Saturnus Festival

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Side view of the parade ground. On the right the Saturnus temple with the wedding party, on the left the illuminated Weißeritzhang.

The Saturnusfest (also Saturnfest , Berghäuerfest ) was a courtly festival shaped by miners , which took place on September 26, 1719 in Plauenschen Grund near Dresden . It was the highlight of the wedding celebrations of Prince Elector Friedrich August II , son of King Augustus the Strong , with the eldest daughter of Emperor Joseph I , Archduchess Maria Josepha . The festival is seen as a demonstration of the wealth and economic power of Saxony as well as an apotheosis of August the Strong.

prolog

After August the Strong had been elected King of Poland in 1697 , he strove to expand the position of the House of Wettin in Europe. In addition to the participation of Saxony-Poland in military conflicts such as the Great Northern War , it was above all the splendid festivals of his Saxon court that were intended to express the magnificence of a powerful and solvent ruler. Even though they are only ephemeral art, they should work far beyond that.

For almost 20 years he pursued the diplomatic plan to secure the imperial crown for his descendants by marrying the House of Habsburg . His younger son Friedrich August, born in 1696, was chosen for this and was supposed to marry Maria Josepha, born in 1699. In 1711 he sent him on the Grand Tour , also to withdraw him from the Protestant upbringing of his mother Christiane Eberhardine . The conversion to the Catholic faith was secretly carried out in 1712 , one of the prerequisites for the marriage to the Catholic Habsburg woman. But that wasn't made public until 1717. After Joseph I died in 1711 without leaving a son, his still childless brother Charles VI rose. on the throne. With the Pragmatic Sanction of April 19, 1713, he changed the rule of succession that had been valid for centuries in favor of his future children. Even so, August stuck to his plan. On April 28, 1718, Emperor Charles VI. his permission to marry, especially since August had promised to recognize the regulation.

Preparations, marriage in Vienna and celebrations in Dresden

At the same time as the negotiation of the marriage contract , preparations for the festivities in Dresden soon began. These should last four weeks and were well organized. Every day there was one or more events, and each event had high-ranking officials. But August only had about 18 months to make his grandiose plans. Not only had the festivities to be organized, but important buildings such as the Dresden Zwinger , the Opera House at the Zwinger , the Taschenbergpalais and the Holländisches Palais were rebuilt, and their completion was pushed forward with vigor, or rebuilt. In total, over 1000 princes , counts , barons and nobles were invited to accommodate and feed.

Seven planetary festivals had been chosen as a special idea for the four-week celebrations. According to the already outdated geocentric view of the world, these were the sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. Note 1 These seven planets were put under the motto Constellatio felix ( Latin lucky star constellation ), which should be granted to the couple.

After the courtship on August 13, 1719, the marriage took place without much pomp on August 20 in Vienna . It is different in Dresden. On September 2, Maria Josepha and her entourage moved into Dresden on board the Bucentaur , a gilded ship that was gilded for 6000 talers . This was the start of the celebrations, which lasted until September 30th.

Saturnus festival in Plauen reason

The highlight should be the Saturnus festival. The Saturnalia , actually a farmers 'festival, was staged here as a miners' festival in order to properly stage the source of Saxony's wealth, the Erzgebirge mining and metallurgy.

Site plan of the Saturnus Festival. At the top left, the hunting stand and nature theater, in the middle the Paradeplatz. The uphill elevator came from the top right.

The setting chosen was the remote and at the time still wildly romantic Plauenschen Grund, on the one hand on the edge of the Ore Mountains, but still close to the Dresden court. Note 2 Responsible for the planning and implementation was Oberhofmarschall Woldemar Freiherr von Löwendal . The festival of Saturn, which was traditionally scheduled for Saturday, September 23rd, had to be postponed to Tuesday, September 26th due to bad weather. The called miners had to be accommodated and fed during this time.

Three events were scheduled for that day. A knocking hunt was held in the early afternoon, during which the game was driven down the slopes of the Plauenschen Grund towards the hunting party. This waited comfortably in the Weißeritztal near the Buschmühle in a shooting range. Around 260 game were shot here. At a particularly steep point, four deer and a bear fell down the rocks. The bear survived and was eventually killed by August, the real main character of the festival, while swimming in the Weißeritz. Note 3 The place, located on the Swiss bed, was later also called deer or bear jump and was part of the Saxon saga treasure.

