Freiburg im Breisgau Local Customs

The Breisgauer Narrenzunft is actually not one single guild but an association of 35 different carnival guilds in town. Each of the guilds does its own carnival programme but the association keeps them together and organizes some central events - like the big parade on Carnival Monday where all the member guilds and many many guests from all over Baden-Württemberg participate.

The variety of masks and costumes among the member guilds is enormous. I'm presenting some of them in my travelogue pages (work in progress).

List of all member guilds with links to their individual websites

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Guggemusik originates in the Swiss carnival but becomes more and more popular in the South West of Germany, too. There are quite a number of these funny bands in the Freiburg parade.
Most bands consist of brass and drums. The rules how to make Guggemusik are easy:

1. The majority of the band plays the same song.
2. Start together and fisnish together. No one cares what happens in between.
3. Make as much noise as you can.
4. No worries. Whether you hit the right notes or not doesn't matter.
5. It's the listeners' problem whether or not they recognize the piece you're playing, not yours.
6. Have fun.
7. HAVE FUN!!!!

A good Guggemusik will torture the ears of any 'serious' musician... but it's just wonderful!!!

There are even Guggemusik competitions: The noisiest band wins!

Photo 1: Guggemusik band "Zarte Säu" ("Tender Sows") from Tiengen. If you want to hear the pirates, there is a video of them with sound. Turn up the volume!!!

Freiburg is one of the centres of alemannic Fastnacht. 35 carnival guilds are located in the city. Each of them is doing its own activities, but on carnival Monday they're all united in the big parade (starting 14.00).

See my travelogue page for more pictures and details.

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In Ravenna-Schlucht, where Goethe did walk and made some of his drawings you will see some large machineries, like they were used in order to cutting the trees of the black Forest. Using the woods in order to build furniture was the main income for the local people of Black Forest / Schwarzwald for many centuries. In Ravenna - Schlucht, quite close to Hofgut Sternen you can see this interesting machinery, cutting the wood, as a part of various exhibits about local industry of former centuries !
This exhibition is totally free of charge and you can see it any time !

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Close to Freiburg you will find one of the best specialists for restoring vintage cars of all types :
British Classic Cars in D-79286 Glottertal - Talstraße 14
I have been there several times, admiring these wonderful cars, that are unfortunately totally out of my financial range. To a certain extent you may take a look at these cars, when you are lucky to find a nice soul letting you into the big hall. A few cars are also standing outside of the Garage.
In any case, for car-enthousiasts there is also one of the best collections of rare vintage-cars close to Freiburg :
The Schlumpf-Collection in Muhouse/France
just a bit more than 1 hour to drive from Freiburg : The world's largest collection of rare Bugattis, a giant collection of racing-cars and a lot more. The brothers Schlumpf had spent all of their fortune buying cars and restoring them, finally they were bancrupt and had to flee the country
Enlarge my other pics and you will see some of their best cars on my self-made-postcard, using my best pics of the museum or click here for my Mulhouse-page

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You will see the typical houses of Black Forest / Schwarzwald mainly in the outskirts of Freiburg and in the nearby villages : These extra-high roofs are typical for the Schwarzwald-houses, and they made sense because the winters used to be strong and the snow would slide down easyly. Another quite interesting detail are the balconies that run around the houses, mostly totally covered by the overhanging roofs of the building.
On my 4th picture you can see the typical kind of Schwarzwald-facade : thin pieces of wood, fixed like shindles.

Traditional costumes of the Black Forest / Schwarzwald are hard to be seen in the city of Freiburg, except at funny sign-posts like the one on my photograph.
The ladies wear this typical hat with red "Bollen" only as long as they are not yet married.

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Loewenbrunnen is another fountain, built at the back-entrance of the Historisches Kaufhaus - see my pics 1-3 !
"Little Venice" is a part of the old town of Freiburg, where a system of canals is running through and it looks very scenic with lovely old buildings and a lot of antique-shops, fashion-boutiques etc. You will find benches there and nice cafes and no car-trafic going through, so this is a great area to relax !