Cologne Dreigestirn

"His Foolishness", Prince Carnival, receives the jester's slapstick at his proclamation by the Mayor of Cologne (always in early January) – a symbol he wields over his carnival subjects – and traditionally rides on the last and largest float of the Rose Monday parade. The Peasant, "His Heartiness", embodies the city's defiant spirit and recalls Cologne's liberation from the rule of the archbishops at the Battle of Worringen. He carries the city keys at his belt, a threshing flail in his left hand, and 125 peacock feathers on his hat, said to symbolise the immortality of the city. The Virgin, "Her Loveliness", is always played by a man – a tradition dating back to a time when Cologne Carnival was an exclusively male affair. Only in 1938 and 1939 did the NSDAP decree that the role be filled by a woman. Her mural crown and her virginity symbolise the impregnability of the walled city, while her Roman robes allude to Agrippina the Younger, who is credited in the Annals of Tacitus as the founder of Cologne. Since 1993, the Virgin has received a silver mirror at the proclamation ceremony – an idea by Mayor Norbert Burger, so that she, like the Prince and the Peasant, would have a symbol of her own.