Halloween in the Rathaus

Halloween in the Rathaus

I mentioned in another posting that Eureka Springs is one of my favorite places to spend Halloween. If you are in Germany in October, go to Heidelberg for Halloween. There is a famous costume ball held in the Hotel am Rathaus. This hotel is in the middle of Heidelberg’s old town area. The hotel itself has a rather seemly history. I had the good fortune to attend the ball years ago. Once again, I owe this to my dear friend and mentor, Juliana. I say, “mentor” because this dear beautiful woman taught this backwoods Arkansas boy so much. I now know which fork to use at a formal six-course dinner. I know that when they bring out the ice tray with cherries, you should not pluck out the cherries. Actually, I did not do that but it does happen. After the main meat course, you moisten your hands on the ice and dry them on the towel hanging from the tray. This towel is not a white terry cloth towel. It is a velvet towel, usually in red or blue. I had never seen that, they just do not do that where I come from. We just suck the grease off our fingers. However, I digress. Can you imagine that?

Preparations for the ball started about a month prior to the actual occurrence. At that time, I was on the pre-Reforger maneuvers. That simply means that I am spending four weeks working twelve hours a day. We are checking up on how long it takes us to activate our sister brigades in the United States. This is the game plan:  The Russians have crossed the border into West Germany with an overwhelming armor assault. The dirty Commies have taken us by surprise and are rapidly moving through West Germany. We are being overrun and the only hope for democracy is if we can move enough equipment into West Germany before the world is lost to the Commies. At the same time as our drill, the Russians imagine that this war game is an actual preparation for our invasion into East Germany and Poland.  Anyway, while I am busy protecting the free world, Juliana is making plans for Halloween.

For me, a Halloween costume means a mask and old clothes, not so in Heidelberg. First, the big decision, what costumes will we choose. There are some rules; we must go as a character from literature or history. Since we will go together, our costumes must provide a hint of the characters we are depicting. I make a few suggestions but learn quickly to keep quiet. First, I suggest that I dress as a Victorian gentleman and Juliana could go as a beagle. She thinks the idea is good, but only if we reverse the roles. She is not fond of going as a dog. Second try: I dress as a revolutionary executioner and she dresses as Marie Antoinette. She could be headless and I would carry her head. All she says is, “You want me to go headless!  I do not think that will happen.” Her suggestion is to dress as Isadora Duncan and I can dress as a Russian Lieutenant. Do you have any idea what a 1920s Russian Lieutenant would be wearing to a ball?  I can assure you that it is more elaborate than the white tie opera. However, today it is not about dress. You can get online and look up Isadora Duncan to see how my date dressed. Do not even look up a 1920s German general dress uniform. I had to dress as a German general because the costume shop did not have a Russian Lieutenant’s uniform. I thought it would be more appropriate.

I just recalled one thing about the hotel. Heidelberg is in a valley and the water supply comes from a water tower on the hills surrounding the city. Late at night, when the water usage is very low, the water pressure is very high. The Rathaus, which translates to courthouse in English, has actually been a hotel since the eighteenth century. It has all the modern conveniences of a five- star hotel. This includes a bidet. My advice is, do not use the bidet until you have flushed it once. If you do not, you will learn what I learned. The water pressure is so great in the bidet that the water will reach the ceiling if no one is sitting on it. However, if you happen to be sitting on it, the bidet will blow water right through you and out your nose. Okay, that truly is an overstatement. The water may not come out our nose, but you will feel like it tried. This must work great on hemorrhoids, blows them right off.

Juliana and I are concerned about evil spirits that haunt this hotel since we are spending a couple of nights here. The hotel encircles a courtyard. This courtyard was where executions occurred for several centuries. Not all executions took place in the courtyard, but it is infamous for the number that did, and the barbaric methods performed. One of the most famous was the execution of Mary. I only remember her first name. Please remember that over 40 years have passed since I was in Germany. Mary was a Catholic that converted to Protestantism. This did not sit well for the Jesuits in the City. They accused her of witchcraft. This offense of being a little different was usually punishable by burning at the stake. The Jesuits had a better idea. The Jesuits had just completed construction of a church. This church still stands today and it is directly across the market from the Rathaus. The last work on the church was putting up the steeple. The steeplejacks had all of their rigging in place to put the steeple on top of the church. The punishment that the Jesuits orchestrated was to hoist Mary to the top of the church and set her down on the steeple. With the ropes and rigging, they could pull her up and drop her onto the point of the steeple, and everyone would be able to watch. The priest would pull her up and then lower her a little more every few minutes. This went on for several hours. Finally, growing tired of their good work, the brothers pulled her to the top of the rigging and dropped her. The steeple point impaled her body. On Halloween, you can hear her screaming. No one made any effort to remove her body and her spirit still hovers near the steeple.

Witchcraft was a common charge to make against anyone who was different. The punishment was usually a terrible death. Not only women, but also many men were accused and found guilty. Neighbors accused a man named Johansson of practicing witchcraft because he had no wife and he did not go to church. The court found him guilty of these offenses and sentenced him to burn at the stake. They held him in the castle armory for several days until the envoy for the Pope arrived and assured the execution was justifiable. While he was in the armory, he swallows a large amount of gunpowder over a period of several days. When the priest reviewed Johansson’s statements (which were professed under torture), he concluded that the execution was justifiable. Johansson went to the stake with an extended belly full of gun power. As the flames leaped around him, he started laughing which caused many to try getting a closer look. As they look to see what he was laughing about, the gunpowder exploded. The explosion killed over two hundred people, including the judge who sentenced him, the neighbors who accused him, and the priest who signed the execution notice. Today, you can still see bits of bone embedded in the brick of the building surrounding the courtyard. Some nights you can hear laughter and a loud explosion. You may naturally assume the explosion is thunder, but when you look outside, the sky is cloudless.

Wise with all of this wonderful knowledge, Juliana and I went to the banquet.  The meal consisted of an Escargot for an appetizer, which I always find rather amusing. How does a snail become something with which to whet your appetite? They could at least try to hide its identity, but they serve it in the shell. You even have a special little fork to scoop it out of the shell. It can be very tasty if you do not think about it. The main course is prime rib served over large noodles and dark, salty gravy. The food is wunderbar (wonderful). The prime rib is served with white asparagus boiled in butter. The dessert is German chocolate cake with whipped cream between the layers, topped with hand churned vanilla ice cream. The ice cream is delicious. It had small, black flakes that I assume to be vanilla. Unbelievably, it is actually black pepper. Of course, to compliment the meal, there is the wine. A different wine served with each course. With the dessert, they serve a whiffer of brandy. After the meal, we learn who won the prizes for best costumes. First place went to a man and his wife. He is dressed in a black robe and she is wearing a formal sixteenth-century gown. She has no head and he carries a wax head with him. Imagine that. We win the prize for the costume in which no one could guess who we are and we win a prize for identifying the most characters. Our prize is 1500 dollars. The best costume wins 2000 dollars. I did not say, “I told you so.” It would have been horrible for two couples to show up with the same costume.

That night as I looked out my window, I could see the church steeple with a foggy glow surrounding it. You could hear a woman screaming in the wind and if you listened intently, you could hear an explosion in the distance. All these sounds, of course, have a natural cause, but it is not worth ruining the Halloween atmosphere by explaining them.

(c)Michael L. Wright