Atlas of German Folklore

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The Atlas of German Folklore (ADV) is the most important German-language project for cultural area research in the German Reich , in Austria and in some of the then German-speaking areas of Eastern and South (Eastern) Europe. The project was heavily influenced by the “Bonn School” of cultural space research, which had set impulses from 1920 with the interdisciplinary Institute for Historical Regional Studies of the Rhineland , IGL.

history

Following the example of the questionnaire campaign carried out by Wilhelm Mannhardt in 1865 and the German Language Atlas , between 1930 and 1935 five questionnaires, divided into 243 main questions, were sent out to around 20,000 informants. In order to be able to process this abundance of material, a total of 34 regional offices were set up from 1928, the central office was located in Berlin and was headed by Fritz Böhm .

The results of the surveys were published in the first series in 120 uncommented distribution maps in six deliveries up to 1939. After the National Socialists came to power , the atlas project was taken over by the SS- Ahnenerbe in 1938 ; however, no publications emerged from it.

During the war, all material from the central office of the ADV was brought to a safe place in Frankfurt. Matthias Zender set up the "Atlas of German Folklore Workplace" in Bonn in 1954 and took care of the transport of the material (approx. 4.5 million index cards) to there. From 1958 the answers were re-evaluated and the maps of the New Series were given a comprehensive commentary that was critical of the source . A larger number of cards - especially on topics of death , burial and Nachzehrerglauben had to do - were of Gerda Rough Luck edited. In 1984 the long-term funding (since 1928, with interruptions) of the German Research Foundation expired . The central archive is located in Bonn, other holdings are in former regional offices or their successor institutions in Rostock , Münster , Marburg , Munich and Innsbruck . After the Second World War, various other atlas projects throughout Europe were initiated by the ADV, as well as an “Ethnological Atlas of Europe”, which was quickly discontinued.

The result cards were used as a source for several folklore studies, such as the study “Everyday and Festive Food in Central Europe” by Günter Wiegelmann, which is widely regarded in food research . Since the 1990s, computer-aided processing has been sought. With 4.5 million index cards, costs of around € 1.00 per card are calculated.

The ADV was one of the largest humanities projects and contributed significantly to the profiling of folklore as a science.

Survey example

As an example, question 88 about common food is listed:
“What special foods and drinks do
a) those who work in the grain harvest receive ?
b) those employed in haymaking? "

As an explanation and orientation for the questioning informants, the following was explained:
“It is often customary for those employed in the hay or grain harvest to be given a particularly good and plentiful meal, since the strenuous work requires increased strength. In some places there are set dishes that are eaten at harvest time (yeast dumplings, potato flatbreads, gruel, etc.). Our question is aimed at these special dishes that deviate from everyday life, but not at the usual festive dishes at the actual harvest festival. We ask you to point out where there is a difference between the food given for the hay harvest and the food given for the grain harvest. " (Notices from the Ethnological Commission of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaften (questionnaires and instructions for processing the ADV questionnaires) H. 2, 1931, P. 29.)

Criticism of the Atlas of German Folklore

The criticism of the ADV is directed on the one hand against the premises of cultural space research of the 1920s and the survey methods used by informants. Since usually only one person gave the answers for each location, a differentiated answer was made more difficult. Günter Wiegelmann, Gerda Grober-Glück, Michael Simon and others were able to show that the answers are very profitable with a modified reading. On the other hand, the ADV was assumed to have an ideological component, especially in the 5th questionnaire from 1935. Michael Simon refuted this accusation in his habilitation thesis. A criticism from a post-colonial perspective with possible solutions for a reprocessing of the material was discussed by Helmut Groschwitz based on the WossiDiA project .

literature

  • H. L. Cox (ed.): Cultural boundaries and national identity. Lectures by the International European Ethnocartographic Working Group on the Symposium “Cultural Borders and National Identity”. April 5th to 7th in Bad Honnef. Rheinisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde 30 (1993/94).
  • German Research Foundation (Hrsg.): Directory of the locations of the atlas of German folklore. Issued for questionnaires 1–4. Berlin 1936.
  • Klaus Fehn: Folk history in the Third Reich as an interdisciplinary concept of science using the example of Adolf Helbok . A contribution to the interdisciplinary history of science, especially in the subjects of folklore, regional history and historical geography. In: Gunther Hirschfelder , Dorothea Schell, Adelheid Schrutka-Rechtenstamm (Ed.): Cultures - Languages ​​- Transitions. Festschrift for H. L. Cox on his 65th birthday. Böhlau, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-412-11999-7 , pp. 567-580.
  • Heidi Gansohr-Meinel: "Questions to the People" The Atlas of German Folklore 1928–1945. A contribution to the history of an institution. Wuerzburg 1993.
  • Gerda Grober-Glück: At the end of the Atlas of German Folklore - New Series. A contribution to the history of science. In: Nils-Arvid Bringéus, Uwe Meiner, Ruth-E. Mohrmann, Dietmar Sauermann , Hinrich Siuts (eds.): Change in popular culture in Europe. Festschrift for Günter Wiegelmann for his 60th birthday. Volume 1. Münster 1988, ISBN 3-88547-310-0 , pp. 53-70.
  • Helmut Groschwitz: Rewriting "Atlas of German Folklore" postcolonial. In: Beatrix Hoffmann; Steffen Mayer (ed.): Object, image and performance. Representations of Ethnographic Knowledge. In: Berliner Blätter , 67/2014 (2015), pp. 29–40.
  • Georg Kehren: Automated work processes when creating distribution maps of the ADV. In: H. L. Cox (ed.): Cultural boundaries and national identity. Lectures by the International European Ethnocartographic Working Group on the Symposium “Cultural Borders and National Identity”. April 5th to 7th in Bad Honnef. Rheinisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde 30 (1993/94), pp. 229–240.
  • Friedemann Schmoll : The measurement of culture. The "Atlas of German Folklore" and the German Research Foundation 1928–1980. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-515-09298-2 .
  • Michael Simon: The Atlas of German Folklore - Chapter or Capital of the Subject? In: Christoph Schmitt (Ed.): Large-scale folklore projects. Your history and future. (= Rostock contributions to folklore and cultural history. Volume 2). Waxmann, Munich / Münster / Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3830915621 , pp. 51-62.
  • Michael Simon, Thomas Schürmann: A chapter of its own - The Atlas of German Folklore. In: Zeitschrift für Volkskunde , Vol. 90, H. 2, 1994, pp. 230-237.
  • Matthias Zender: Atlas of German Folklore, New Series. Based on the collections carried out from 1929 to 1935 on behalf of the German Research Foundation. Explanations for the 1st delivery, card NF 1–12. Elwert, Marburg 1959.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Kater: The "Ahnenerbe" of the SS . A contribution to the cultural policy of the Third Reich. Stuttgart 1974, p. 141.
  2. ↑ Balázs Borsos: Possibilities and limits of the determination of cultural regions by means of electronic processing of the data of the Atlas of German Folklore using the example of the Rhineland. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde , 46 (2001), pp. 9–66.
  3. ↑ Michael Michael: "Folk Medicine" in the early 20th century. On the source value of the Atlas of German Folklore. Mainz 2003.
  4. ↑ WossiDiA digitization and development project
  5. ^ Helmut Groschwitz: Rewriting "Atlas of German Folklore" postcolonial. In: Beatrix Hoffmann; Steffen Mayer (ed.): Object, image and performance. Representations of Ethnographic Knowledge. In: Berliner Blätter , 67/2014 (2015), pp. 29–40.