Rod Festival Ravensburg

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The logo of the rod festival

The Rutenfest is a school and city festival in Ravensburg in Upper Swabia that is celebrated every year before the start of the summer holidays . The tradition goes back to the 17th century; the first documented evidence of the school custom "Going Ruetten" dates from 1645.

Cancel

So far, there have been no cancellations from Rutenfest in Ravensburg, except in 2020.

Origin of name

Pageant at the cattle market (south of Marienplatz) around 1900
"Rod children" lead the parade on Rod Monday
The rod drummers of the Ravensburg secondary schools, the oldest drum group in town
The shooter king at the eagle shooting 2004, a member of the "Landsknechte"

In southern Germany there are several school parties called Rutenfest. The most famous and largest besides the Ravensburger Rutenfest is the Ruethenfest in Landsberg am Lech ; The festival in Bopfingen is a little smaller .

There are different legends about the origin of the term Rutenfest . As an example, the following presentation is based primarily on the "explanations" that are widespread in Ravensburg.

Most of these explanations were devised in the 19th or early 20th centuries.

The connection with the medieval plague epidemics was very popular at times . This legend claims that for fear of infection, people back then only shook hands with a rod. After the end of the plague, they celebrated a great festival of joy and thanksgiving and vowed to repeat it every year. The vow of a regularly repeated thanksgiving festival can, however, be historically proven as the origin of other festivals - but no historical evidence can be found for the specific legend of the rod festival. A temporal relationship between the appearance of the plague and the first mention of the festival cannot be established either. In addition, the explanation presupposes an understanding of infections and hygiene that did not exist in the Middle Ages in Central Europe. Another shortcoming of this explanation is that it does not make any reference to the character of the Rod Festival as a school festival.

A second explanation was that school trips to the countryside, on which the students were supposed to cut their rods for the coming school year, served as a festive occasion. This slightly macabre explanation - the rods were used to "punish" the students - is still often used in publications today, sometimes with the addition that the rod thus served as a "symbol of the seriousness of life".

Historically more correct is probably the explanation that in the Middle Ages the rod actually symbolized the grammar or the mastery of Latin language teaching (cf. the article Artes liberales ), which is why the Latin students were honored with the ceremonial handover of a rod at graduation.

The tradition-steeped custom of the Ravensburger Rod Festival, which has been documented since around 1720, when the mayor honors the best pupils in the final classes at the secondary schools as “Oberstköniginnen” and “Oberstfähnriche”, took place in 2012 for the last time. Instead, since 2013, on the recommendation of the Rutenfest Commission and the Student Council, particularly socially committed high school students from all types of schools have been honored as "Colonels" and "Colonels".

Fixed course

The Ravensburger are extremely committed to the five-day rod festival. The Rutenfest is not only jokingly referred to as Ravensburg's “fifth season”. The towers and houses of the old town, but also houses in residential areas and many cars are adorned with thousands of flags in the urban colors of blue and white. Drum groups, mostly students from Ravensburg schools (in use since the 17th century), as well as fanfare marches through the city to "drum up" the residents as well as friends and sponsors, so that the city is characterized for days by the omnipresent drum sound and many private garden parties.

The official program items, which are organized by the Rutenfestkommission in cooperation with the schools and the city administration, also attract many visitors from the region.

