Kinderzeche in Dinkelsbühl
The Kinderzeche is a historical festival for young and old in the former imperial city of Dinkelsbühl.
The Kinderzeche commemorates the rescue of the city during the Thirty Years War.
During the festival, a local legend is re-enacted that Dinkelsbühl children saved the town from the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War. It is related to the siege of the town in 1632.
The historical festival brings the town's history to life with the participation of students from grades 1 to 8 of all Dinkelsbühl schools and another 1,100 active participants.
The Kinderzeche takes place annually on weekends around the third Monday in July. It is followed by a pageant on both Sundays and Mondays in which historical groups participate.
In keeping with the festival's origins as a children's festival, on Tuesday all participating children are presented with the so-called Dinkelsbühler Kinderzech outlook, a bag filled with sweets.
In order to organize all this, rehearsals and preparations for the festival usually begin around Easter each year. Dinkelsbühl is a city of parity. The historicization of the Kinderzeche around 1897 and the related creation of the historical festival gave citizens who were deeply divided in their faith the opportunity to celebrate the history of the city together within the framework of a local festival.
Dinkelsbühl
Dinkelsbühl is a large district town in the district of Ansbach in Middle Franconia. The former imperial city is an important tourist destination on the Romantic Road* due to its exceptionally well-preserved late medieval townscape.
Dinkelsbühl is located near the border with Baden-Württemberg. The town lies on the Wörnitz River in the southeast of the Franconian Heights, which belongs to the Keuper Stage in the Southwest German stratified region between the Main River and the Danube. Pushed westward by a castle sandstone knoll lying east of its present course, the Wörnitz formed a shallow, triangular valley depression that is almost completely filled by Dinkelsbühl's old town.
There is evidence for early medieval connections from Dinkelsbühl to the northwest towards Crailsheim, to the southwest towards Ellwangen, to the east towards Nuremberg, to the north towards Rothenburg ob der Tauber and to the south towards Ulm.
Dinkelsbühl
Around 1130, the first town layout of Dinkelsbühl took place, which today is called the core town or inner old town. It was developed as a base and link between the Hohenstaufen households when the Hohenstaufen and Guelph dynasties were vying for the German crown. It is assumed that there was a predecessor settlement at the Wörnitzfurt around a Carolingian royal court, founded around 730.
The division of the old town into an inner old town and an extension area can be seen in particular in the width of the house fronts of the so-called courtyards.
The Cathedral of St. George visually dominates the entire city and can be described as a first-order dominant. Dominants of the second order are the four late medieval gate towers, which tower above the old town and all other public buildings. With the exception of the Nördlinger Tor, they are only passable by one lane, which brings the preservation of the old town ambience into conflict with motorized individual traffic. The structuring system of the inner Old Town, in particular, the main street layout parallel as well as at right angles to the Wörnitz and the parallel side streets, was retained. The same applies to the distances of the development units, each of which is exactly the length that previously corresponded to the distance of the old city gates to the centre.
Learn more about the Kinderzeche in Dinkelsbühl
Also, check our list of the best hotels in Dinkelsbühl and book your stay during the event.
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