12.08.2025
Gemeindehausplatz Wilchingen, Hauptstrasse, 8217 Wilchingen
The "Wilchinger Handel", the great drama in the history of the village of Wilchingen.
It took place between 1712 and 1732 and deals with a conflict between the authorities and their subjects.
In order to standardize and streamline the administration, the government of the city-state of Schaffhausen withdrew traditional special rights and freedoms from the subject communities. Wilchingen reacted particularly sensitively, as it claimed an exceptional position among the rural communities of Schaffhausen.
The powder keg exploded when the Schaffhausen council granted the widow Ursula Gysel ("Stubenurschel") the right to run a tavern in the "Engel". Whoever owned the tavern right was allowed to serve hot food. According to the hospital charter, the people of Wilching were entitled to grant or withdraw tavern rights. In any case, the people of Wilching felt that their sense of justice had been violated. With the "Engel", the authorities created competition with the tavern in the "Gemeindehaus" and thus reduced the village's income.
The hard-working "Stubenurschel", who had been landlady in the parish hall before her husband's death, had fought for years for the right to run a tavern before she was granted permission to do so in 1717 in return for the payment of 200 guilders and an annual fee to the hospital. This right was to be indicated by displaying a tavern sign, called a "Tafääre" in our dialect. The people of Wilching prevented the bailiff from putting up the tavern sign on the "Engel".
Our fellow citizen, Alfred Hedinger (1932 - 2022), did a huge amount of research into the period and compiled a 340-page documentary about it, which provides a comprehensive insight into life, customs, claims to power and political conditions at the beginning of the 18th century.
The author of our theater, Virginia Stoll, has taken the most dramatic years between 1717 and 1729 from this period and turned them into an open-air play. This was performed for the first time in 2005.
In order to standardize and streamline the administration, the government of the city-state of Schaffhausen withdrew traditional special rights and freedoms from the subject communities. Wilchingen reacted particularly sensitively, as it claimed an exceptional position among the rural communities of Schaffhausen.
The powder keg exploded when the Schaffhausen council granted the widow Ursula Gysel ("Stubenurschel") the right to run a tavern in the "Engel". Whoever owned the tavern right was allowed to serve hot food. According to the hospital charter, the people of Wilching were entitled to grant or withdraw tavern rights. In any case, the people of Wilching felt that their sense of justice had been violated. With the "Engel", the authorities created competition with the tavern in the "Gemeindehaus" and thus reduced the village's income.
The hard-working "Stubenurschel", who had been landlady in the parish hall before her husband's death, had fought for years for the right to run a tavern before she was granted permission to do so in 1717 in return for the payment of 200 guilders and an annual fee to the hospital. This right was to be indicated by displaying a tavern sign, called a "Tafääre" in our dialect. The people of Wilching prevented the bailiff from putting up the tavern sign on the "Engel".
Our fellow citizen, Alfred Hedinger (1932 - 2022), did a huge amount of research into the period and compiled a 340-page documentary about it, which provides a comprehensive insight into life, customs, claims to power and political conditions at the beginning of the 18th century.
The author of our theater, Virginia Stoll, has taken the most dramatic years between 1717 and 1729 from this period and turned them into an open-air play. This was performed for the first time in 2005.