Ant

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Amastrager: illustration from 1820

Ameisler , also known locally as Amastrager , is the name of a historical profession that has been documented for parts of Austria , Bavaria and Bohemia from the 17th century . The associated activity is described as an ant . Ants collected and dried the pupae of the wood ants during their seasonal work and sold them as bird feed and as an ingredient in the manufacture of medicines .

History and dissemination

Permit from Lower Austria (1953)

Little is known today about the origins of the ant. It is believed that the activity arose with caging songbirds . The clientele consisted mainly of bird feeders who sold the collected dry ant larvae to bird owners. For existential reasons, many farmers had to pursue a sideline, whereby the collecting economy was of particular importance. As early as 1679 one could read about the "best white to collect Omeisen-Eyer" in a herbal book by the Frankfurt city ​​physician Adam Lonitzer . Moritz Alois Becker provided the most detailed report on the Ameisln in 1859 in his travel guide for visitors to Ötscher , in which he described the activity in detail. For Lower Austria , in addition to the Ötscher area, the collection locations Annaberg , Dunkelsteinerwald , Glasweiner Wald , Gutenstein , Hainfeld , Karnabrunner Wald , Michelstetten , Ottenschlag and Pulkau are documented. The Ameisln for Tyrol , the Upper Palatinate , the Bavarian - Bohemian border area and Iglau has been proven beyond the state border .

Around Hainfeld the so-called "Amastrager" were to 1848 zünftig organized. In the "Badersche Gasthof" they had a regulars' table , over which 50 years later a metal plaque with a trade mark and banner from 1820 was emblazoned:

“We 'Amastragers' are known far and wide as hard-working, brave people, we are highly honored by everyone, because our trade is valued, and if we want a good roast, a good wine, we stop by our landlady. "

At the end of the 19th century there were still six commercial Ameisler in Hainfeld. Increasing forest law and nature conservation restrictions as well as the fact that everyone was now allowed to collect led to the slow decline of the industry. Nevertheless, the activity in many places continued until the 1970s, as evidenced by specially issued permits from the Lower Austrian provincial government. Between 1957 and 1975, 270 of these licenses were issued. The following figures show that collecting ant pupae could be quite lucrative: In 1859, a seasonal harvest of 20 metzes made a profit of 150 to 500 guilders , which was the equivalent of 100 metzes of grain. In the 1960s, the seasonal revenue generated in just four to six weeks was enough, for example, to buy a television set .

job profile

Appearance

The Styrian homeland poet Peter Rosegger dedicated an article to the Ameisler in his Heimgarten magazine at the end of the 19th century , in which he above all described the fate of the little animals in a very graphical way, but also emphasized the shabby appearance of the ants.

“You can meet a strange man in the forest. According to his disheveled garb it could be a beggar, he also carries a large sack on his back; but over this bundle and all its limbs, from the patched shoes to the weathered hat, countless ants hurry up and down, to and fro, in fright and fear and know no advice in the strange, walking region, in that they advise [...] "

For a long time, the traditional mountain farmer's costume remained among the Lower Austrian representatives of the profession . This included the plucked shirt, a shirt without a collar, with a black scarf and a red patch on the chest. The men wore knee breeches with green double braces and white woolen stockings on their legs, and a pointed hat with a narrow, upward brim on their heads. Female ants put on a sleeveless Spenzer with a short, monochromatic smock and over it an apron made of blue house linen. They wore a loosely knotted, shoulder-length cloth around their heads. However, the collectors in Lower Austria were not always locals, but also wandering Tyroleans or Bohemians who accordingly dressed differently.

Working method and sales

Ant pupae are often incorrectly referred to as "eggs"
The "Amas doctor" by Johannes Mayerhofer (1898)

The recovery of the vernacular also "ant eggs" mentioned dolls done differently depending on the region. However, parallels can be seen everywhere. Peter Rosegger, who claims to have witnessed the activity several times, described a three-part approach for the area around Mariazell :

  1. First of all, the anthill , made up of needles and the finest twigs, had to be opened, for which a Heindl was used. Then the upper layers were gathered (or sieved) in a sack and transported away in a butte . Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm described in 1811 that collecting ant pupae is only possible when the weather is fine, as the ants only store their pupae in the upper, warmer regions of the anthill. To protect against the formic acid is Ameisler rubbed their hands with turpentine or elderflower one. Against ant bites, the antler used long stockings.
  2. In the next step on a sunny Anger a large sheet of the edge with foliage spread, covered, folded and highly strained the corners. The ant emptied the collected goods in the middle of the cloth and waited until the ants brought their pupae to safety under the leaves. After that, the little heaps only had to be collected and safely stored. Rosegger called this step "phasing out".
  3. Finally, the goods had to be dried or parched . For this purpose, wooden sheds with their own drying rooms ("Oalhütten") were used, which were heated with spherical ovens on the Ötscherwiese , for example .

