Festival with history: Ulm Gate finally right after 15 years!”
Biberach celebrates historic floats with a new Ulm Gate. The team illuminates the city's history and shows artistic redesign.

Festival with history: Ulm Gate finally right after 15 years!”
A traditional highlight in Biberach is approaching: The historical pageant at the Schützenfest not only brings the old town history to life, but also the colleagues in the background who work on the festive floats. Bernd Otto, master carpenter, and his team have been working at full speed every Tuesday evening since spring to design the unique floats for the pageant. How schwaebische.de reports, this year the focus is on the four Biberach city gates and their history.
The focus is on a new, stately car that stretches over 8.20 meters and highlights three city gates that no longer exist. In addition, the last remaining city gate, the Ulm Gate, is presented on a separate cart. However, this has taken a special turn because an “urban planning error” was discovered: parts of the Ulmer Tor had been installed incorrectly since the last renovation. Gunther Dahinten, a former editorial director, discovered this error in the spring. Before the correction, the city moat was mounted within the city wall, which has now been put into perspective again - the Ulm Gate is now correctly constructed, with the city moat in front of the city wall. The team takes a humorous approach to this long-lasting breakdown; after all, the defect went unnoticed for 15 years.
Redesign and security updates
But that's not all: like that biberacher-schuetzenfest.com In summary, the city gate cars were thoroughly rebuilt and redesigned. The improvements include not only visual aspects, but also measures to increase safety and comfort for drivers. In addition, two new characters were added that embody historical figures: Warthauser Hans Wanner, an important farmer and leader of the Baltringer Bunch, and the literary lady Sophie La Roche, known for her emancipatory ideas.
The creative minds behind these characters have done valuable craftsmanship to dress them in authentic costumes on the shooting stage. The presentation of the city's history will continue to be developed in the future; A train station model is already planned for next year, which will give visitors a further insight into local history. This undertaking is accompanied by a material wagon, which represents the city with materials and tools for the railway connection, as envisaged by the project “On the Swabian railway – Biberach is connected to the world”.
A look at development
Over the last two decades, Bernd Otto's team has prepared an average of two floats per year, which underlines the group's committed and consistent work. In order to keep the city's identity alive, the development is planned over several years and will always have new elements in store for festival visitors. Historical tools and materials from the Öchsle Association are now presented, building a bridge between history and the present. The dialogue about the meaning and enlivenment of city history is not only a question of aesthetics, but also involves concepts such as “critical reconstruction”, which are discussed in architecture. The term describes the sensitive handling of historical objects and their contextualization in today's world line spacing.net explained.
In summary, it can be said that the historical pageant is not only a dazzling festival, but also a sign of respect for history and its creative reinterpretation. Let's hope that the colorful floats and the dedicated team working behind the scenes will delight the audience as well!