Wallenstein Summer 2016
Every summer in late July the town of Memmingen in Swabia on the Bavarian/Baden-Württemberg border celebrates Fischertag - a day when the men of the town jump into the town stream (at 0800 when a cannon is fired) and catch all the trout so the stream can be drained and cleaned. The man who catches the biggest fish (using a hand held net on a wooden pole) is crowned fisher king and gets to present his predecessor with a sausage and a radish before throwing him into the stream. Fishertag ends with a pageant and live bands playing in the street.
In 1900 the pageant celebrated the capture of Memmingen by the Catholic forces under Generalisimo Wallenstein in 1630. This was popular and repeated several times until the first world war. In the 1980’s the Fischer Tags club of Memmingen decided that every four years they would hold a historic pageant lasting 8 days, recreating the events of 1630 and allowing the citizens of Memmingen to play their story. The events surrounding the capture, siege, battle and capitulation were of considerable importance not only in southern Germany, but throughout Europe. During the festival week, over 4,000 participants recreate some of the events of 1630 in Memmingen. The festival includes Equestrian Games, historic church services, living history encampments, medieval parades, craft markets and demonstrations of traditional crafts by master craftsmen. On both sundays of Wallenstein a great parade of horses and carriages, musketeers, pikemen, jugglers, sutlers, minstrels and many other groups takes place. Over 1,000,000 visitors come to see the camps, theatrical shows and parades.
MacKay’s Regiment of Foote, a regiment of Scottish Mercenaries, fought for Gustavus Adolfus at Memmingen. Their captain Robert Monroe wrote the history of the regiment and wrote down the words for When Cannons are Roarin. Every Wallenstein, members of the Sealed Knot (primarily from the Scots Brigade) take part as guests of the Memmingen Musketieri. This year David, Jacqualine and Laurie signed up with MacKays.
An Overview of the Event
It is hard to describe the scale of the event, the small town is encircled by military encampments set up by the different societies (Gallas Dragoons, Kanonieri, Musketieri, Pickenieri, Pappenhimer Kuriasser, Maygars, Walensteins Bodyguard, Rontartschiere, War chest - Waldenfels, Prince Ulrich of Denmark’s Bodyguard, Beggars and Military Hospital). The camps are open to the public from 10am to 10pm at weekends and 4pm to 10pm in the week. Rather than SK type living history the public must stay on marked paths through the camp or risk an enforced bath in a large tub of cold water and expulsion from the camp. The soldiers play games, drill, demonstrate skills, drink beer and eat while watched by the public. All of the groups, including the Musketieri, run a public bar with a special Wallenstiener dark beer and sell food (the Musketieri sold Grilled Wallenstiener Worst with Sauerkraut and garlic sauce in a roll).
The two marches really demonstrate the scale of logistics needed by an army. The parade was over two miles long and interspersed the military units and their camp followers with horse drawn baggage wagons with food and forage, powder, shot, money. Wallenstien and Prince Ulrich rode in ornate carriages with bodyguards and their household staff accompanying them, whilst the commissary and foresters bring wild boar with food and drink for the army. MacKay’s Great Grey Steamroller of Death comprised about 18 lowland musket, followed by drums and colours (10 or so) plus Tam Brun the piper [who is German], pike (about 18), and 12 highland musket interspersed by camp followers with water [it was 28 degrees in the shade on the first Sunday] and of course ensigns and officers, plus two highland longbow men! This large (by SK standards) regiment, although dwarfed by the 60 or so Musketieri and over 100 Pickenieri, marched to the skirl of the pipes and shouts of “Magdaberg and nae Quater”, “Gustavus Adolfus”, and gaelic war cries (Scotland the Great, The White Banner of the MacKays, etc) with “bags of swank” and was received by cheering crowds. Whilst the streets were packed, we also marched past grandstands and, in the town square, the town council arrayed in 17th century costume complete with black robes and huge white ruffs.
Experiencing the Event
Life in camp was an unusual experience with lots of opportunities to sit on benches at the tables and to drink beer, radler (shandy), wine, schnapps and sparkling water while playing cards or music, chatting with other MacKay’s or our Musketieri hosts, or eating lunch, dinner or snacks (bread buttered with dripping, onions and salt or cheese, paprika sauce and chives) - food was free and served from an industrial sized camp kitchen with a permanent staff and rotund chef.
Eating and drinking was interspersed by musket firing drills (issued with single charges of powder in glass vials with a plastic lid) sword practice, campsite games, sitting round the camp fire, and watching pike drill. On two evenings we marched through the streets to the southern camp to visit Ballard’s (guest of the Kanonieri) and the Pappenhimer Kuriasser. On other evenings return visits were made to the Musketieri camp. We also marched to a civic reception hosted by the mayor.
Wine and beer were sold using tickets bought at the start of the event. A beer/wine cost €1-50 and was served in what ever vessel came to the bar (yes people did get a pint of wine). Schnapps, plain and flavoured, came in ten, 2cl bottles, handed around these were vigorously banged on the table, then the top was unscrewed and placed on the nose, whilst the bottle - gripped in the right hand was held across the table to grapple with the fingers of the other drinkers before being held in the teeth and drunk in one go. If the lid falls off your nose you must buy the next round of schnapps. At any excuse a bottle of schnapps could be sprung on you by the Musketieri. While playing the small-pipes David complained that he was struggling to keep time on a tune he was learning - the remedy (rather than using a drummer to act as a metronome) was to put a bottle of schnapps in his mouth!
On the Saturday a battle took place outside of the town (actually a demonstration of military manoeuvres - battles are not allowed under German law). The highly scripted event followed the old SK model: march on - parley - shooting - contact - withdraw - parley - shooting - contact - withdraw - march off. Although all the German re-enactors carry swords many don’t use them so hand-to-hand against the Musketieri [they fight for Wallenstein not Gustavus Adolfus] was reminiscent of a pike push with some underhand tactics - David’s bonnet was pulled down over his eyes so he couldn’t see! Powder seemed to be no problem with copious quantities issued to the musket and very large charges used in the cannons. As we marched on we passed massed ranks of fire-brigade, ambulances and police. There was no safety line and the crowd was kept back by metal pedestrian barriers. A huge crowd watched the spectacle and the march.
Early in the week the town was busy but towards the weekend more and more stalls were erected - till almost no space was without a fairground stall, craft stall, food stall or bar. Every German christmas market stall for hundreds of miles seemed to have converged on Memmingen. Amongst them were master craftsmen demonstrating their crafts: flax spinners, weavers and clothiers, printers and bookbinders, shoe makers, saddlers and blacksmiths, turners and joiners, glassiers, candlemakers, stonemasons, bricklayers (making arches and vaulting), bakers, rope makers, net makers, hatters, clockmakers, goldsmiths, guilders and candlemakers. All were working with period equipment in stalls erected in the street and dressed appropriately.
Below are a few of the pictures David and Jacquie took. The Memmingen photographers club took thousands of photographs and put them on facebook (under the Wallenstein Sommer Memmingen 2016 group) and Bilderpixel. The next Wallenstein will be in 2020 and the Ingrams will probably be back.
