The Hambach Festival of 1832

Freedom | Unity | Equality |
Friendship Between Nations

Civil liberties and German unity were called for in numerous passionate speeches. The event was profoundly marked by solidarity with people from neighbouring European countries and the promotion of European integration. Even though the people here were committed to the national unity of Germany, they were not nationalists. On the contrary, the notion of Europe was all over the Hambach Festival.


In a time without formalized civil rights, free elections, or equal rights, liberal, democratic, and revolutionary ideas were discussed in public for the first time at the Hambach Festival. That in itself was something special.


How did this happen?

"Rhineland Institutions"

The Hambach Festival took place in what is now the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, or more precisely in the Palatinate.

For almost 20 years at the beginning of the 19th century, the Palatinate had belonged to France rather than to a German state. While it belonged to France, a code of civil law was first introduced in the Palatinate in 1804 with the Civil Code. This included, among other things, the abolition of guilds, freedom of trade, and the freedom and legal equality for all citizens.

The name "Rheinische Institutionen" (Rhineland Institutions) developed in the Palatinate for such liberal regulations. The people of the Palatinate became familiar with many new things as a part of France; in addition to civil liberties, there was, for example, a unified economic area.

The Palatinate Becomes Bavarian

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Palatinate developed under the considerable influence of the French Revolution, the liberal legislation during its affiliation with France, and the special political, social, and economic conditions in one of the strongholds of liberalism in the German states. This was expressed, among other ways, in a flourishing liberal media landscape.


By the July Revolution of 1830 at the latest, however, the restorative government had turned its focus to the liberal forces. When large-scale censorship (as here on the cover of the "Deutsche Tribüne" of July 17, 1831) made the newspapers unusable for free expression of opinion, the press and leaflets no longer offered an independent forum for the political public.


The public festival culture now developed as a new way of developing political opinion.

The Ban

The public invitation to such a celebration of course also made the authorities aware of the plan. A political and social protest on such a scale was something completely new, and the government simply could not deal with its demands.

In keeping with the strictly anti-revolutionary policy of oppression and restorative counter-movement, which had been pursued primarily since the July Revolution of 1830, the Bavarian government now also took firm action against the planned Hambach Festival. On May 8, 1832, Palatine president Andrian-Werburg banned the event, because he feared that anarchy and acts of violence would be triggered as a result.

In his justification he wrote, among other things, "A party of evil-minded people wants to lead the inhabitants of this blessed land to anarchy?"

The Participants


The majority of the visitors came from the Rhine region and the surrounding area, but also from Bavaria, Württemberg, Rhine Province, Frankfurt, Poland, and France. Students and members of student associations made up a large number of the visitors.


The social make-up of the festival attendees was particularly astounding. In addition to many attendees from the property-owning and educated middle classes, there were also smallholders, winegrowers, skilled workers, and even day laborers and servants. And last but not least, many women also accepted the invitation.

Things Start to Heat up in Europe The Hambach Festival was not a local or regional event—many attendees came from abroad. A large group came from Poland, for example, where a struggle for freedom was waged against Russian rule in 1830 with nationwide unrest.

The Festival

Eventually, the organizers started planning. The main items of the day of the festival were to be the joint departure of the participants from Neustadt from the market square, a collective lunch, then various speeches on a stage.

At around 8:00 a.m. the participants gathered on the Neustadt market square and went up to the castle one hour later. The procession of festival participants was accompanied by bells ringing, gun salutes, and singing.

The original black flag with the inscription "We, as winegrowers, are here for we must face our sorrows" was carried to the Hambach Festival by a group of winegrowers from Dürkheim. The background to this was the difficult economic position in which many viticulturists found themselves.

The Hambach Festival as a Public Festival


Although the Hambach Festival was a political festival, it also had the feel of a public festival. This was not only noticeable during the joint procession to the castle, where gun salutes were fired, and where the people sang and played music together.

The Festival programme also included a communal lunch, with enough tables and chairs set up for 1,000 people. The organizers had determined this number in advance and assumed that this high number would mean they would have a place for each participant. What a mistake that was!

Blue and white sash of the Festival stewards

Shako (military headgear) of the Neustadt citizen guard from 1832

A wide selection of merchandise sprang up overnight as a result of the Hambach Festival. Cloths and dirndl-style aprons with Hambach designs, even pipe bowls and other everyday objects came into circulation. People used these to show their political convictions, and at the same time expressed their solidarity with the organizers and spokespersons who were now being legally persecuted.

Contemporary dirndl-style apron depicting the procession.