[Author’s note: This post describes a trip that occurred in late September. In lieu of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, I urge you all to limit travelling and avoid large groups as much as is feasibly possible. I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe and healthy!]
Moin! Welcome to another blog about Bremen and the many interesting things that can be found in and around it. Last week (well, give or take six months), I promised to talk a little about the Burgmannentage in Vechta, a sort of Renfest-meets-cultural-festival celebrating the Burgmann council and its task to defend the castle that used to stand at the center of Vechta, a small town that lies about an hour southwest of Bremen by train.
The trip to Vechta started early Saturday morning, as I and many other students took the train to meet a campus coordinator in Vechta. But apart from being shown how to get to the fair grounds from the train station, we were largely left alone. The first major sight we saw was a lonesome wooden tower standing on a small island. This was the replica of the Castrum Vechtensa, an 11th century fortress built to defend a strategic trade route. Some people were hanging out in tents and other historic-looking accommodations on the islands outside the fortress walls, but the main event took place in the park next to the castle.
The entrance to the main park was choked with people, but after we forced our way across the narrow bridge, my friends and I were met with quite a sight: a bizarre bazaar of tents, booths, and stalls that lined every edge of the park and sold all manner of tchotchkes, souvenirs, drinks, and more. Some people even made crafts on the spot in (mostly) period-accurate ways to boot: one man dyed clothes, pulling shirts from a wrought-iron pot, filled with water boiled by a wood-burning fire; a salt shop made salt, boiling off water from a large copper tray and collecting the residue; a blacksmith hammered out little trinkets and tools on a forge set up in his booth; and one person operated a Medieval lathe.
There were also the standard shops you’d expect to see at such a touristy event, selling every kind of souvenir, regardless if it was related to the Burgmannentage event or not. And of course, there was lots of beer. My favorites were a magic-potion and liquor shop (I found it strange they even bothered differentiating the two) and a duo of performers who played, individually, the bagpipes or the hurdy-gurdy (I kid you not; that’s what it’s called, as the voice in the video will attest) in combination with drums.
One of the shops even afforded me the chance to practice my German, as I attempted to haggle over the price of a federschwert. This was the only shop I saw that was selling weapons and armor that weren’t cheap props; it was quite the reversal from my experience at the Murfreesboro renaissance festival where half the booths had something sharp and dangerous to hawk. Unfortunately, my German wasn’t impressive enough, as the shopkeeper wouldn’t offer any discounts and said–and I’m roughly translating– “There’s nothing I can do. You’ll just have to come back with a bigger bag of gold!”
Finally, there was a troupe of actors wearing armor reminiscent of the vikings (we are in Lower Saxony after all) who did some mock battles in the afternoon. It was hard not to notice them when they came marching through the park. Several groups of men, all wearing chainmail and carrying swords and shields or polearms all met up and performed a couple 5v5 bouts before it was time for the main event. The main event involved ten times that number of people on each side, and the following series of fights was quite the spectacle. Unfortunately, as is wont to happen in northern Europe, it started to rain. The trip was cut short, but I did manage to snag a small souvenir on the way out.
Back in Bremen, I still felt the urge to do some exploring, but in the interest of time I will end this story here. Next week (or month, or year) will be about the Bürgerpark, a massive park on the north side of Bremen with quite a few attractions in it. For now, this concludes the first real post since I got here. Apologies for the long delay, it’s been a rough trip from the start and it goes without saying that it feels like everything’s been turned upside down in recent months. But until things start returning to normalcy, stay safe and healthy! Tschüss!
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