Obrist Seyler
Kirchheimboland Civic Guard
The extent to which the idea of democracy also shaped the Citizens’ Guard in 1848 is not only evident in the election of the officers, the “Obristen” as commander and the captains leading the three companies. It was also expressed in the Guard’s civic “committee”. In addition to Georg Kaspar Seyler, the “Obristen”, it included Dr. Friedrich Glaser [Standort 53] and Dr. Ludwig Hitzfeld [Standort 59]. The Citizens’ Guard (Bürgerwehr) was thus an organ of the liberation movement in the spring and summer of 1848.
The German national idea was also expressed in close connection with this. § Section 12 of the “Statutes of the Citizens’ Guard” stipulated: “The headgear which must be worn on duty consists of a black leather or leatherette cap.
black, slightly high cap with the German cockade attached to the bottom of the front. The important public identification role played by the Citizens’ Guard in 1848 is also demonstrated by an “appeal” in the “Wochenblatt”.
Invitation
The report on the flag consecration of the Kirchheimbolander Bürgerwehr documents how much the festivities then took place in communal joy:
Around the fifth hour of the morning of August 6, [1848], the roll of drums and parading music announced the dawn of the festive day chosen for the flag dedication. […]
At 2 o’clock in the afternoon, with the sound of music and the German colors leading the way, the military units came from north and south and east and west in their war decorations, forming an elongated square with an open interior. […] One side of the square leaned against the front of St. Paul’s Church, in front of whose portal […] a tribune rose. […] In the middle of the quadrangle, however, were the county commissioner [heute Landrat], the city council, the clergy and the ladies from near and far in colorful costumes. […]
Dear Sir,” the woman at the front addressed the commander of the Citizen Guard, “a noble and solemn moment has brought us women, unaccustomed to public appearances, from the seclusion of our domestic circles to this solemn place. […] We women have not been given the opportunity to dedicate ourselves to our fatherland in deeds and arms. But no less glowing with enthusiasm for the salvation of our dear fatherland, we, German women, present this German banner to German men, as our fatherland’s daughters once presented it to the sons of heroes in the much-praised past, so that it may shine forth as a symbol of German honor and freedom in battle and danger.
She presented the colonel with the now unfurled black, red and gold flag showing the German aar [Adler] on one side and the inscription “Kirchheimbolandern Bürgerwehr 1848” on the other. […]
The colonel then turned to the team with the words: “I believe I am fulfilling everyone’s wish when I invite you to join me in the call: “Kirchheim’s noble women live high!” A threefold thousand-voiced “Lebe hoch” sounded, accompanied by the powerful roar of the music and the loud thunder of the firecrackers. […]
[Nach dem Ende der Feier] The women, the district commissioner and the town council, led by the Kirchheim civic militia with the new, proudly shining flag, made their way through the main streets of the town to Kastanienallee [today: Dr. Edeltraud Sießl-Allee].
[Hier begann] now a happy bustle. […] Every distinction of class disappeared, perfect equality spread. […]
The beautiful celebration will remain unforgettable for everyone.
That’s why our city tour should definitely take you to the museum in the Stadtpalais (location 58). In the “Revolution 1848/49” section, the flag of the “Kirchheimbolander Bürgerwehr 1848” is on display, making us aware that people were already thinking about the “emergency” in August 1848.
Donnersberger Freischar
Two months before the flag dedication of the Kirchheimboland civic militia, the town had already experienced a very similar event. The invitation can be found in the “Wochenblatt” of June 9, 1848.
Alongside the vigilante group, Kirchheimbolanden thus had a second armed group. Its purpose was made very clear at the flag dedication ceremony.
At the age of twelve, Friedrich Barbier I (1836-1930) witnessed the handover of the flag created by the venerable virgins of the local town:
The crowd stood head to head. […] The great interest of the population was not only in the cause itself, but especially in the person of the speaker, because this time it was a lady, namely Miss Mathilde Hitzfeld, the daughter of the district physician Dr. Hitzfeld, who was captain of the citizens’ militia and had participated in the great movement in a particularly outstanding way. Ms. Hitzfeld was to present the flag they had donated on behalf of the Kirchheimbolander Jungfrauen. We had often heard female orators, but a female speaker was something new, and in the years that followed, only a few Kirchheimboland women followed in Mathilde Hitzfeld’s footsteps in this respect. Now the town militia with Turkish music, the ladies of the festival, the Freischaren, the Alzeyer gymnasts in large numbers and many other people moved into the market square. The ladies of the festival wore white dresses with black, red and gold sashes around their shoulders. [… Then] the young speaker entered the grandstand and breathless silence fell. All eyes turned to the tall, slender figure of the girl in the white dress, adorned with a black, red and gold sash and cockade, to the beautiful, boldly cut face in which two fiery eyes shone, and then she began without a trace of excitement. […] She spoke with such fire that the people were spellbound. The power, boldness and passionate urgency of her speech increased from minute to minute, and when she concluded with a toast to the great, free and united German fatherland, the roaring shouts of the large assembly seemed to have no end. Then she took the flag, presented it in a fiery speech to the standard-bearer of the local Freischaren Philipp Berch, a tall, slender young man, and said in conclusion: “If you return with this flag and with a united and free fatherland, I offer you this hand!” She stood there like a princess, the assembly cheered her. Captain Heinrich Rochotte took over the flag in the name of the Freischaren, vowed to always hold it in honor, to fight and die for it, and concluded with a cheer for Ms. Hitzfeld and the ladies of the festival, to which the large assembly joined in thunderously.
Mathilde Hitzfeld (1826-1905) became an icon of the Palatinate Uprising [Standort 59], which the Freischaren played a major role in shaping, but less so the “Donnersberg” group, as she was stationed in the Zellertal and in the Göllheim canton during the battle in the castle garden [Standort 48] on June 14, 1849.
Its commander, Captain Friedrich Heinrich Rochotte, an editor at the Thieme printing works, took the flag with him when he fled to the USA. A nephew then sent it back to the town of Kirchheimbolanden in 1906, four years after Rochotte’s death, so that today it can be seen alongside the civic militia flag in the museum Stadtpalais [Standort 58].
Moderate revolutionary neighborhood
Colonel Georg Kaspar Seyler was not the only sympathizer and protagonist of a moderate revolution living in Kirchheimbolander Amtsstraße. The name Pilgeram is often mentioned in the “Wochenblatt” in relation to the citizens’ assembly [Standort 56] and the citizens’ association [Standort 60].
Franz Pilgeram (1802-62), a landowner and wine merchant, lived at Amtsstraße 27 from 1837-56 with his wife Anna Maria (1810-84), who also came from the Brogino family from Kirchheimboland and was active in trade. Their son Franz Joseph (1836-94) then became the first honorary citizen of Kirchheimboland.
Like master baker and colonel Seyler or Dr. Friedrich Glaser [Standort 53] – also members of the bourgeois “middle class” – the Pilgerams were among the advocates of the moderately revolutionary political ideas of fundamental rights, popular sovereignty and the separation of powers.