Berchtesgaden Christmas shooters

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A common handgun for the Berchtesgaden Christmas shooters

The Berchtesgaden Christmas shooters mainly participate in church festivals . It is named after the custom of shooting from handbollers at Christmas , which is exclusively cultivated in the district sub-region of Berchtesgadener Land and which was first mentioned in 1666. Their associations, founded in 1874 and merged in 1925 as the United Christmas Shooters of the Berchtesgadener Land , value local traditions , Christian customs and conviviality .

Today the Christmas shooters are organized in 17 clubs under the umbrella of the United Christmas Shooters of the Berchtesgadener Land eV . While shooting, they wear a variant of the Berchtesgaden traditional costume , which is characterized by a blue-gray jacket and a shooter's hat with a chamois beard or feathers .

history

The first written mention and description of the Christmas shooting tradition goes back to 1666. The basis of the custom were the firearms for national defense in the courts of the then independent prince provost of Berchtesgaden . In contrast to the mountain riflemen, who emerged directly from the national defense, the Christmas riflemen lacked paramilitary characteristics; they were more of a cultic nature . Over the centuries, the cultic tradition receded in favor of ever closer ties to Christian customs. Despite a centuries-long ban by the authorities, shooting lasted at Christmas and on the other rough nights until Epiphany on January 6th.

Berchtesgaden Christmas shooters at Christmas shooting

The first Christmas shooting club was founded in Strub in 1874 . Second, in 1887, the Oberherzogberger Weihnachtsschützen founded a Christmas shooting society . In 1925 twelve Christmas rifle clubs in the region merged to form the United Christmas Riflemen of the Berchtesgadener Land .

During the time of National Socialism , the Christmas shooters opposed the appropriation of their customs by National Socialism. Just a few years after the National Socialists came to power, tensions arose when they tried to prevent the Christmas shooters from being closely linked to church tradition. In their resistance to this, the association benefited from the fact that he had made Adolf Hitler, who had been present in Berchtesgaden at times since 1923, an honorary member in 1933 shortly after his appointment as Chancellor . Hitler is said to have made several positive comments about this custom. Because of this high level of protection, the association was largely able to evade the influence of local and regional NSDAP party officials.

The dispute reached its first climax when the board of the Christmas Riflemen spoke out against the dissolution of the Franciscan monastery in Berchtesgaden . With the help of this commitment of the association, the convent was preserved, the Franciscans (OFM) stayed in Berchtesgaden and continued to celebrate their services; but they had to move from the monastery to the rectory. As a result, the board member Brandner was drafted into the Wehrmacht as the only Berchtesgaden postal worker .

As early as 1943, considerations for the future of Berchtesgaden in the post-war period were being made in the club's management. Thus, under the decisive influence of Rudolf Kriss , the board of directors thought about which persons could be suitable mayors for the communities of the Berchtesgaden valley basin after the end of the “ Third Reich ” . The academic Rudolf Kriss, who was banned from teaching, was a pioneer in these considerations. After the war he became honorary chairman of the Christmas marksmen. His activities as part of the Christmas shooters are said to be a major cause of his 1944 conviction by the People's Court . Kriss was sentenced to death, but later pardoned to life imprisonment.

Shortly after Berchtesgaden was handed over to the Americans without a fight, they appointed Kriss Mayor of Berchtesgaden. The Brandner board was actually commissioned with the selection of the mayors in the rural communities. He himself was appointed chairman of the district council . As part of the denazification , the Christmas Sagittarius Association as a whole was classified as a resistance-like group.

The United Christmas Shooters of the Berchtesgadener Land currently comprises 17 clubs with a total of more than 3,100 members.

The individual clubs

The individual clubs are listed in the order in which they were founded:

Association chairperson

  • 1925–1933: Franz Reichlmeier senior, Berchtesgaden
  • 1934–1938: Franz Reichlmeier jun., Berchtesgaden
  • 1939–1949: Gotthard Brandner jun., Schönau, represented in the last years of the war by Stefan Rasp and Rudolf Kriß
  • 1950–1965: Franz Kurz, Berchtesgaden
  • 1966–1978: Sebastian Rasp, Maria Gern
  • 1979–1997: Felix Möschl, Berchtesgaden
  • 1997–2006: Leonhard Angerer, Untersalzberg
  • since 2006: Rudi Koller, Engedey

The following were appointed honorary chairmen of the association:

  • Rudolf Kriss
  • Sebastian Rasp
  • Felix Möschl

Honors

  • The Berchtesgadener Poststrasse was renamed "Weihnachtsschützenstrasse" or "Weihnachtsschützenplatz" on June 2, 1945 according to a decree of the US military government. Although a more detailed reason for the renaming cannot currently be proven with certainty of the source, it is assumed that this honored the resistance role of the Christmas shooters during the Nazi era.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Only a ban from 1666 can be used as a direct basis for this (the Christmas shooting), because it calls these things by their name." - for which Kriß again cited from the Princely Berchtesgadner Council minutes of 1666, page 17: ".. . who create at Christmas, the 3 Rauhnächten, also other times with incessant planking of the shooting, does not at all promote the glory of God, but only carries out all sorts of cleansing in means ... "quoted in: Rudolf Kriss: Die Weihnachtsschützen des Berchtesgadener Land and their customs . Berchtesgadener Anzeiger, Berchtesgaden 1966, p. 10
  2. ↑ a b c d Hellmut Schöner (ed.): Berchtesgaden in the course of time . Supplementary volume I, Berchtesgaden 1982, p. 512.
  3. ↑ B.St .: The "Extrigen" from Oberherzogberg in Berchtesgadener Anzeiger from June 26, 2012
  4. ↑ Weihnachtsschuetzenverein-ramsau.de “Vereinschronik” of the Ramsau Christmas Rifle Club for the founding of the United Christmas
    Riflemen of     the Berchtesgadener Land - Listed as the twelve founding clubs: Au, Bischofswiesen, Almberg, Gern, Oberherzogberg, Obersalzberg, Königssee, Ramsau, Schönau, Stanggaß, Strub and Unterherzogberg
  5. ↑ Kriß, Rudolf: The Christmas shooters of the Berchtesgadener country and their customs. 4th edition Berchtesgaden (Berchtesgadener Anzeiger) 1994, pp. 93-95; Commentary by the source Rudolf Kriss on this question in Elke Fröhlich and Martin Broszat: Bayern in der NS-Zeit , p. 207, online at books.google.de .
  6. ↑ On current figures kp: Rudi Koller confirmed as 1st chairman in the Berchtesgadener Anzeiger on April 3, 2009
  7. ↑ Christian Wechslinger: Commitment to Customs and Homeland , report in the Berchtesgadener Anzeiger of January 17, 2015, online at berchtesgadener-anzeiger.de
  8. ↑ Gauchronic of the Gauverband I, 2016
  9. ↑ 1945: "Denazifierung" von Straßen , September 2016, online at heimatkundeverein-berchtesgaden.de , accessed on January 6, 2018.