Barbara Geier: Are Germans secret royalists?

As we all know, the country got rid of its kings and queens a long time ago. Staunch republicans, we are. Yes, indeed. If it wasn’t for the fruit and vegetable monarchies that stubbornly persist in the Republic of Germany. I wonder, is there any other country with so many queens of all things green? In rural regions up and down the country, a whole range of fruits and veg have their female rulers who represent and promote the local produce for a year before they pass on crown and sceptre to whoever is selected next. Wine, asparagus, potato, apple, plum, kale, cherries – you name it, there’s a reigning queen.

Among the most popular and well-known are wine queens and each of Germany’s 13 wine-growing regions has one of them. In 1931, the Palatinate (‘Pfalz’) was the first German wine region to crown its own queen. There is also a German Wine Queen which is traditionally elected each year in the Palatinate town of Neustadt an der Weinstraße from among the individual wine regions’ queens. The election process is quite a comprehensive affair and the competing local queens have to go through different rounds of assessment to prove that they’re fit for their one-year term of office, representing and promoting German wine at trade fairs, wine festival and other events. Jointly with two wine princesses, by the way, because, obviously, every queen needs to come with princesses.

All the more shocking then for some that it was in the Palatinate, the cradle of wine queens, where a republican uprising has recently been in the making: The ‘Verein Pfalzwein’ –Palatinate Wine Association – announced that it would abolish its queen. Instead, a male or female ambassador for Palatinate wine should be elected instead – with the official title of ‘PfalzWeinBotschafterin’ (female) or ‘PfalzWeinBotschafter’ (male). In case you’re wondering, yes, those are made-up, Instagram-friendly terms, random capitalisations within words are not (yet) in the book of German spelling.

A representative of the association explained the dethronement with the ‘Pfalz’ wanting to be perceived as a “modern wine region”. And apparently, there’s no room for queens anymore then. This pursuit of modernity was followed by a huge public discussion in the Pfalz region because turns out people – and local politicians – like their wine queen. One very outspoken critic was the mayor of Neustadt who apparently wasn’t at all keen on the idea of an ambassador, particularly a male one. Cut a long story short, only a few weeks after the big announcement, ‘Pfalzwein’ made a U-turn, announcing that the office of ‘Palatinate Wine Queen’ will remain, after “intensive talks” with the city of Neustadt (read: the mayor).

According to the wine association, a compromise has been found: At the election of next year’s Palatinate wine royalty in October, either a queen will be chosen who will then also wear a crown, or – if a man wins – this ‘wine sovereign’ will receive a golden pin instead of a crown. The association concluded that the discussion about the Palatinate Wine Queen
has shown that this role “means something to many people who identify with the Palatinate wine region”. Moral of this story is apparently: Don’t try and mess with Germany’s fruit and veg monarchies. Long live the queen…

Barbara Geier is a London-based freelance writer, translator and communications consultant. She is also the face behind www.germanyiswunderbar.com, a German travel and tourism guide and blog that was set up together with UK travel writer Andrew Eames in 2010.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Discover Germany, Switzerland & Austria.