Why does a man still play a maiden in the Cologne Carnival? And what did the Nazis have against men wearing makeup? A carnival history explainer.
Carnival has been celebrated in the Rhineland city of Cologne for centuries. However, it used to be rough, disorderly, anarchic, and so offensive to some people that in the 19th century, a group of influential Cologne residents decided to band together and regulate the wild festivities.
In 1823, a group of several men from Cologne’s educated elite founded the Festival Organizing Committee and introduced a new figure to the revamped carnival: the Carnival Hero. The hero was supposed to guide the wretchedness of ordinary goings-on with his noble character.
By the late 19th century, that carnival hero became known as the Carnival Prince. The prince was then accompanied by another figure: a farmer, or peasant, representing the down-to-earth and sturdy nature of the city of Cologne, and the Maiden of Cologne, symbolizing Cologne as a free city that is not subject to any foreign power.
Together, the three form the triumvirate, or Dreigestirn in German. These days, the Festkomitee, formerly known as the Festival Organizing Committee, consists of around 120 Cologne Carnival societies that dedicate themselves to the annual celebration.
Carnival has historically been an overwhelmingly male affair, with men dressed up as market women or cleaning ladies while taking the stage to make raunchy speeches. Even the Maiden of Cologne was a man dressed as a woman — which is still the case today.
The lead dancer, known as Dancing Marie, was also a man playing the role of a female dancer of the guards. This character represented the sutler women who accompanied and entertained soldiers during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Historically, the men, dressed as sutler women, danced with fellow men dressed as officers in the annual drunken carnival revelry.
The National Socialists, who were in power in Germany from 1933 to 1945, didn’t like this at all. To them, men wearing bright makeup and women’s clothing was far too redolent of homosexuality — and homosexual behavior was persecuted and punished by the Nazis. As a result, the carnival societies were instructed to now have women, and not men, as the lead dancers.
Carnival societies bowed to pressure from the Nazi regime — after all, many of their elite members wanted to be seen favorably by the Party. And so, starting in 1936, only male and female dance couples were allowed to perform, although there was a widespread belief that women were not up to the job. Among other things, many men believed the jokes at the events were far too crude and offensive for women to handle.
Unsurprisingly, the men were wrong. The ladies had plenty of charisma, danced like crazy, and suffered no psychological damage. Having women as the lead dancers continued even after the end of the Nazi period — since then, the first dancer position has been given only to women.
Around 200 years ago, the newly organized Cologne Carnival was a purely male affair. As a result, all carnival characters were played by men.
The figure of the maiden in the Cologne triumvirate was thus historically given to a man. But here, too, the Nazis prevailed against tradition: In 1938 and 1939, Paula Zapf and Else Horion became the first and only women in the history of the Cologne triumvirate to play this role.
In 1940, when carnival was banned during the Second World War, there was only an unofficial triumvirate, which also had a female maiden. The trio only performed once in secret for a few carnivalists in the bowling alley of a pub.
The Rose Monday parade with a triumvirate didn’t take place again until 1949. The role of the maiden was once again played by a man, as it was in the old days — in part because people didn’t want to have anything to do with the Nazis’ rules.
But it’s unlikely a man will play the maiden for all time. The festival committee’s statutes state that the triumvirate must come from one of its carnival societies, and some societies are women-only. So it is only a matter of time before a Cologne triumvirate includes women.
Yet sexism is stubborn. Even after the Second World War, Cologne’s carnival largely remained a male domain. Until the 1970s, women had virtually no place in the Rose Monday parade, one of the biggest carnival events in Germany.
The arguments for why women could not be allowed were absurd. Some said the procession would be too long if women took part, and that women were not as big drinkers as men. And finally, it was said that only costumes in men’s sizes were available in the festival committee’s wardrobe.
This meant that only the dancing Marie and the female musicians of the carnival bands were allowed to take part in the Rose Monday procession. However, exceptions were made for celebrities. In 1950, for example, the famous German actor Magda Schneider, mother of Romy Schneider, donned a costume.
It wasn’t until 1978 that women’s groups were allowed to join the procession. Despite an outcry from many traditionalists, the parade’s organizers ensured that the number of women taking part grew rapidly. And indeed it did. While 400 women participated in 1978, 1,700 women took part just four years later.
Even today, music at Cologne’s carnival is dominated by male artists, with few women in the 10 most popular bands. Female carnival singers from Cologne who have been in the business for decades say they are often overlooked.
However, more and more self-confident young female musicians are coming onto the scene. They receive support above all from alternative carnival associations, which are working to bring the traditional Cologne Carnival into the present — to ensure it’s not just a male-dominated celebration.
This article was translated from German.