An Italian comedy was then scheduled to be shown in the immediate vicinity of the Swiss mill . The natural theater with trees and two fountains was created especially for this purpose. A harlequin slipped into the role of a hunter, a miner and an alchemist one after the other . This is also an allusion to August, who is portrayed here as a passionate hunter, master of mining and patron of the European invention of porcelain.

Frontal view of the temple of Saturn, modeled on a mine with three mouth holes .

Around 6 p.m. the company went to the Temple of Saturn. This stood on the left bank of the Weißeritz and was also specially built for this purpose. It consisted of three domes, was about 50 m wide and had the shape of a mountain into which three mines led. Saturnus was enthroned above, holding a mountain beard and an ore stage . Four pyramids were provided with the names and portraits of Friedrich August, Maria Josepha, August and Christiane Eberhardine. Several fires gave the impression of volcanoes. A plaque in the shape of an A (for August) was set up in the central dome. This was adorned with numerous hand stones replicated from sugar . In the back of the room was a table with the presents. 350 members of an infantry unit disguised as janissaries served the guests. A year earlier they had already been instructed to grow Turkish beards. The right Weißeritzhang showed two illuminations. One with the saying Constellatio felix and the symbols of the seven elements and an aureole with the personified gods and the monogram of the king as the central element.

Appropriate mountain habit

In this ambience one expected the glamorous highlight of the holiday, the big mountain lift . Particular attention was paid to the selection and appearance of the miners. They shouldn't be too old and too weak, but not too young either. After all, child labor, if not underground, was common back then. Every Saxon mining authority district should send representatives to pay homage to the couple. And if possible all professional groups should be represented. In order to ensure a uniform appearance for the miners, Bergrat August Beyer issued regulations for a mountain habitat . This included a black pit coats, white pants and a green Schachthut, to ass leather , knee rest , mine light and mountain beard. The miners had to bear the costs for this themselves. Since this was often not possible with the meager wages, the Chamber advanced the costs. These amounted to over 1 thaler and were withheld from the wages. This mountain habit was only replaced by a dress code specific to the mining authority in 1768. The higher mountain officials wore a particularly splendid habit, appropriate to their position. Baron von Löwendahl, who was not only Oberhofmarschall, but also chief mine director and head of the secret mountain chamber, wore a gilded robe. He was also given the honor of putting on the valuable miner's jewelry from Johann Georg II , which he had made as the chief miner about 40 years earlier. Other senior mining officials of the court and the Saxon Mining Authority were Mining Commissioner Carl Christian von Carlowitz on horseback, Mining Captain Christoph Dietrich Vitzthum von Eckstädt and Mining Captain Carl Christian von Tettau. The parade route led the miners and smelters coming from the direction of Coschütz down the opposite slope into the Weißeritztal, where they crossed a wooden bridge that is no longer in existence. Divided into two platoons, the approximately 1,600 miners carrying torches finally lined up in front of the company. The “machines” that were carried along were a special attraction. The “High Furnace” was a fully functional blast furnace that was used to melt silver during the parade. Furthermore, a "coin machine" was demonstrated, with which a larger number of ejection chips were minted . All important work processes were demonstrated in a total of 170 pictures. The parade was thus also a performance show for the Saxon raw material processing industry. Then a series of mountains was offered and the elevator ended with a triple Glückauf .

After that, the evening ended with dancing, until we left for Dresden at around 1 a.m.

Representation in art

The mountain parade of the Saturnus Festival was depicted by an unknown folk artist in the form of a 38.40 meter long frieze . This consists of over 100 colored single sheets, each 32 cm high and 20 cm wide. The order in which they are presented is unusual because the highest-ranking mountain officials do not ride at the top but in the middle of the train. This, however, is understandable, since they should come to stand centrally in front of the temple. The original is kept in the old scientific holdings of the University Library of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg .

Far more important is the festive report that August commissioned. This documentation has been pushed forward with vigor by Raymond Leplat since 1724 . But the drafts were not finished until 1730. These were mainly made by Carl Heinrich Jacob Fehling , who is also considered the architect of the Temple of Saturn. The work was to be carried out by eminent engravers in an unusually large format of 84 × 53 cm. However, the ambitious work remained fragmentary, which was mainly due to the cost. The Venetian painter and theater architect Andrea Zucchi alone estimated 90,000 thalers for his work. Nevertheless, Fehling's preliminary work already provides a strong impression of the planned work. Most of the images are kept in the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett .

