A series of German reports at the end of January dealt with the decision of the Cologne carnival parade organizers to pull a Charlie Hebdo float planned in response to the terror attack in Paris in early January.
We eventually found a depiction of the float here, in Zeit online (in German, use your favorite online translator as needed).
While the pros and cons are mildly interesting, we figured a short post about the little known "political carnival" tradition in Germany to be of greater benefit.
If your image of carnival is like that of the vast majority of people, carnival will evoke:
1. Scantily clad Samba dancing South American ladies in fancy costumes, the Rio carnival.
2. New Orleans Mardi Gras. Similar to 1 in many respects, but also with guys in fancy costumes. Or the chicken runs.
3. Maybe the Swiss and Southern German style carnival.
4. Even maybe-er, the version you get to see along, roughly, the Mainz to Cologne stretch of the Rhine river.
The fourth version has had a political aspect for centuries, starting with a somewhat feminist looking takeover of local town and city halls by masked, costumed - and eventually inebriated - women, mostly ladies of a certain age.
This quasi-revolutionary event on the Thursday before Mardi Gras would probably considered to be a law enforcement nightmare in many countries. Not only because of masked ladies but also because they carry weapons: scissors.
Male office workers line up calmly in the face of female superiority to have their ties cut off.
Snip goes the appendage of the male office worker.
Yes, even men who never wear ties to work will find an old tie to put on for the sole purpose of symbolic snipping a few hours later.
No, the idea has been around since long before there was Ties4Ever or Ties Inc. or some tie marketing association.
But there is worse than drunk women with scissors: blackface.
The anti-authority aspect supposedly began as a ploy by revelers to male fun of the feudal lords and Catholic church pomp under the guise of driving out the bad winter ghosts. Obviously, even the dumbest feudal lords knew it was a ruse, but they went with it, knowing the remainder of the year was going to be just fine.
Political jabs during carnival tend to be rather good natured. Since local dignitaries are invariably given saucer size carnival medals (mad in China), you could even use the terms deferential to describe the relationship of organized carnival and organized politics.
A good example of a "political float" is this 2012 Mainz parade float themed Standard & Poor's taking aim at the Euro, depicting two slingshot wielding kids having a go at the Euro symbol. The symbol on the float is a miniature version of the official one in the Frankfurt, Germany, banking quarter.
The float is representative of the "political issues" carnival organizers take on: generic, easy issues without much controversy, really.
Cologne having pulled the Charlie Hebdo float did, of course, make German opEders ask if this signals the "end of the political carnival tradition".
It won't, because that tradition, apart from the scissor wielding women, has always been no more than a token gesture.
[Update Feb. 26] Surprise. The Cologne parade organizing committee "snuck" a Charlie Hebdo themed float into today's parade. Now, for anyone familiar with the organization of such a parade, "sneaking in" is not how things are done. There are multiple layers of approval. If the organizers or the police won't get you, the technical inspection folks will.
Still, Kudos.
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