Our beloved Mainz Carnival should remain the most beautiful, largest, and oldest folk festival for all future generations and for all previous generations. Those who celebrate Carnival may also work hard.

The dignity of every fool is inviolable. Every citizen of Mainz is called upon to preserve the freedom of fools. Everyone, including our civil servants, the authorities, and of course the city administration, must tolerate the foolish antics. Because the carnival revelers do not get paid for their foolishness.

All fools are equal, whether they are guards or field marshals, presidents or carnival performers. After all, it is only a game that is played during the fifth season. But even in a game, everyone has their duties. No one should be disadvantaged because of a lack of humor or favored because of their pomposity.

Every fool is free. But freedom ends where another fool's freedom begins. Fools want to celebrate with each other, not against each other.

Every fool should find their joy not in alcohol, but in shared experiences. Praise be to every fool who is foolish even when sober. Cheers!

All guards, carnival speakers, flag wavers, committee members, bell bearers, carnival singers, songwriters, ballet girls, Scheierborzeler, and Schnorrer are under the command of Prince Carnival in the name of God Jokus. The critical people of Mainz keep an eye on this by actively attending the meetings, balls, carnival parades, and street carnival.

All Mainz natives and residents should dress up in costumes and act foolishly during the carnival season to keep the tradition alive. The carnival flag, which we use to decorate our windows and streets, is red, white, blue, and yellow.

The carnival clubs, whether they are guards or corporations, must protect our carnival against prudes and philistines and ensure that the fools listen to the people and express the opinion of the people.

The national dish is "Weck - Worscht - Woi" (bread rolls, sausage, and wine). Because food and drink keep body and soul together. We don't think twice about eating the best food. And we don't drink more than our wallets can handle. - God Jokus is kind to our livers.

The carnival greeting from January 1 to Ash Wednesday is "Helau." It should be shouted or sung as often and as loudly as possible.

From New Year's Day to Ash Wednesday, all Mainz residents can be called upon to perform carnival duties. Anyone who refuses to use confetti cannons or wooden guns on grounds of conscience can perform alternative service as a carnival speaker or singer, provided this is acceptable to the people.

We don't want to take ourselves too seriously. Because each of us is only a small part of our carnival. Let's be happy together. Long live carnival.

(by H. Schenk – revised by C. v. Opel)
Given in Mainz, November 11, 2000

It is impossible to determine exactly how far back the tradition of Mainz Carnival goes in Mainz's history. There is evidence of carnival celebrations as far back as the 16th century. It was not until the 19th century that the first carnival clubs were founded in Mainz.

In 1837, merchant Nikolaus Krieger organized the "Krähwinkler Landsturm," a colorful parade of fools. This precursor to today's Rose Monday parade also included a 15-member fools' militia, the original team of the Mainz Ranzengarde, which was founded by Mainz merchant Johann Kertell. The actual founding of a Ranzengarde battalion, whose uniform was supposedly modeled after the fusiliers of the last Elector of Mainz, Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, took place in the same year.

In 1838, the Ranzengarde took over the "military" protection of the first meetings of the newly founded MCV and subsequently also saw itself as the bodyguard of Prince Carnival. The carnival ceremony stipulates that every Ranzengardist must weigh at least two hundredweight gross or have a waist circumference of six feet – a parody of the tall men of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm. The guard owes its name to its big bellies – the "Ranze".

With the founding of the Mainz Carnival Association (MCV) in 1838 and the approval of its statutes by the Hessian provincial government, the aim was to provide a controllable framework for the "previous uncontrolled growth of carnival celebrations on the streets and in ballrooms, with masks and disguises" through order, organized form, and aesthetic design.


The basic principle of the carnival parade, now organized by the Mainz Carnival Association, was to spread "cheerfulness and goodwill."

However, it was not foreseeable that this cheerful association would take on political themes. The first Rose Monday parades celebrated the marriage between King Carnival and the virgin Moguntia or the birth of Hanswurst from a giant wine bottle in the market square.

As early as 1838, the year it was founded, carnival skits and numerous meetings modeled on the Cologne Carnival prepared for the crazy days ahead. From the very beginning, theater skits and the Kappenfahrt (cap parade) on Shrove Tuesday were also important elements of the carnival revelry that still characterize modern carnival today.

The organized Rose Monday parade was a satire of existing conditions. Heralds on horseback opened the parade, followed by flag and standard bearers and the Ranzengarde in new uniforms with stuffed bellies and long braids. The highlight of the Rose Monday parade was the spectacle surrounding the foolish hero with his state carriage and court on the market square, where the parade came to an end.

The politically active MCV president and later member of the Paulskirche, Franz Zitz, and the democrat Philipp Wittmann exerted considerable influence on the choice of carnival mottos.

The debate surrounding restrictions on press freedom that prevailed in the Vormärz period was also discussed at meetings and during the Rose Monday parade, which took place in the new hall of the Frankfurter Hof from 1842 onwards. As a clear sign of their criticism, they symbolically set fire to the censorship monument in front of the theater in 1846.

The politicization of the Mainz carnival was further reinforced in the 1840s by the publication of the carnival newspapers "Narrhalla" and "Neue Mainzer Narrenzeitung."
This marked the birth of the specific political-literary Mainz carnival.

Mainz Carnival increasingly became a reflection of society and political events, but also of the Mainz way of life. As it became more and more expensive, the city of Mainz paid subsidies because the MCV could no longer cover the costs alone. Until then, the costs of the event had been covered solely by income from carnival meetings and donations. In 1950, the sale of 100,000 parade badges generated additional funds for the carnival parade for the first time.