In addition, August also commissioned a seven-part series of medals . 200 silver medals with a diameter of around 48 mm were minted from each planetary festival. The punch cutter was the Norwegian Oluf Wif. Heinrich Paul Großkurt, the mint master from Electoral Saxony at the time, also minted a medal with Saturnus holding an ore stage for the Saturnus Festival.

epilogue

The Saturnus Festival on September 26, 1719 went down in the history of mining as an excellent example of the pursuit of representation and splendor in the time of absolutism. It is one of the most magnificent festivals of its time.

The total costs for the festival weeks are not recorded, especially since many suppliers had to make advance payments. However, it is estimated that they were around 6 million thalers. That was about 20 times the annual budget of the Dresden court of 300,000 thaler, and it owed it for decades. Originally only 125,000 thalers were approved by the estates . In 1722, the Oberhofmarschallamt alone had outstanding outstanding amounts of 47,000 thalers. Großkurt had to flee from his creditors in debt because he had used his own gold and silver to mint the coins. And the miners and smelter had to pay the advances for the mountain habit for years. But still today, Dresden benefits from the enormous gain in prestige with its buildings.

The elaborate temple was later demolished and in 1747, after a driveway had been created, the royal mill was built at this point .

However, August the Strong's hopes of strengthening Saxony's position were only partially fulfilled. Although there were further marriages between the House of Wettin and the House of Habsburg, none of his descendants became emperors. During the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), Saxony sided with Maria Theresa's opponents, hoping to restore the old rules of succession. However, that failed. Prussia even emerged stronger from the war and was awarded Silesia. In 1763 the Polish crown was lost. And in 1815, after the Congress of Vienna , Saxony even had to cede large parts of its land to Prussia after Napoleon Bonaparte had upset the European order.

Presumed influence on the Erzgebirge Christmas tradition

Igor Jenzen, the director of the Museum for Saxon Folk Art , argues that "the central elements of the Ore Mountain carving art such as miners, flying buttresses and pyramids " were inspired by the Saturnus Festival. In their homeland, the participants would have "probably created small models based on the Temple of Saturn." a. “The logic that the situation in the mountain produced the Christmas lights. There were only a few miners working in the mountain, and not even those from morning to evening ”, because the usual shift change was at noon and“ they all saw the sun. ”

Remarks

Note 1The number seven was considered a divine number . Following the ancient model, a distinction was made between seven "planets": the sun , moon , Mars , Mercury , Jupiter , Venus and Saturn . These represented seven "planetary gods": Sol , Diana , Mars , Mercurius , Jupiter , Venus and Saturn . These in turn were assigned the seven planetary metals gold , silver , iron , mercury , tin , copper and lead in alchemy . And finally, they correspond to the seven days of the week Sunday , Monday , Tuesday , Wednesday , Thursday , Friday and Saturday , the etymology of which is related to these deities either in German or in other languages.
Note 2At that time the Weißeritztal was much more rugged and hardly passable. It was not until 1745 that 600 Freiberg miners created a passable road by blasting away rocks. This was expanded to a road from 1807 to 1809. In 1855 the Albertsbahn was finally built into the valley. Numerous quarries mined the rocks of the planer sandstone and syenite that were in place here, which were used in numerous Dresden baroque buildings such as the Dresden Zwinger and as paving stones .
Note 3Brown bears were almost extinct in Saxony at that time. In contrast, they were still numerous in the 17th century. The electoral hunting registers for the period 1611 to 1717 name 703 hunted bears. The last animal is a strong female bear that was shot in August 1747 near Stein an der Zwickauer Mulde.