The highlights of the rod festival are

  • the handover of the insignia to the drumming corps of the Ravensburger grammar schools on Rod Friday, together with the speech of the mayor and the rod captain
  • the official opening with the drumming of all groups of drummers on Marienplatz on Rod Friday
  • the happy start on Marienplatz in the old town with tens of thousands of visitors on Saturday
  • the performances of the Rutentheater (proven to be a school theater since 1821) in the concert hall
  • Dancing - playing - making music , performances by students from all Ravensburger schools. During the demonstration on Monday, particularly socially committed high school students from all types of schools will be honored by the Lord Mayor as "colonels" and "lieutenants".
  • the historic rod festival procession through the historic old town of Ravensburg with around 5,500 participants on rod Monday
  • the shooting competitions for schoolchildren, the oldest of which is the eagle shooting , organized by the drumming corps of the grammar schools (since 1823, most recently around 1,000 participants). At the eagle shooting, high school students shoot the insignia and feathers of a wooden, one-headed imperial eagle with a crossbow ; The shooting is traditionally opened by the flag thrower of the Landsknechte. The rifle king is the shooter of the imperial orb , the rifle queen the protectress of the city seal. There is also archery for secondary school students and crossbow shooting for secondary school students ( coat of arms shooting ).
  • At Old shooting every five years thousands of former Ravensburger high school students participate all ages to aim again at a private shooting competition on the eagle. In archery, too, there is now an alumni shooting competition - postponed by a year compared to the old shooting on the eagle. In these “old shooting years”, many Ravensburger who emigrated overseas even travel back to their former homeland.

meeting

The performances of the Rod Theater begin in the week before Rod Friday , the last Friday before the summer holidays in Baden-Württemberg, which begin on a Thursday.

The rod festival itself begins on Rod Friday afternoon and lasts until the final fireworks display on the following rod Tuesday. At the rod-mounting and sometimes on Tuesday Rods many shops in Ravensburg are closed. The Ravensburger schools are also closed on Monday and Tuesday, but the students are encouraged and in some cases obliged to take part in the parade and other events of the Rutenfest. The amusement park and the beer gardens and tents on the Kuppelnau are open from Friday evening to Tuesday evening.

Two other events in the days after that conclude the rod festival: The “Big Drummers Ball” organized by the Drummers Corps attracts around 1,000 guests on Thursday. The last official rod festival event will take place on Saturday evening after the actual festival weekend, a so-called “rod burial” with a beer garden on the Veitsburg, at which all rod festival groups drummed up again.

The last Rod Friday so far was July 19, 2019.

In 2020 the rod festival had to be canceled due to the corona pandemic in Germany .

plaque

Rod festival badges have been produced since 1967, with which you can access all rod festival events (with the exception of the rod theater). The plaque was used to reproduce a different historical plastic Ravensburger building every year. From 1999 to 2001, a pin was issued as a replacement badge. Since 2002 the plastic replicas, which are also popular with collectors, have been used again.

literature

  • Helmut Binder, Alfred Lutz, Markus Glonnegger: The Ravensburger Rutenfest in the past and present . Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach 1997, ISBN 3-924489-87-4
  • Alfred Lutz : The Rod Festival during the Third Reich (1933-1939). Between persistence and adaptation . In: Peter Eitel (Ed.): Ravensburg in the Third Reich. Contributions to the history of the city . Oberschwäbische Verlags-Anstalt, Ravensburg 1997, ISBN 3-926891-19-X , pp. 295-303

Historical descriptions

  • Johann Georg Eben : An attempt at a history of the city of Ravensburg from the beginning to the present day . Volume 2. 1835, pp. 200–205 ( digitized version )
  • Anton Birlinger: The Rod Festival in Ravensburg. Based on the same story of Ravensburg . In: Manners and Customs . Freiburg im Breisgau 1862, pp. 270-276.
  • Johann Philipp Glökler: Land and people of Württemberg . Volume 3, Stuttgart 1863, description of the rod festival on p. 400 ff. ( Full text on Wikisource )
  • The Ruthenfest in Ravensburg , in: The house treasure. Entertainment supplement to the Franconian Volksblatt. 1st year, Würzburg 1868, pp. 195–200 ( digitized version )
  • "Αβ": The Ruthenfest in Ravensburg , in: Allgemeine Zeitung, Munich, September 2, 1899, p. 1 f. ( Digitized version )

Web links

Commons : Rutenfest Ravensburg  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rod Festival Commission Ravensburg e. V .: Website of the Rod Festival Commission Ravensburg e. V. In: Rutenfest Ravensburg. Accessed June 8, 2020 (German).
  2. ↑ Frank Steffen: Rod Festival Badge for almost 50 years. List of Rod Festival Badges. Retrieved September 23, 2014 .