During the Third Reich, carnival offered a few courageous individuals at least a partial forum to criticize the Nazi regime in an elegant, subtle way between the lines of their carnival speeches.

Seppel Glückert and Martin Mundo were among the most prominent representatives of this political-literary carnival, but this should not obscure the fact that the majority of the speeches were rather apolitical or loyal to the regime and could be misused by the Nazis as a suitable tool for their state propaganda. For example, various Rose Monday parades featured floats with clearly anti-Semitic and racist messages.

For a long time, no other clubs besides the Mainz Ranzengarde and the Mainz Carnival Club were able to exist for the same purpose. It was not until the 1880s that many new clubs emerged, especially in the suburbs of Mainz:

• 1886 the Mombacher Bohnebeitel
• 1892 the Gonsenheimer Schnorreswackler
• 1893 the Eiskalten Brüder

At the same time, new guards were launched:

• 1856 the Mainz Kleppergarde
• 1857 the Haubinger
• 1877 the Kleppergarde Gonsenheim
• 1884 the Mainz Prince's Guard
• 1886 the Princess Guard and the Mombach Prince's Guard
• 1889: The Jocusgarde in Kastel
• 1899 the Mainz Carnival Club (MCC)

All of the aforementioned guards still shape the carnival scene in Mainz today.

1899 saw the birth of the Mainz Carnival Club (MCC), from whose ranks well-known personalities such as Martin Mundo were to emerge. The center of the MCC was the Schöfferhof in Schusterstraße.

Several times a year, they published the carnival newspaper "Narrhalla," which printed the carnival speeches and song lyrics from the meetings. The MCV had taken over the newly built city hall on the banks of the Rhine for its carnival celebrations, which would serve as the "gut Stubb" for the people of Mainz for the next 50 years.

Despite the low level of public subsidies, the MCV had set itself the task of using its income to support financially disadvantaged citizens or those affected by disasters.

In 1844, members donated large sums to the Central Poor Relief Fund and in 1845 to those affected by flooding. They also canceled Carnival events on several occasions in response to political events, such as in 1847 due to famine and in 1857 due to the powder tower explosion.

Even in the turmoil of reconstruction and the poor supply situation after the Second World War, carnival enthusiasts quickly gathered for meetings again in 1946.

For the 1947 carnival campaign, the MCC significantly chose the motto "Humor is when you laugh anyway," with which they defied the difficult living situation.

Even during this period, they did not lose sight of their social commitment. The MCV dedicated special meetings to the evacuated residents of Mainz, and the MCC to the "Association of War Victims and Survivors."

The provincial commissioner of Lichtenberg recognized that institutionalizing Carnival would bring significant tourism revenue to the city. Lichtenberg immediately granted the petitioners' request in 1838, stating, among other things, that "the planned carnival entertainment [will] benefit the city in every respect, not only by keeping the dirty street masks away, but also by attracting many strangers who will leave behind considerable sums of money."

Mainz Carnival steadily developed into a crowd puller and really boosted tourism during the festive days. The expansion of the rail network in the 1860s made it possible to successfully advertise the event in Mainz's neighboring cities. Special trains were put into service and visitors to Mainz Carnival received a special discount on their tickets. In 1873 alone, the Hessische Ludwigsbahn railway transported 26,000 strangers to the carnival stronghold. In 1938, more than 300,000 visitors were counted for the first time. With 3,000 participants on almost 40 floats spread over nine kilometers, it was the largest carnival parade before the festivities were interrupted for twelve years during the war.

The 1955 carnival session, broadcast on television by Südwestfunk under the motto "Mainz wie es singt und lacht" (Mainz as it sings and laughs), was considered brilliant advertising for the city of Mainz. In the following years, the broadcasts led to unbeatable ratings, as did the programs "Mainz bleibt Mainz" (Mainz remains Mainz), which were broadcast from 1965 onwards by ZDF, now based in Mainz. The performers on stage with their carnival speeches, such as Willi Scheu and Herbert Bonewitz, as well as the singing master roofer Ernst Neger, the Mainz court singers, and Margit Sponheimer became real stars and made drinking songs part of the general repertoire.

Mainz Carnival, known as the "fifth season," occupies an important place in the city's calendar of events. The season begins with the annual reading of the eleven carnival laws by the mayor from the balcony of the Osteiner Hof on November 11 at 11:11 a.m.

The carnival sessions only begin after the parade of fools on New Year's Day and build up to the Rose Monday parade. Even today, the exuberance and festive spirit of the people of Mainz are still considered characteristic traits that are not only expressed in the carnival celebrations.

Schütz, Friedrich in: Mainz. The History of the City of Mainz, edited by Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz; Mainz, 1998, pp. 809-834

Keim, Anton Maria in: Mainz "Sitzungen." 150 Years of Mainz Saalfastnacht, ed. City of Mainz, Mainz, 1987, pp. 14-22

Kepplinger, Philipp, Our Carnival Parades and Their Parade Management 1838-1995, Mainz, 1994

Citizens' festival and contemporary criticism. 150 years of Mainz carnival. 150 years of the Mainz Carnival Association 1838-1988, published by the Mainz Carnival Association, Mainz, 1987

Hans-Jörg Jakobi: The Secret of the Carnival Fountain, Edition Erasmus 1999 (or 1998).