literature

  • David Faßmann : The Most Glorious Prince and Lord, Mr. Friedrich Augusti the Great, King in Pohlen and Elector of Saxony, etc. Life and heroic deeds, so recently described in historical order . Deer, Frankfurt a. M. / Leipzig 1734, p. 805-831 ( digitized version ).
  • Gustav Klemm : The Saturnus Festival in Plauen Basin . In: The collector for history and antiquity, art and nature in the Elbthale . tape 1 , 1837, p. 134-140 ( digitized version ).
  • Karl-Ewald Fritzsch , Friedrich Sieber : Mining costumes of the 18th century in the Ore Mountains and in the Mansfeld region . In: Publications of the Institute for German Folklore . tape 12 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1957, The elevator costume from 1719, p. 25-36 .
  • Monika Schlechte: The Silver Floor. Art and mining in Saxony . Ed .: Manfred Bachmann, Harald Marx, Eberhard Wächtler. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt / Edition Leipzig, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1990, The Saturn Festival 1719, p. 219-229 .
  • Claudia Schnitzer (Ed.): Constellatio Felix. The planetary festivals of August the Strong on the occasion of the marriage of his son Friedrich August to the imperial daughter Maria Josepha in Dresden in 1719 . Sandstone Communication, Dresden 2014, ISBN 978-3-95498-083-3 .
  • Igor A. Jenzen: The Saturn Festival for the princely wedding of 1719 and the Erzgebirge folk art. In: Announcements of the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz eV 2 and 3/2019, pp. 84–93

Web links

Commons : Saturnusfest  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Otfried Wagenbreth , Eberhard Wächtler (ed.): The Freiberg mining industry. Technical monuments and history . 2nd Edition. German publishing house for basic industry, Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-342-00117-8 , p. 94 .
  2. ↑ a b c M. Schlechte: The silver floor. 1990, p. 220.
  3. ↑ Albrecht Philipp : August the Strong and the pragmatic sanction. The time of the First Peace of Vienna (1719–1727) . Inaugural dissertation. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1907, p. 11-14 ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ a b c C. Schnitzer: Constellatio felix. 2014, p. 8.
  5. ↑ C. Schnitzer: Constellatio felix. 2014, p. 21f.
  6. ↑ C. Schnitzer: Constellatio felix. 2014, p. 10.
  7. ↑ a b C. Schnitzer: Constellatio felix. 2014, p. 11.
  8. ↑ C. Schnitzer: Constellatio felix. 2014, p. 212
  9. ^ Johann Georg Theodor Grasse : The treasure trove of the Kingdom of Saxony . 2nd Edition. First volume. G. Schönfeld, Dresden 1874 ( Wikisource ).
  10. ↑ Hans-Joachim Böttcher : August the Strong and the so-called Turkish fashion. In: Saxony reading. Retrieved June 25, 2019 .
  11. ↑ The civil uniform as symbolic communication . In: Elisabeth Hackspiel-Mikosch, Stefan Haas (ed.): Studies on the history of everyday life . tape 24 , 2005, pp. 72-74 .
  12. ^ Heinrich Winkelmann (ed.): The miner's jewelry Johann Georg II of Saxony . 2nd Edition. First volume. Association of Friends of Art and Culture in Mining, Bochum 1962.
  13. ↑ C. Schnitzer: Constellatio felix. 2014, p. 213
  14. ↑ KE Fritzsch, F. Sieber: '' Bergmännische Trachten '', 1957, p. 31.
  15. ↑ The Bergaufzug presents a parade that was held in Dresden in 1736 or 1738 . sl ( digitized - no year).
  16. ↑ C. Schnitzer: Constellatio felix. 2014, p. 12.
  17. ^ Report: New theory on the origin of Erzgebirge wood art @ sueddeutsche.de; Because of the Erzgebirge! This is where pyramid and miner really come from @ tag24.de; the Free Press refers to the magazine for Erzgebirgisches crafts , if a guess for custom is @ freiepresse.de accessed December 8, 2019; Regarding the midday shift see z. B. Geometria subterranea ... Leipzig 1773; P. 28
  18. ↑ Otto Koepert: Hunting Zoology from Old Saxony. Contributions to Saxon hunting history . In: Supplement to the annual report of the Vitzthumschen Gymnasium in Dresden for the school year 1913/1914 . BG Teubner, Dresden 1914, p. 16 ( digitized version ).
  19. ↑ Robert Berge: About the former occurrence of the larger predatory mammals in Saxony . In: The Zoological Garden. Journal for the observation, care and breeding of animals . XLI. Year, no. 5 , May 1900, p. 134 ( digitized version ).

Coordinates: 51 ° 1 ′ 21 ″  N , 13 ° 41 ′ 49 ″  E