Boandlkramer

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Boandlkramer , also Boanlkramer or just Boandl or Boanl , is an old Bavarian euphemistic and allegorical name ( personification ) for death .

The "Bavarian Death"

"Boandlkramer" is made up of the terms Boandl for bones or bones and shopkeeper for a trader who buys and sells a small amount and moves from house to house in the country. As a result, “Boandlkramer” is also a rather disrespectful and derogatory job title, because a trader who deals in bones - not very valuable goods - can certainly not be anything special. This results not least from the fact that death had little demony and majesty for the hunters and poachers. He was part of it, no one made a fuss about him.

The writer Alfons Schweiggert describes the Boandlkramer as a “poor gentleman servant” who only has to carry out orders and with whom it is easy to get into action. Death, which is also mockingly referred to as "abdrahta Schlankl", would be easy to outsmart. According to Schweiggert, this makes Boandlkramer in Bavaria more sympathetic in a certain way, which justifies a more relaxed approach to death. A smoker's cough is sometimes unabashedly referred to as a “cemetery yodeler” and old people ironically express that they have “forgotten the Boandlkramer”.

Should he show up anyway, a Bavarian would be amazed, but would not be shocked, also because Boandlkramer himself, "looking pale and suffering like a poor hawk, hollow-eyed and with sunken cheeks", who is visibly uncomfortable about his job, sometimes causes pity. The Boandlkramer would not just step in and appear bossy, but rather knock submissively and mumble apologies and innocently assert the reason for his appearance. He kindly invites you to take a ride to the afterlife, which is why it is said, “Boandlkramer doesn't pick up a Bavarian, a Bavarian condescends to go with him when he's ready to go”.

In the literature

In Franz von Kobell's short story Die Gschicht vom Brandner Kaspar (1871) and the resulting novel and stage play Der Brandner Kaspar and the eternal life of Kurt Wilhelm (1974/1975 season - Residenztheater Munich) the Boanlkramer (in this spelling) appears as eccentric , sometimes even helpless and lovable figure.

Like the cattle dealers, wedding loaders and cuddlers in rural life, he comes to the farmer's room to do business. And ultimately Kaspar from the brand does good business with him. The Bavarian folk actor Toni Berger found his star role in the role of Boanlkramer, in which he appeared on stage well over 1000 times. There is also a television version of the original theater production with Berger in the same role.

Since 2005 the young actor Maximilian Brückner has played Boanlkramer in the Brandner Kaspar in the Munich Volkstheater. Michael Herbig embodies the Boanlkramer in a (new) film adaptation of the story The Story of Brandner Kaspar by Joseph Vilsmaier that was released in the cinemas in autumn 2008 . This film adaptation is not based entirely on the original by Franz von Kobell, but rather on the stage play.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alfons Schweiggert : Wonderful beings between Spessart and Karwendel in customs, sagas, fairy tales . Stöppel, Weilheim 1988, ISBN 3-89306-502-4 , p. 45.
  2. ↑ a b Alfons Schweiggert : Wonderful creatures between Spessart and Karwendel in customs, sagas, fairy tales . Stöppel, Weilheim 1988, ISBN 3-89306-502-4 , p. 46.
  3. ↑ Alfons Schweiggert : Wonderful beings between Spessart and Karwendel in customs, sagas, fairy tales . Stöppel, Weilheim 1988, ISBN 3-89306-502-4 , p. 47.