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The Carnival of Basel: A Contribution To Its History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
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A citizen of Basel wrote in 1908, “When the great and long-expected day has finally arrived, and at the stroke of four the signal is given for the entrance of His Majesty Carnival, the city becomes the theater of intense life and activity whose meaning and value only the natives of Basel can appreciate”. This opinion, according to which only “Baselers” understand the real meaning of their fêtes, is still quite widespread, and it is almost a sacrilege that someone from the outside, such as I am, should try to explain the customs that give Basel its eminent place in folklore.
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- Copyright © 1985 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
1 This text is drawn from Unsere Fasnacht (ed. P. Heman), Basel, 1971, pp. 17-23. It is a condensation of a lecture given October 29, 1967, before the Tübinger Vereinigung fiir Fasnachtsforschung and first appeared in the Basler Nachrichten of November 12, 1967. We translate as "carnival" both the German Fastnacht and the specifically Basel Fasnacht, always capitalizing when it concerns this most important of the Basel festivals.
The list of abbreviations for sources:
BN: Basler Nachrichten
BZ: Basler Zeitung
Hoffmann-Krayer, Kl. Schr.: Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer, Kleine Schriften zur Volks kunde, ed. Paul Geiger, Basel, 1946
NZ: National-Zeitung
SETTELEN: Emil Settelen, Geschichte des Quodlibet Basel, 1858-1908 Festschrift zur 50. Gründungsfeier October 24-25, 1908.
SNZ: Schweizerische National-Zeitung
SVF: Schweizerischer Volksfreund
2 SETTELEN, p. 107 et seq. (goes back to 1901).
3 Ibid, p. 100.
4 Hoffmann-Krayer, "Die Fastnachtsgebräuche in der Schweiz", Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde, 1, 1897; taken up in Kl. Schr., p. 25 et seq. Other material relative to the subject is found ibid, p. 112 et seq. (chapter dealing with the Basel New Year and related festivals)
5 Copying out has been carried on since then. The material is found in the Seminar für Volkskunde (seminary of ethnology and folklore) of the University.
6 State Archives of Basel, Libre des proclamations, 1. Some references go back to 1414.
* Council of Basel, Ferrara, Florence, which sat first at Basel from 1431 to 1437 (Editor's note).
7 Die Basler Fastnacht im Wandel der Zeiten. Zusammengestellt vom Chronis ten der Rumpel-Clique. Basel, 1936.
8 Hoffman-Krayer, Bilder aus dem Fastnachtsleben im alten Basel, Zurich, 1896, p. 4. See also his book, Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes, Zurich, 1912, p. 125 (new version by Paul Geiger, Zurich, 1940, p. 162).
9 Heinrich Burkhardt, "Volkbrauch und Volkskunst", in Die Schweitz, ed. Emil Egli, Constance, 1958, p. 162.
10 See especially H. Pfannenschmid, Fastnachtsgebräuche im Elsass, Colmar, 1884.
11 J.H. Bieler, Im Schatten unserer gnädigen Herren, Aufzeichnungen eines Basler Überreiters 1720-1772, ed. P. Koelner, Basel, 1930, p. 56 (this concerns the year 1757). In addition, we have a reference from 1605 for "Hirss Montag", provenant from Sissach (Basel State Archives, archives of the Church HH 15.1,89 v.).
12 State Archives of Basel, Livre des proclamations 2,75,80 Cf. Hoffmann-Krayer, Kl. Schr., p. 86 et seq.
13 State Archives of Basel, Livres du Conseil, A 6 ("black book"), p. 117 r.
14 Basler Chroniken, Vol. I, ed. Wilhelm Vischer, Leipzig, 1872, p. 158; cf. Hoffmann-Krayer, Kl. Schr., p. 71.
15 Cf. Ed. Fritz Knuchel, Die Umzüge der Klein-Basler Ehrenzeichen. Ihr Ursprung und ihre Bedeutung, Basel, 1914, (new edition with title Vogel Gryff, Basel, 1944).
16 See especially Bieler (cf. note 11 supra).
17 Thus in Heinrich Zschokke's Schweizer-Bothe and in the Zurich Schweizer ische Monaths-Chronik.
18 Gottlob Heinrich Heinse, Reisen durch das südliche Deutschland und die Schweitz in den Jahren 1808 und 1809, Leipzig, 1810, Vol. II, p. 164, et seq.
