Stadtprozelten

Location

Stadtprozelten lies on the southern edge of the Spessart (range) and on the right bank of the Main in the middle of the south side of the Mainviereck (“Main Square”), 8 km northwest of Wertheim am Main. Stadtprozelten lies directly opposite de:Mondfeld, which is on the left bank of the Main. They are linked by a ferry.

Subdivisions

The Stadtteil of Neuenbuch lies 2 km north of the town centre.

Neighbouring communities

Stadtprozelten is bordered by (from the north, clockwise): Altenbuch, Faulbach, Wertheim (Baden-Württemberg), Dorfprozelten and Eschau.

History

In 1287, Stadtprozelten had its first documentary mention. The former Electoral Mainz Amt passed in 1803 to Prince Primate von Dalberg’s newly formed Principality of Aschaffenburg, with which it passed in 1814 (by this time it had become a department of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt) to the Kingdom of Bavaria. In the course of administrative reform in Bavaria, the current municipality came into being with the Gemeindeedikt (“Municipal Edict”) of 1818.

650 years of holding town rights were celebrated in 2005. The first documentary mention, however, is not yet fully established beyond doubt.

Town council

The council is made up of 12 council members, not counting the mayor, with seats apportioned thus:

Mayor

Claudia Kappes (born 1953) (CSU) is the mayor since 2002, she was reelected in 2008 and 2014.

Coat of arms

The town’s arms might be described thus: Argent a castle with a gate tower gules and roofs azure, above the gateway the letter B Or, in chief dexter the sun in his glory, and in chief sinister the moon in her increment of the last.

The oldest known town seals come down from the 16th century. The building in the arms might be the old castle held here by the Teutonic Knights. The sun and moon are presumably old town symbols. The letter B comes from another coat of arms dating from 1600 seen on a pane of glass from the town hall. It stands for the town’s former name, Brodselden (the name Stadtprozelten first crops up in 1319).

The arms have been borne at least since the 16th century.

Buildings

Overlooking the town is the Henneburg castle ruin on the hill known as the Kühlberg.

Other important monuments in town are:

Schäfflertanz

The Schäfflertanz (“Coopers’ Dance”) is put on according to tradition every seven years. The coopers’ group, possibly Germany’s biggest and the only one in white and blue, is made up of well over 60 and up to 90 actors, that is, master coopers, wineglass swingers, dancers, clowns, waiters and the boys who pull the cart. Because it is a group dance, the number of these exclusively male dancers is always a multiple of eight.

This tradition goes back to the Plague year of 1517, when in Munich the members of the coopers’ guild were the first to go back into the streets, to spread some lust for life.

Beginning about 1830, journeyman coopers brought the dance to other places such as Eggenfelden, Frontenhausen, Geiselhöring, Mainburg, Mühldorf, Murnau, Kelheim, Landshut, Partenkirchen and Wasserburg.

In 1887 the Schäfflertanz was put on in Stadtprozelten for the first time. The most recent performance was in 2013.

Doude Moo

This event has its roots in the time of the Plague, when dead bodies had to be fetched from the houses. The body gatherers would call out as they went through town “Hejo - doude Moo - moje kommd en annern droo” (roughly, “Hello, dead man, tomorrow it’ll be another’s turn”; this is dialectal, not standard High German).

Nowadays children enjoy the sweets that are thrown out into the street from all the houses as a straw doll is borne ahead of them out of the town and then burnt. Doude Moo is always held on the third Sunday before Easter.

The event is known in official circles as Todemo.

Notable people