Other methods such as the digging of fishing holes or small moats have come down to us from the Bohemian- Moravian border region ( Karl Hans Strobl , 1944) or the Upper Palatinate (1920s). Once the goods were dried and packaged, they were mainly sold to bird traders and breeders in the city. A popular sales place was the Vienna Naschmarkt , where Ameisler from Hainfeld in particular sold their goods around the turn of the century. The Bandion family from Annaberg, who continued collecting ant pupae into the 21st century, initially supplied the Meidlinger market by motorcycle . The merchant later picked up the goods personally.

Secondary employment and related professions

In addition to the ant pupae, a large number of other forest products such as roots and herbs were collected that could be sold in pharmacies . Juniper berries and other forest fruits were used to make brandy . As the most important by-product, the finest grains of resin , the so-called "oalpech", were picked up, which was mainly processed into incense .

In addition, ants found application in folk medicine . The Styrian Docter from Mariazell collected the living animals and processed them into ant spirit and "Amastincture", which was said to have a healing effect on rheumatic diseases. The authorities arrested the well-known as "Amasdoktor" man who also Enzianschnaps sold his quackery bad.

reception

The strange-looking work of the Ameisler provided material for popular jokes as early as 200 years ago. The trade mark in the Hainfeld inn, which shows an Amastrager and his wife at their peculiar work, testified to this. The back of the sheet metal revealed the following conversation:

He: "Go, tell me, Mirzl, get away from what the people are having fun and all the while the Amastrager hoaed us?"
She: "Well, because we struggle day and night and carry our things around on our backs."

The almost forgotten profession of the ant is particularly popular in folklore exhibitions. In 2008, the Annaberg culture and history community Tannberg recalled the activity in an exhibition on the subject of "Our ants - unknown diversity". Between March 2009 and March 2010 the Landesmuseum Niederösterreich devoted itself to natural, folkloric and economic aspects of native ant species. The activity of the ant was also a focus. Thus, as the Keuschler Moritz Stehr, known one of the few designated and presented in the image captured Ameisler. The exhibition was then on view until October 2010 in the Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museum . In a special exhibition of the Austrian Open Air Museum in Stübing in Styria , historical craft trades were presented in 2017 under the motto "Shoemaker, Pecher, Ameisler".

literature

Web links

Commons : Ameisler  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Good night, Sandman. Retrieved April 24, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Michael Martischnig: From the Ameisler and Aschenbrenner to the stone pine carver. In: wilderness, forest and farmland. Association of Austrian Scientific Societies, Vienna 1974, pp. 48–49.
  3. ^ A b Leopold Schmidt : Folklore of Lower Austria. Volume 1, Verlag Ferdinand Berger , Horn 1966, pp. 260-263.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Franz Groiß: Ant and folk culture. In: Ants in Biology and Folk Culture: Appreciated, Cursed, Omnipresent. Exhibition ants - unknown fascination on the doorstep. Lower Austrian State Museum , St. Pölten / Biology Center Linz 2009, pp. 165–175. PDF .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Johannes Mayerhofer : The Amastrager. Illustrirtes Wiener Extrablatt , October 23, 1898, No. 292, p. 7. Quoted in: Volksleben im Land um Wien. Customs and costumes. Descriptions in words and pictures by Johannes Mayerhofer, collected, supplemented and provided with a life picture by Karl M. Klier. Manutiuspresse , Vienna 1969, pp. 81-85.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Peter Rosegger : The Ameisler. A picture from the forest. In: Heimgarten , Vol. 8 (1883/84), pp. 68–71.
  7. ↑ Johann Werfring: Annoying and useful. Wiener Zeitung , August 26, 2009, accessed on September 13, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Special exhibition 2017 “Schuster, Pecher, Ameisler”. Austrian Open Air Museum , accessed on September 13, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Neues Land , edition of April 27, 2017, p. 22. PDF .