Southern Germany

Question 1

Was there a ‘typical experience’ in Southern Germany?

Answer 1

No

Question 2

Geographical popular culture examples and facts

Answer 2

Popular cultures were regional and perceived as local culture - ‘to each land its own custom’
Germany was not a uniform state - geographical and political borders were overlapped / status of being an imperial city gave freedom / towns and village courts had remarkable freedom
Carnival was held in the open air in the city centre e.g at the marketplace surrounding the town hall in Nuremberg

Question 3

Elite/educated culture

Answer 3

• In the Nuremberg carnivals - patrician families played a large part in the festivities
• Emperor Charles V took part in bull fights during festivals and his great grandson Philip IV loved to watch them
• 17th C German broadsheet was designed to appeal to both elite and common classes with its simple visual presentation combined with Latin tags
• Increase in educational opportunities - Wurttemberg had 50 schools in 1534 but 2709 by 1581

Question 4

Common culture

Answer 4

• Emperor Charles V and Philip IV enjoyed bull fights
• 17th C German broadsheet was designed to appeal to both the elite and common classes with simple visual presentation combined with Latin tags
• Peasants were mocked as outsiders in some celebrations in Nuremberg and Munich
• Popular justice - charivari (a public defamation and mocking of those who subverted social norms) was accompanied by katzenmusik (rough music, the beating of pots and pans in a mock serenade)

Question 5

Pageants, festivals and carnivals

Answer 5

• Carnival was held in the open air in the city e.g at the marketplace surrounding the Town Hall in Nuremberg / fraternities led by ‘abbots of misrule’ recruited young adult males of the upper classes to perform more formalised aspects of the festivities e.g the Schembartlaufer in Nuremberg where a float, the Holle was drawn through the streets on a sledge to the main square. It was often in the form of a ship / performance elements e.g mock ploughings were popular and often involved unmarried women pulling the ploughs, mock weddings where the bride might be a man and the groom a bear
• Nuremberg carnivals - patrician families played a large part in the festivities
• Feast of Fools/Misrule - organised by young clergy, elected a lord of misrule to command anyone to do anything which resulted in dancing, cross-dressing, singing of bawdy songs, mocking of priests, profane activities e.g putting on vestments backwards
• common theme was youth e.g 1510 there was a float representing the fountain of youth / 1514 one of old woman being devoured by the devil
• over 20 German carnivals in the 1520s and 1530s turned into anti-Catholic parades