Your German Great-Great-Grandparents Called...

[hsifeng]

... and wanted to let y'all know that they were rocking this look LONG before you were even born.

Let's be clear - there is nothing truly "new" under the sun. In the medieval era they dressed up like Romans for holidays, and I am sure the Romans dressed up like someone else too.

But damn, Ulm Festzug 1898 looks like it was one HELL of a party!



They clearly got the "laying around on the ground like a pimp while the ladies serve you wine" memo...


HEY! How did Stephen Jacobson get in this shot (second standing from the left is a *dead ringer* for him)?!?


"Look ma! A parade!"






And guess what... this wasn't even the *first year* of this event. Nope. Observe the 1877 program booklet kiddies!




And Ulm wasn't the only city to hold them!



PS: It looks like they are still throwin' this shindig, even today... :D

PPS: And that 'jousting' they host at the end of the parade. Yeah. Not on horses.

Yes, that is a dude in a dress. Get over it. Apparently it is a 'thing' at these events. They are JOUSTING IN BOATS for goodness sake...

Comments

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

PS: "Hello my LJ buddies!"

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Isn't history fun? }:P

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Very much so! :D

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the 19th century Germans had a hard-on for Landsknecht, It means that when you see antiques, you have to ask "which Landksnecht era is that from again? The 16th or the 19th century one?"

I amuses me greatly.

And hee! Boat jousting!!!

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

I would love more information on this phenomenon; it would be terrific to know just how long the crazy has been going and where and why. :)

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

All I can tell you is that I was on an antique site at one point, and every single "Landsknecht" antique they had was from the 19th century. Flags, swords, drums, painted plates, beer steins. You name it, it was all what we'd call Victorian era. I think it was all part of the whole "nationalism" phase that everyone went through during the 19th century, after the boundaries started settling down in Europe and everyone got busy building a national identity. And I suspect that the Germans latched on to Landsknechts as part of that identity building.

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Which is interesting, because I my understanding is that there was a back-lash against all things 'Landsknecht' in Germany post WWII (god only knows where my brain is dredging up this tidbit from) - which would make sense if it was part of a rejection of all things pre-war that lead to the conflict.

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

I know that during WWII they called their uniform jackets Waffenrocks, and named their Panzer divisions after famous Landksnechts and did other such like. Again, proud of their famous warrior ancestors. So I'm sure that's where that post WWII backlash came from. Not so much rejecting Landsknect as rejecting the Nazis who glorified them.

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

I know this is an ancient conversation, but I was pinning today, and came back to this page.

And this is the antique site that I mentioned. I'd found early on in my Landsknect research, and remembered that it had a lot of 19th century reproductions/images of Landsknect.

http://www.germaniainternational.com/landsknecht.html

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Awesome honey, thank you for sharing!