Rothenburg Festival: “Der Meistertrunk”

Drink 3.25 litres at one go and save your town? Believe it!

Tony and Helen join in the Rothenburg “Meistertrunk” festivities, but don’t try to emulate the legendary imbibing of the town-saving Mayor Nusch!

(Marching soldiers singing)

“Well, here we are in Rothenburg main square, and I’m following the musketeers. There’s a huge celebration going on here. We’ve just had a band, and and everyone’s sitting around – people coming in front of me here – in the square. I think I’ll try to make my way around.

(Soldiers band playing and singing in German)

“Hearts of Oak“? No, sorry, “As we were marching through Georgia“!

“The Meistertrunk” Legend Lives On in Rothenburg – and here’s the story:

(The Soldiers’ leader, who appears to be a sort of Town Crier, addresses the crowd in German. Here’s a rough explanation of what he was saying:

“The setting is the Thirty Years’ War and after some bitter fighting, the Catholic imperial troops under Count Tilly had just taken control of Protestant Rothenburg. The town folk of Rothenburg did not give in easily and Count Tilly was enraged by their violent resistance. He gave orders for the town to be plundered and destroyed and for four of the town councillors to be executed. Pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears and the Mayor was ordered to fetch the hangman.
Meanwhile, the Count was offered the finest of Franconian wine served in a huge tankard which held 3.25 litres. In jest, he promised to spare the town if one of its councillors could down a full tankard of wine in one go. A former mayor, Bürgermeister Nusch took up the challenge and amazed Tilly by draining the tankard in ten minutes. Tilly kept his promise to spare the town, the folks of Rothenburg were jubilant and Mayor Nusch was said to have slept for the next three days.”

He leads the soldiers in a hats-off cheer to salute the memory of this formidable feat!)

Well, it will be very interesting to see if anybody’s going to re-enact the “Meistertrunk“, which of course is where the mayor saved the city by drinking 7 litres of red wine (Edit: actually, 3.25 litres) at one go.

I think they’re off, and I think I’m in the way.

(Soldiers sing accompanied by their pipe and drum band – not very tunefully, if the truth be told, but with plenty of character; the crowd applauds)

A blood-stained bandaged flag-waver, and a march off for a drink

There seems to be a bit of a chat going on now, not sure what’s going on, I hope someone’s going to…er… (Soldiers milling around) This guy’s got a bloodstained bandage on his head, in the middle of the sol…the soldiers are fighting the other people, and now, hopefully, they’re all going to be saved by the mayor or councillor drinking seven pints, litres of wine.

(I think I got a bit confused there!)

Well, they’re all marching off again – oh, I’ve just been smote by a flag waving!

Well, they’re all off back now, everyone here’s streaming around and no-one’s drunk any wine – oh, they’re marching straight into a restaurant cafe “Katst..”, oh no, “Katstube“, so let’s hope that they’re going for a well-deserved drink of wine, if not seven litres!

There we are, that’s all now from the main square, much celebrating going on, in Rothenburg.”

Please have a look our other videos, and if you like them, why not subscribe to our Travelsignposts YouTube channel? And get more interesting info about Rothenburg by checking out the features at our website
The Master Draught (Der Meistertrunk) – A Rothenburg Festival
Jakobskirche – Rothenburg’s Main Lutheran Church (https://www.travelsignposts.com/Germany/sightseeing/jakobskirche)
Schneeballen – Snowballs from Rothenburg (https://www.travelsignposts.com/Germany/food/schneeballen)
and the many photos of Weikersheim in our website gallery:
Rothenburg Town
Rothenburg Festival
Rothenburg St Jakob’s Church
Rothenburg Historical Vaults and Dungeons
Rothenburg Night Watchman
Rothenburg Walls Walk

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