fair of European importance in the Middle Ages . Today it is a folk festival .
history
Heyday
The Whitsun Mass in Nördlingen was first mentioned in a document in 1219. Soon after it was founded, it developed into a long-distance trade fair with supra-regional importance. The location of Nördlingen on the long-distance trade routes to Ulm , Augsburg , Nuremberg , Würzburg and Strasbourg favored its location as a trading center. The Whitsun Mass, which began a week after Whitsun and lasted 14 days, was the most important trade fair in southern Germany in the late Middle Ages. Besides Frankfurt am Main , Nördlingen was the most important trade fair city in Upper Germany. The catchment area of the trade fair stretched from Alsace to over the Alpine passes. In 1467 920 (trade) visitors were counted, in 1468 even 1,100.
Merchandise
The most important trade goods were textiles . Craftsmen from Nördlingen who offered their goods were leather manufacturers and especially lod weavers , of whom there were around 300 in the city around 1540 alone. In addition, Brabant and Rhenish cloths, lamp-like fabrics, Bohemian cloths as well as Spanish and French silks and ribbons were traded. In its heyday, the Nördlinger Messe was also a trading center for luxury items such as books, musical instruments, glass, mirrors, corals, spices and pharmaceutical items. In addition, grain from the Nördlinger Ries , salt from Bavaria, wine from Württemberg, and iron goods from the Upper Palatinate and Nuremberg were sold. Raw materials for the textile industry such as flax fiber , wool , cotton , yarn , furs , animal skins and dyes completed the range. Nördlingen was also a center of the paper trade: among the suppliers represented were paper manufacturers from Ravensburg, Heidenheim, Reutlingen, Esslingen and Unterkochen. The Nördlinger Messe was also an exchange for the processing of financial transactions and payment dates for merchants.
Localities
The fair partly took place in buildings such as the town hall, the bread and dance house, the meat bank and the men's drink room. Except for the latter, all historical buildings are still preserved today. The old and new Kornschranne, the hall building, the so-called paradise and the harbor house were built especially for the trade fair trade. The former are still preserved today, the paradise was demolished in 1877, the port house built in 1425 burned down in 1955. Sometimes the fair was held in the open air. The place names Marktplatz, Hafenmarkt, Tändelmarkt, Rübenmarkt, Coal Market, Schäfflesmarkt, Brettermarkt, Fruit Market and Wine Market remind us of this today.
Decline
With the discovery of America and new sea trade routes, the Nördlinger Whitsun Mass lost its importance from the beginning of the 16th century. Leipzig and Zwickau as well as the Silesian cities replaced the city as textile trading centers. Armed conflicts such as the Peasants' War , the Schmalkaldic War , the Thirty Years War , later the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars affected the Nördlingen trading center. In the 19th century, the Whitsun Fair finally descended from a long-distance trade fair to a consumer goods fair for the surrounding area. Eventually it became a fair. Until 1963, the event took place in the old town. Sales stalls and rides were distributed at various points such as the market square, board market or fruit market.
Today's Whitsun Mass
Today the Nördlinger Whitsun Mass, usually called Nördlinger Messe or Nördlinger Mess' for short, is the largest folk festival in northern Swabia . In addition to rides, festival tents, beer gardens and fairground attractions, 200 market stalls on the Kaiserwiese remind of the event's past. At the same time, the Ries consumer exhibition takes place next to the folk festival . The Nördlinger Messe begins two weekends after Pentecost every year and lasts ten days. It ends on so-called Gentlemen's Monday.
Individual evidence
- ^ Franz Hammer / Lore Sporhan-Krempel : The world lives with the book. From the history of printing and paper production in Swabia. Stuttgart 1956.
literature
- Voges, Dietmar-Henning: The imperial city of Nördlingen. 12 chapters from their history. Beck, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-406-32863-6 .