Whistler dish

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The Pfeifergericht was a ceremony in the imperial city of Frankfurt am Main . It took place every year as part of a court day at the autumn fair and was first mentioned in a document in 1380. Johann Wolfgang Goethe described the process in his autobiographical book From my life. Poetry and truth . His grandfather, Johann Wolfgang Textor , presided over the Pfeifergericht as the city ​​school . In 1802 the last whistler court took place.

history

The origins of the ceremony lay in a privilege with which King Heinrich IV freed the citizens of Worms from customs duties in Frankfurt in 1074 . Customs were levied on all long-distance traders traveling north or east through the Frankfurt Mainfurt , and later also on the merchants who traveled to the Frankfurt Autumn Fair, which can be verified in writing from the middle of the 12th century.

Gradually, the privilege was extended to the cities of Alt-Bamberg and Nuremberg . The duty exemption had to be renewed annually through ritual payments in kind to the imperial bailiff in Frankfurt, from 1220 to the Reichsschultheissen. After Frankfurt gained imperial immediacy in 1372, the deputies of the four imperial cities had the privilege confirmed annually by the jury , the 14 councilors of the Erste Bank , chaired by the city councilor.

In 1802 the last whistler court was held. With the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the tradition of the Pfeifergericht also formally ended.

procedure

The day before the Nativity of Mary (September 7), the traditional start of the Autumn Fair, the 14 jurors gathered under the chairmanship of city mayor in the Imperial Hall of the Roman to hold court. Meanwhile, the deputies of the three cities met in the Nuremberg court . From there they moved over to the Römerberg . Their procession was led by three Nuremberg town pipers who blew the traditional melody of the pipers march on a shawm , a trumpet and a pommer . On arrival in the Kaisersaal, the court interrupted its session to hear the deputies' speech. They presented the town councilor with a wooden mug filled to the brim with a pound of pepper , a pair of white embroidered leather gloves, a white chopstick, and a few small silver coins. The Worms deputy added an old beaver hat , which he redeemed for one guilder after the ceremony , so that it could be kept for the next year. The town councilor accepted the presents and confirmed to the ambassadors of the three towns that their merchants would be exempt from duty. Then the delegation withdrew, with the whistlers again bleeding a march.

The pepper and the hat symbolized the trade goods of the cities, the gloves and the staff the court and customs rule of the emperor, which the city school represented on his behalf.

Three Pfeifergericht cups are kept in the Frankfurt Historical Museum : A cup from Bamberg from 1655, from Worms from 1698 and from Nuremberg from 1701.

literature

  • Heinrich Heym, Frankfurt's splendor and glory. Culture and moral life in four centuries . Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1971, pp. 99-106
  • Johann Heinrich Fries, treatise from the so-called Pfeifergericht , Frankfurt am Main 1752, digitized