Fools' Revolt

The Fools' revolt or Narrenrevolte was an organized carnival that took place in 1935 in Cologne, Nazi Germany in resistance to the Nazi Party's attempt to co-opt traditional German Carnival celebrations for their own purposes. It was planned by the Nazi organization Kraft durch Freude, which was responsible for, among other duties, controlling leisure activities and attracting tourists under the regime. Some have argued that the event should be regarded not as an act of resistance against the Nazis, but merely an attempt by the carnival clubs to preserve the sanctity of the festivities, their influence over its organization, and their own profits.

Fools revolt
Date	May 22, 1935 (1935-05-22)
Location	Cologne, Nazi Germany

Background

The NSDAP planned early on the organizational, political, economic and ideological classification of the Rhenish carnival in its totalitarian idea. In November 1933, she instored to highlight the carnival as a German folk good in connection with the demonic "Vasenacht", to deny the church relations with the festival. Political jokes and criticism were banned from the carnivalists. The Cologne Rose Monday procession was no longer centrally organized by the carnival societies, but by the "Citizens' Committee for the Cologne Carnival" under the chairmanship of the Deputy Ebel. Two SA men were responsible for his management.

The measures of the NSDAP, which politically and historically took over the carnival, were initially positively received by the representatives of many large carnival associations. Even before Hitler's seizure of power, the negative attitude of many people to the multi-party system of the Weimar Republic, to the peace treaty of Versailles or the skepticism about the peace intentions of the League of Nations had been taken up by the carnival. Reform approaches that wanted to return the carnival to a "popularity" already existed before 1933.

The first anti-Semitic carnival wagon drove with him in the Rose Monday procession in 1934: Taken from a Veedelszoch, he represented a group of Orthodox Jews who made "only a small excursion to Liechtenstein and Jaffa" under the heading "The last ones move" – a clear allusion to the expulsion and voluntary emigration of the Jewish population. Regular anti-Semitic representations followed in the next few years, without leading carnivalists distancing themselves from it.

The National Socialists also succeeded in adapting the Cologne Carnival to homophobic elements of their ideology without much effort: The Tanzmariechen traditionally portrayed by men and the also male Virgin of Cologne were replaced by actresses in 1938 and 1939. After the war, this was only revised with the Virgin – the female Tanzmariechen remained.

After the takeover of the carnival by the KdF formally failed, the members of the festival committee arranged in detail with the organization: "Kraft durch Freude" donated for the Rose Monday procession, organized the grandstand construction and large parts of the tourist marketing of the Rose Monday procession. Members of the festival committee moderated KdF carnival sessions and awarded carnival orders to local Nazi greats.

There was substantive carnival resistance against the Nazi ideology in individual cases: The Bütten speaker Karl Küpper, who was on the road as "D´r Verdötschte" (Kölsch for "The Crazy") in the session carnival, openly positioned himself against the National Socialists and made fun of them on stage despite the threat and ban on speech. A subversively published satire on the official Cologne Rosenmontagszeitung also made biting criticism of the Nazi system in 1938. She portrayed Joseph Goebbels on the front page as "His Tollität Jüppche I".

The "revolt"

On the 22nd In May 1935, the Nazi deputy Wilhelm Ebel proclaimed the foundation of the "Verein Kölner Karneval e.V." in the Cologne daily newspapers. This consisted of representatives of the city administration, the NSDAP, the police and the KdF. The aim was to clean up "abuses" in the Cologne carnival, also with regard to the difficult economic situation of the festival organizers, to whom Ebel also accused of self-interest and incompetence.

The acting president of the Prince's Guard, Thomas Liessem, himself a member of the NSDAP since 1932, immediately conceived a counter-script, which was supported and published jointly by all major carnival societies. They demanded the withdrawal of Ebel's slander and otherwise threatened to completely stop their activities for the carnival festival. The Cologne press, with the exception of the Nazi body West German Observer, also supported these demands. When it was on the 27th. May 1935 came to a large joint meeting of all carnival societies and many Cologne citizens in the presence of the police and party representatives, it became known even before the opening by Liessem that Gauleiter Josef Grohé had distanced himself from Ebel's plan and asked him to dissolve the planned club and leave all carnival affairs in the hands of the carnival societies.

The carnivalists then founded a "Festival Committee Cologne Carnival" under the chairmanship of Liessem.

After this event, which is called the "fool's revolt", there were formally no further attempts at equalization and takeover by the KdF organization in the Cologne Carnival.

Interpretations

In the post-war period, the behavior of the "festival committee" under its president Thomas Liessem was interpreted as a skillful tactic and steadfast appearance in the face of the pressure of the NSDAP to achieve control of the Cologne carnival. First attempts to critically work through the legend of the fool revolt failed due to resistance in Cologne politics and in the Cologne Carnival Festival Committee. In the second half of the 20th In the 19th century, the "resistance" of the Cologne Carnival against National Socialism was historically relativized and also realistically presented by the Cologne Carnival Festival Committee, for example in the Cologne Carnival Museum.

Sources

• Hildegard Brog – Whatever happens: D'r Zoch kütt! The history of the Rhenish carnival. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt 2000, ISBN 3-593-36387-9, p. 219–247.
• . In: . No. 9, 1998 (online – 23. February 1998).
• Jürgen Meyer: . In: . 7. February 2005 (online [accessed on 13. April 2008]).
• Jürgen Meyer: . In:  No. 42. Cologne 1997, p. 69–86.