in 1838, the people of mainz founded the "mainzer carneval-verein" ("carnival club of mainz") and were searching for a lead melody for the local carnival. one of the founding members was the austrian bandmaster karl zulehner (1805–1847), who got inspired by the 1840 performance in mainz of adolphe adam's opera "le brasseur de preston" (1838) () and used some of its musical motives to create the "mainzer narrhallamarsch". the new tune was presented at the opening of the campaign in 1844 and became the signature tune of the "meenzer fassenacht".