The shaving
A miraculous spectacle
Even though the procedure of shaving is not an official festive event, the act itself indicates vividly the end of the festival. Strolling through the different medieval camps, the astounded visitor will witness the miraculous performance of bringing back to light what was never gone, but had become well hidden. What scarcely one minute ago were mercenaries, burghers or patricians now transform again into the beardless men they used to be seven months ago. The cultivation of long hair and beards is not only a sure sign of the approaching Frundsberg festival, but also of the change of fashion in late 1500. A status symbol for the nobleman if accurately trimmed, the medieval beard also reflects the savagery and ferocity of the Landsknecht confronted with the rough conditions of wartime camp life.
Today, however, the nobles, burghers and mercenaries of Renaissance time are just as certainly gone as their particular status symbols and methods of deterrence. The act of shaving is thus a symbol for both the casting off of the past and the return to present times. By the way: according to the sincere assertion of a Landsknecht, the ideal conditions for growing a beard are still to be found in leading a dissolute life. Stroking their imaginary beards, some modern observers might well wonder now whether they ought to join a Fähnlein…