19 Schweizer-Bothe, 1812, p. 68.
20 Schweizerische Monaths-Chronik, 1820, p. 68. Cf. Paul Rud. Koelner, Die Basler Fastnacht, Basel, 1913, p. 35.
* Title of chief magistrate in certain Swiss cantons.
21 Schweizer-Bothe, 1805, p. 88.
22 BZ 1843, p. 230.
23 SNZ 1848, no. 61.
24 Reproduced with this date in D'Basler Fasnacht, ed. under the sponsorship of Basler Fasnachts-Comité, Basel, 1939, on the back of p. 76. The dating is doubtful; we find the same engraving in Robert B. Christ, Eugen A. Meier, Fasnacht in Basel, Basel, 1968, p. 23, dated 1858!
25 SVF 1878, no. 58, in Plaudereien aus Basel, a regular column by the editor, Fritz Amstein.
26 (Anonymous), Über die Veredlung der Vergnügungen der arbeitenden Klas sen, Zwei gekrönte Preisschriften, ed. by the Société bâloise d'utilité publique, Basel, 1840, p. 86.
27 BZ 1841, no 53, (anonymous), Ein Basler Jugendfest—als Faschingsfeier, in Der Wanderer in der Schweiz, 7th year, 1840/41, p. 213 et seq.; BZ 1843, no. 58.
28 SVF 1879, no. 54, Lokales.
29 SVF 1875, no. 40.
30 SVF 1876, no. 44.
31 BN 1859, no. 50 (announcement): "Fötzelklicke!! assemblée générale ce soir chez Toni…".
32 SVF 1870, no. 38; 1866, no. 47; 1871, no. 52, etc.
33 Cf. SETTELEN (see note 1).
34 For example, see a significant remark by Karl Barth, dating from 1923 (Karl Barth und Eduard Thurneysen, Ein Briefwechsel aus der Frühzeit der dialektischen Theologie, Munich-Hamburg, 1966, p. 116). Barth gives a slogan in dialect directed against a pastor who was an enemy of carnival, which more or less says this: "This is why we must have our carnival, and even if that makes a lot of commotion, you, the pastor, refrain from touching it, you are the last to do so". And he comments, "A word to the wise, which should be put into a pastoral theology. The Church would do better to throw light on all this affair by keeping its distance, instead of wanting to combat it directly like a Savonarola, since it is well known that had no success…" (Information obligingly supplied by R. Thalmann)
35 SNZ 1855, no. 41 (following a decision projected by the authorities to reduce the festival to Monday only).
36 SVF 1876, no. 56; Morgenstreich.
37 SVF, 1885, no. 15.
38 SVF 1883, no. 8.
39 Ibid, no. 10.
40 According to the Fastnachtsführer (Carnival guide) of 1911.
41 This sentence, that I formulated too quickly, has had unexpected follow-ups; in 1969, a restaurant proposed in a menu comprising old Basel specialties, the combination "flour soup and onion tart with a cup of chocolate", a specialty claimed to date from 1861. It is the book by Robert B. Christ (1968: see note 24), in which my sentence was slightly transformed, that is at the source of the disturbing proposal. Christ says this on page 79: "The daily press mentions in 1861 for the first time the combination of flour soup and onion tart, at this period always accompanied by hot chocolate as the only suitable drink". In reality, café owners proposed chocolate among other beverages, as one of the possibilities of refreshment. To avoid future misunderstandings, let us be more specific as to what our restaura teurs propose, using sources studied up until now: chocolate for the Morgenstreich from 1857 (BZ no. 54), onion tarts, in 1858 (BZ no. 43); in the SVF these latter are found in 1861 for the first time (nos. 46-47). The "combination" with chocolate does not appear until 1865 (No. 54): "Fresh onion tarts, coffee and chocolate on carnival Monday at 4.00 in the morning". A variant, in the same paper, "The popular onion and flour soup, coffee, punch, hot wine and grog" (first known mention of flour soup, in 1870 (SVF no. 54): "At the Morgenstreich, Monday and Wednesday, flour soup, hot chocolate, grog and onion tarts" and the competitors offered "flour soup and chocolate".
42 Dr. H.C. Eduard Strübin, Die neuere Entwicklung der Fastnacht in Basel-Land. In Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde, 46, 1950, p. 90 et seq.
43 Der Wanderer in der Schweiz, 1, 1834/35, p. 160.
44 SVF 1871, no. 52.
45 NZ 1934, no. 83. In No. 84 a description of Monday afternoon mentions a "Waggismusik of about 30 men"
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