"You Did WHAT To The Flag?!?"
Interesting thing about (German) reenactment: Not all the traditions we hold so dear come from actual history. Some of them just come from our history. For example, take the flag tearing ceremony that many (most?) 16th C groups who portray German Landsknecht take part in at the end of their campaign year or their 'main' reenactment event.*
My own introduction to this tradition came by way of my involvement with Heiligesturm Fahnlein in SoCal. After a long and difficult seven weekend run out at our primary faire (proceeded by at least four weeks of build up and with at least two weeks of tear down to follow), the folks in our camp all gathered under our main shade structure and settled in for our Hauptman to give his closing remarks.
This was my first year in the guild, and while I wasn't new to reenactment, or military reenactment, I had formed incredibly close bonds with this group in a very short time. My friend A and I had shown up at the event working for a booth and swearing we'd never belong to an acting body at faire again and WHAM!; less than three weeks later we were paid members and already plotting our first German costumes.
I drank that Kool-Aid. I drank it all up! chuckle
Anyway...
So here I sat, with one of my oldest friends and 40 or so of my newest friends (even now some of my BEST friends). And I watched our Hauptmann - a man who personifies many of the qualities that earn the title Strong, Silent Type - spend the next hour or so calling every member up one by one, sharing a drink with them, saying something to them privately and then saying something wonderful about them to the group. And after each person had been hugged and thanked for their work on behalf of the guild, they were given a piece of the flag - freshly torn from it's pole.
We ended that hour laughed out, cried out, drunk and prouder than could ever seem reasonable to be the owner of a tiny strip of partially-dyed-and-painted silk.
History in action? Perhaps. Although the actual historical documentation has yet to be produced in any group that I have spoken to. Vague references to more modern flag ceremonies, half-remembered nuggets from books of questionable pedigree, and flat out SHOCK on behalf of some of the first German reenactors here in the USA ("They TEAR their FLAG? Why would you DO that?!?") seem to be the norm with this one.
But you know what? I don't fucking care.
This tradition, more than almost any other in Landsknecht reenacting, has formed a bond between people of disparate groups and in far flung locations. Not from around here but you marched with us for a weekend? What's your address? Next thing you know a piece of tattered silk shows up in the mail, or tied to your arm, or handed to you by a friend in passing (along with a message, "We missed you on the last weekend, but the Hauptmann wanted you to have this...").
And BAM!, every memory of every flag you've ever marched under comes welling back. All the bullshit, and the ecstasy, and the laughter and the tears. Every moment.
And you hold on to that beautiful little chunk of cloth for as long as you can.
Because it's your version of a family photo.
And this is one of the best families you've ever known.
NOW. For some actual 'history' on this tradition, ripped fresh from the pages of Facebook - that old teller of all things true and a few you just think are funny.
Which Came First, the Northern or the Southern Tradition?
Well, apparently it started up North with Shawn Galbreath in 1989 or 1990. Shawn recalls, "I believe it was my first year as Hauptmann, but it was so long ago that we had Dinosaur Leather Armor. I was also honored with a piece of the first Kriegshund (Southern German Fahnlein) flag." Scott Moore added later on that "Michael M" was the painter of that flag, which Shawn confirmed.
Julia Adams agrees that Northern started the flag tearing, with Southern Germans in Kreigshund fahnlein following suit a few years later. Rio Kamimura goes on to say that it happened the first time down South, "...during group notes at the end of closing day, RPFS 1992. It was the first year that our assembled company had officialy presented itself to be known as Kriegshund Fahnlein.... Presiding over that first flag tearing ceremony was Lloyd Winter, Hauptman."
Regardless of who started this idea, it is now a well founded tradition with roots going back almost 25 years. And apparently, it is a practice that has been shipped back to Europe, with Luis Gonzalez reporting that at least one group he is familiar with in Sweden has torn their Blutfahne - although this may have been the result of an attempt to help avoid an international reenactment incident as a German reenactors dog had apparently peed on the fahn accidentally...those wacky Europeans... grin
*PS: It seems that the actual Germans doing Landsknecht reenactment think we are bit bat-shit nuts for this little tradition. I think they may be right. Then again, bat-shit nuts is one of the things we American Landknechts do best... chortle