White fool

Donaueschingener Hansel as it was pronounced in the first half of the 20th century.

Faselhannes, white fool of the fools guild Bad Waldsee

White fools are called certain carnival figures that appear in the Swabian-Alemannic carnival . Its traditional distribution area is the Baar and the area to the north of it on the upper Neckar. Typical representatives are the Villinger Narro , the Hansel figures from Bräunlingen , Hüfingen , Schramberg and Donaueschingen as well as the fool figures Gschell and Biss from the Rottweiler Fasnet .

The fool figure, whose name does not come from the vernacular, but was introduced in the 1950s by the folklorist Wilhelm Kutter , denotes a person wearing a white linen robe, whose jacket, trousers and larval hood - his fool's hat - with oil paints in the form of various figures, animals or flowers are painted. Another characteristic of the white fool are the so-called roles or the Gschell . These are leather straps to which large, round bronze bells with a sound slot are attached. They weigh between 15 and 25 kilograms and are placed in pairs over the shoulder. They sound at the fool's jump and make one of the characteristic noises during the Swabian-Alemannic street carnival.

The Narrenhäs is completed, for example, with the Villinger Narro by the large, white, artfully folded and starched collar, the Masch (colored neck bow ), the foulard, a large silk scarf , the black, sturdy shoes and black gloves. Occasionally you can see the white fool carrying a sausage or a saber .

Are to the hood consisting of lime wood carved mask , Schemme or larva and foxtail , a medieval sign for a dishonest man, attached. The Schemme is probably the most valuable piece of equipment. There are some carvers who laboriously make the masks by hand.

The white fool is often accompanied by a woman in the traditional costume of the city in question, such as the Villinger Narro from the Altvillingerin.

literature

Werner Mezger: The big book of the Swabian-Alemannic carnival. Origins, developments and manifestations of organized foolery in Southwest Germany , Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-8062-1221-X , p. 50f.

Web links

White fool at the association of Swabian-Alemannic fools' guilds

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elisabeth Skrzypek: "The women were great ...". Women celebrate the fifth season . Reutlingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-88627-691-2 , p. 93-95 .