Inheriting Culture. „Kinderzeche“ historical festival play in Dinkelsbühl

The "Kinderzeche" (Children’s Dining) in Dinkelsbühl combines a school festival first mentioned in 1629 with a festival play created in 1897 about the siege of the town (1632, with historically documented surrender without a fight) during the Thrity Years' War (1618-1648). The mid-July celebrations last ten days, during which the festival play is performed seven times. This includes dances by the children and the guild dance groups, a folk festival from Friday to Wednesday, four pageants, and a grand taps at the end. On the "Day of the Children" all participating children receive a "Kinderzech-Gucke" - a bag with sweets. This is reminiscent of earlier festive forms of the Kinderzeche, where the children in Dinkelsbühl celebrated the end of the school year with a trip to an inn outside the town, where they were invited by the town for "Zechen," that is, to eat and drink.

Dinkelsbühl's Kinderzeche dates back to pre-Reformation school customs. From the "Schulzeche" for the Catholic Latin pupils, the Catholic "Kinderzeche" developed, which was first mentioned in a document in 1629. After a bi-denominational constitution of the council was established in 1649, a Protestant school was founded in 1652 and a dedicated Kinderzeche was also held in 1654. Both festivals were celebrated separately at intervals of one week until the 19th century, with the Protestant festival increasingly becoming a town festival. The Catholic Kinderzeche was held for the last time in 1815. In the age of historicism in the late 19th century, the school festival was joined by a festival play about the legendary lifting of the Swedish siege of the town in the Thrity Years' War through children's peace diplomacy. The story is told of the tower keeper's daughter Lore, the "Kinderlore", who, together with a crowd of children, succeeds in softening the hearts of the Swedish besiegers, who thereupon spare the town.

The confessional segregation no longer plays a role today. The Kinderzeche appeals to all schoolchildren in Dinkelsbühl and plays an important role in the town's regional self-confidence. Since 2002, the association "Brauchtumspflege Dinkelsbühl e.V." has been responsible for organizing and carrying out the festival and for passing on the knowledge about the festival to the next generation. Since 2009, there has been a museum "Kinderzech-Zeughaus" (Kinderzech arsenal), and in 2013, a legally capable public "Stiftung zur Pflege des Brauchtums in Dinkelsbühl" (foundation for the cultivation of customs in Dinkelsbühl) was also established.

To the exhibition unit: InheritingCulture – shaping collectively

Further information: https://www.ike.bayern.de/verzeichnis/000232/index.html

>> This collection is part of the holdings of "Inheriting Culture. Bavaria’s intangible cultural heritage list" of the "Institut für Volkskunde der Kommission für bayerische Landesgeschichte bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften".