Some people got a bloody nose on New Year’s Eve 1873. The “Bremer Nachrichten” reported on several bar fights under the influence of alcohol, and knives were also used. Things were particularly bad in a tavern in the eastern suburbs. “The guests beat each other with chair legs and other instruments.” Firearms were also widely used to welcome the New Year. “The shooting ramped up again on New Year’s Eve,” the newspaper noted. The focal point of the event: again the eastern suburbs. A 15-year-old cheerfully fired from a small muzzle-loading pistol on Seilerstrasse. Firecrackers also caused trouble. “Burning swarmers were thrown onto the street several times from a house on Taubenstrasse, without a care in the world for those passing by.”
A look at the newspapers of the time shows how New Year’s Eve was celebrated 150 years ago; the Bremer Nachrichten is particularly interesting. It is hardly surprising that alcohol consumption played an important role at the turn of the year. Police reports take up a lot of space in the editorial reporting, often with the full names of the often drunken perpetrators. “The bricklayer Anton Diephaus, 22 years old, from Twistringen, took part in a fight in the Blöte’schen Inn on New Year’s Eve and was arrested by the requisitioned night guard.” Most likely this was done for “educational purposes” – anyone who went overboard while under the influence of alcohol ended up in the social pillory. The so-called misery alcoholism among the working class developed into a top social and political issue in the second half of the 19th century. It was not for nothing that the temperance movement, supported primarily by middle-class circles, also formed in Bremen.
The advertisements provide just as much information about New Year’s Eve customs. Punch bowls were particularly popular – one can assume that back then it was more of a drinking pleasure in circles that could afford it. Last but not least, Brüne Grashoff’s “Delicatessen-Handlung” at the Schüsselkorb, which opened in April 1872, heavily advertised “a large selection of punch extracts”. There was probably also plenty of punch at the public New Year’s celebrations, the “big New Year’s Eve balls”. Three organizers vied for the audience’s favor – the choices were the Centralhalle, the Tonhalle or the “Fortuna” club in the Bremerhalle. The competing organizers outbid each other with extras. In the Tonhalle there was dancing in three halls; according to the advertisement, “a special music corps was hired” for the upper hall. At the stroke of midnight, the esteemed audience could look forward to “interesting surprises”. In the Central Hall they countered this with a sketch, a “dramatic joke” in one act. Afterwards, a “big raffle” was on the program. The management of the Bremerhalle attracted visitors with an “enhanced orchestra”, “big polonaise” and “brilliant fireworks”. Apparently the response didn’t leave much to be desired. “The dance hosts did brilliant business on New Year’s Eve,” reported the Bremer Nachrichten.
In the 1870s, Bremen was a city in transition. If there ever was anything like the “good old days,” they were definitely a thing of the past. The comparatively comfortable pre-industrial era was coming to an end, and at the same time the revolutionary year of 1848 had sent the first signal against political stalemate. Bremen was still a long way from being an industrial city, but the prerequisites for this were lacking: the Weser was not navigable for large ships, the new port was still a thing of the future, and Bremen was not a member of the German Customs Union. Nevertheless, change was in the air; it was not just the sharp increase in the number of cigar makers that had fundamentally transformed the social structure. According to Herbert Schwarzwälder, in 1878 there were 169 factories in Bremen, 100 of which had steam engines. In total, the regional historian estimates there were 5,800 industrial workers. How quickly Bremen changed can be seen in the population development. In 1873 almost 88,000 people lived in the city, in 1875 102,000 and in 1890 more than 125,000.
The common people probably spent New Year’s Eve in their local pub. The pub as a social meeting place experienced a real boom back then, with “beer halls” springing up everywhere. They were regularly the scene of vicious fights, and not just on New Year’s Eve. The law enforcement officers were particularly required on Schwachhauser Chaussee, now Heerstrasse, which at that time was something like Bremen’s party mile because of the number of entertainment venues. Firefighters were less in demand at the turn of the year. The fire brigade had little to do with operations; the flames only briefly blazed in Bay Street. The fire brigade ball on New Year’s Eve “in the festively decorated hall of the fire station on Wandrahm” only had to be briefly interrupted to allow the fire to be extinguished. “Fortunately, there were no further disruptions.”
At the turn of the year, people used to send each other New Year’s greetings. Various variants were in circulation: “delicate humorous-satyrical joke cards”, “perfumed congratulation cards” or “cracked papers with comic inserts”. The newspaper reported that numerous New Year’s cards were displayed in the shop windows, “including some here and there that are not allowed to be offered for sale in accordance with criminal law regulations.” What exactly it was remains unclear. Since 1871, the Reichspost sold various postcards and greeting cards, and from 1872 private sellers were also permitted. However, the new medium’s big breakthrough was still a good 20 years away – and then with surprisingly revealing depictions: scantily clad, teasingly smiling beauties with champagne glasses were popular motifs to celebrate the turn of the year. Who knows, maybe something like this existed a little earlier. In any case, the Reichspost was prepared for extra work. Because of the increased mail traffic, the mailboxes would be “repeatedly and extraordinarily emptied,” the Imperial Post Office announced on December 27, 1873.
Strange incidents also found their way into the newspaper. At the foot of one of the brand new billboards on the stock exchange “an intoxicated cigar maker” lay down and the help of a guard was “rewarded in the worst possible way.” On Bohnenstrasse, a worker was found “in the deepest negligee” – which apparently meant: without any coverings. He was taken into protective custody “after ensuring that his nakedness was covered.” Apparently it was also about bare facts in the Stephaniviertel. “On Töferbohmstrasse on New Year’s Eve there was a crowd in front of the house of a girl who was under police control.” This was probably a registered and therefore tolerated prostitute. A few years later, the “control whores” plied their trade on Helenenstrasse.
Of course, at the turn of the year, a sudden onset of winter made getting around more difficult. “The Troittors were only insufficiently cleaned after yesterday’s snowfall,” the Bremer Nachrichten criticized the residents. When frost set in in the evening, “the passage for pedestrians was very difficult in places.” Of course, horse-drawn vehicles also had to contend with the same difficulties on unpaved roads. An “unpleasant picture” presented itself on a frozen, sloping road not far from the Stephanitor, where the freight carts “could only be moved with excessive exertion of the horses.” At least the horses were still moving. On the other hand, a few of his peers on Böttcherstrasse were literally in a fix. A wagon loaded with cork got stuck in a particularly narrow place and the panicked horses bolted and galloped towards the market. “Several small children who were playing in the street were in mortal danger.”
The bitter frosty weather was anything but inconvenient for the brewery operators. To cool their ever-popular product, they otherwise had to purchase blocks of ice at high cost, sometimes even importing them from Norway. Now they could help themselves in the frozen local waters. For hygienic reasons, not exactly on the Weser, where all sorts of floating ice endangered shipping traffic. But in a number of ponds in the surrounding area. “Ice was cut in several places yesterday, and many workers are said to be busy today too,” reported the Bremer Nachrichten on New Year’s Day 1874.
To home page
2023-12-30 05:00:49
#Years #Eve #Bremen #celebrated #years
