ECHOES OF THE KAISER'S NAVY.

Schützenfest season continues, and here's video of Sunday's Königsparade (there are several excuses to break out the flags and the bands) from Dormagen-Delhoven, which is upriver a few kilometers from Düsseldorf.  I'm learning a few more things about the participants.  You'll see pioneers in seventeenth-century headgear carrying polished axes and saws; they would be clearing the way for the troops.  I've also seen more than one parade group in naval uniform carrying the Kaiser's version of the Navy Jack.

Those units all marched in the opening of the parade.

A second video features additional drum lines, bands, and members of local hunt clubs in their green jackets.  You'll also see a few German versions of the cornucopia on parade.

This parade did not include any horse-drawn cannon, which sometimes appear on parade.  The drum lines like their parade step, the brass bands eschew it, and it's a matter of choice for the hunt clubs whether to do so or not.