The Hambach Festival 1832 and the Winemaker Protest at the Moselle until 1848

In the 19th century, there were farmer and vintner protests in various locations. The most well-known and significant event, the "Hambach Festival," took place at Hambach Castle near Neustadt an der Haardt (today "an der Weinstraße") in the then Bavarian Rhine Palatinate.

From May 27th to 30th, 1832, the civic opposition against the restorative German petty state system met for a "National Festival of the Germans." It was an oppositional celebration for democracy and press freedom. Important for understanding the events is also that the situation of the population, as well as the farmers and vintners, was poor due to failed harvests of grain and wine. The problems were exacerbated by the customs barriers that traversed the "German Confederation," even dividing the Bavarian regions and complicating domestic trade – and which were to be dismantled only gradually. Thus, protesting vintners also participated in the Hambach Festival, carrying a black flag embroidered with the motto "The vintners must suffer." They sang: "We live in the most beautiful land on earth / Full of God's blessing / Yet we must become beggars / Through the damned customs! / The free press, brothers, it must live / It frees us from customs / For where one may raise the voice freely / everything still comes into line!"
The connection between press freedom and the improvement of the economic situation reappears shortly afterwards when in 1842/43 Koblenz and Marx wrote their articles in the Rheinische Zeitung about the plight of the Mosel vintners, and in 1848, the Mosel vintners held a large protest meeting in Lieser.

6:00 p.m. thematic guided tour of the exhibition on the Vintner Uprising of 1926 (ground floor) - Dr. Matthias Vollet
7:00 p.m. lecture (large meeting room, room 300) - Dr. Matthias Vollet

Fee: none/free
Cooperation with the Senior Academy at the vhs Bks (K26/85)