Fasnet in Rottweil Allemani and Suevi About 260 A.D
HAVE GERMAN WILL TRAVEL FASTNACHT Fasnet in Rottweil Allemani and Suevi about 260 A.D. However, because ofits very favorable position as a cross ing point of trade routes, the site of Rottweil remained inhabited, becoming a ducal and rhen royal estate, that is first documemed as "R'Otuvilla" in 771 AD. Favored by ehe Hohenstaufen empe~ors, who rebuilt ehe city in 1230, Rottweil became one of the seats of the rnost important Imperial courts of the Holy Roman Em pire and thus a Free Imperial City, independent from the surrounding countryside and answerable only to the Em peror himself. Its medieval walls and city cowers, the Stout buraer houses wich their bay windows all bear witness to ehe flourishing of Rottweil during this time. Nearby Vil lingen and other places in ehe Neckar Valley "vere ruled by the Habsburgs as Vorderösterreich, H ither Austria, and, in 1463, Rottweil cntcrcd into a relationship with the Swiss Helvetic Confederation as a Zugewandte Ort, or "Relat ed Town," joilling the Swiss in their struggle agaillse thc House of Burgundy. Although it was strained by the Reformation, Rott weil's relationship with ehe Swiss Confederation comin ued until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the mediatization of the Frec Imperial Cities in 1803. As Japolcon had conquered t he surroullding area, deputies from bis ally, the Duke of Württemberg, demanded ehe surrender of the city and Rottweil .became -~hief town of the Oberamt Rottweil in what was soon the Kingdom ofWürttembcrg. The medieval Old To,vn with its ring of walls and searcb rejects tbis collnection, as interesting a theory cowers is wonderfully preserved, evoking memories as it is, with pre-Christian rituals. of faded imperial glories. A city now with approxi ((Carne vate» means "Farewell eo meats" and it mately twenty-six thousand inhabitants, Rottweil is doubeless in the Medieval custom of preparing for has loaned its name to the weil known breed of dog, ehe fast of Lent that the origins of Carnival-Fasch the Rottweiler, which developed as a herding dog ing-Fastnacht and Rottweil Fasnet are to be found. for butchers bringing livesrock to ehe local market. The "Fease of Pools" was often celebrated riotously be However, Rottweil is perhaps best known in Ger ginning at Epiphany with the election of "Boy Bishops" many for its celebratioo of Fastnacht, or as the locals and "Lords of Misrule" with cowns people being involved say «Fasnet. » wich the parades that celebrated one final blow out before Some researchers have sought Roman or pre the somber time of penance and reflection Oll sins began. Roman Celtic origins for ehe Fasnet celebration, see Fasching Ullrest and improprieties are reported as early as ing in it a colltinuation of ehe Roman Lupercalia or 1296. lt was a time for people eo let down tl~eir hair and pre-Christian rites to drive out winter. In my youth the Church stood by alld watched, knowing that at mid in the Black Forest, I was told pointedly that one oight on Shrove Tuesday, the party would seop and folks of the figures, Federehannes, tickling onlookers with would stream to church for confession, absolution, and the cow's tail on a stick, recalled ehe Roman Luper ashes the following day. calia cuscom of young men striking ehe onlookers The first mention of the Rottweil Fasnet is from 1310 with whips made of wolfski.n, as when Shakespeare's and a Narrenzunft or "Pools' Guild" existed as early as Julius Caesar eells Calpurnia to go stand in the front ehe seventeenth century to promote the distinct old us ofthe crowd Oll Lupercalia, so she can be touched by ages and cuscoms. As elements of the Carnival tradition in the wolfskins and become fertile. Most modern re- the Rheinland came in to Rottweil tl1rou12_hout the nine-