Carnival, dance and masks: The Nuremberg Schembartlauf 1449–1539
A digital text and image edition

The so-called ‘fifth season’ has been thrilling people for centuries. Customs developed everywhere to bring order to the colourful hustle and bustle. Between 1449 and 1539, spectators came from far and wide to witness the highlight of carnival in the imperial city of Nuremberg: the Schembartlauf. For the fun and amusement of the population, participants wearing face masks (“scheme”) ran through the narrow streets of the city and set off fireworks. The city parliament of Nuremberg exerted great influence on the initiation of this festive event. The Nuremberg Schembartläufe thus became the forerunner of organised festivities. There is no other civic festival in the German-speaking world for which so many textual and pictorial records have been preserved as in the so-called Schembart books. This unique carnival tradition with its complex and multi-layered handwritten tradition is to be thoroughly explored here for the first time and made available for further research. A project financially supported by third-party funds is being sought to comprehensively realise this endeavour.

The starting point for the portal is the special exhibition Sonderausstellung „Fastnacht. Tanz und Spiele in Nürnberg”, which will take place from 11 November 2025 to 15 February 2026 at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg with the participation of the Stadt- und Staatsarchiv Nürnberg and Stadtbibliothek Nürnberg. The GNM has already completely digitised its unique collection of 28 Schembart books and Nuremberg chronicles with notes on the Schembartlauf.

They can already be viewed online here under ‘Virtual Library’ . The conference “Fastnacht in Nürnberg: Mehr als der Schembartlauf” took place on 22/23 November 2024 at the GNM. The resulting literature review and a compilation of sources are also available on this portal.