Fraternity (village association)

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With fraternity or Burschenverein in other regions bachelor club (AGM) or village youth is called a club unmarried, mostly young men within a village. These clubs usually have a tradition that goes back several hundred years. These village associations have nothing to do with student fraternities .

distribution

Boys' associations can be found in large parts of Lower Bavaria , Upper Bavaria , Lower Saxony and Hesse in many villages. But there are also lads' clubs in Franconia , the Upper Palatinate and the Rhineland . There these clubs (mostly) bear the name of the bachelor club . In the Rhenish and in the front Westerwald one often speaks of boys' associations.

The reunification seems, e.g. For example, in Thuringia, to have promoted the revival of old traditions, 150 clubs there had registered for a state fair boys' meeting in 2010. In some parts of Austria , too , these associations are known as fraternities, collieries , Ruden, Irten and Passengers.

Burschbaumstellen , Lackendorf , Austria (August 13, 2011)

aims

Boys' associations serve to maintain tradition and sociability. They organize, among other things, fair fairs , carnival balls, village festivals, theater performances, St. John's celebrations, church days, maypole erection or rock parties as public festivals. In addition, there are internal celebrations and customs such as setting up a wedding tree, boyhood and boyfriends.

history

The beginning of the boys 'associations can be traced back to the 19th century, when male, school-leavers joined together to form “wild or free boys' associations” until they were married. Similar boys / youth communities emerged in the Rhineland as early as the 14th and 15th centuries. However, they were not associations that operated continuously over the course of the year, but communities that were reorganized every year according to fixed rituals, but sometimes also written statutes - but still in the same form and structure. Some later went seamlessly into (legal) associations, others have survived to this day; some with names or “pauses” that have changed over the centuries. Founded in 1372 (first written evidence from 1557/1558), the Kivelinge from Lingen (Ems) are probably the oldest bachelor club in Germany.

This development, that the club idea found favorable ground in boyhood, did not go unnoticed by the Catholic Church either. For example, some spiritual pastors used the opportunity to positively influence the male youth after they left school, in accordance with the ideals of the Church, and supported the merger of Catholic lads' associations.

In 1903, three spiritual pioneers of this youth work, spiritual councilor Spannbrucker (Laufen), beneficiary Braun (Dengling) and prelate Mehler (Regensburg) founded an umbrella organization of the " Catholic lads' associations of the Kingdom of Bavaria ". This should support the individual local associations in their association work.

The purpose of the association and the basic principles were also laid down in a model statute:

Preservation and promotion of faith and morals, professionalism, love of home, cheerfulness and jokes.

The umbrella organization "Das Burschenblatt" was available for its advertising and educational work by providing the local associations with recommendations, interesting facts and entertainment from all areas of life.

The local association consisted of regular members who could only become innocent Catholic boys. From their ranks a board of directors was elected, consisting of the board, treasurer and secretary, who managed the association. The executive committee automatically belonged to the president. This was the representative of the Catholic Church, mostly the local pastor, who took over the religious management of the association. The church thus had a significant influence on the work of the association at that time.

Aligned with the statutes and the basic principles, the association's activities consisted mainly of religious events, monthly meetings, association celebrations and dance events and cultural activities (such as theater and musical performances)

As traditional village associations, many boys 'associations have a flag and march with them at pageants and fairgrounds in their home village and at boys' festivals in other communities.

membership

Different from club to club. In general, any single local boy aged 16 and over can become a member. Entry usually takes place via an entry ritual. Membership expires with the wedding , since boys' clubs are purely bachelor's clubs. Those who never marry become passive members when they withdraw from club life.

Dirndl shaft

For girls there were and still are mostly parallel to the boys 'associations, the virgins' associations to the traditional bachelor's clubs, then often as a corresponding department of a women's union or the boys 'associations directly assigned girls' groups, nowadays especially in Upper Bavaria but increasingly also independently organized dirndlships or dirndlships. Girls 'associations, which, like most boys' associations, are devoted to happiness and social commitment in the village.

Associations

Fraternities often belong to a superordinate association. The following are particularly important today:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. the village youth of Hesselbach
  2. ^ Thüringer Allgemeine: Landeskirmesburschentreffen: Trubel im Eichsfeld (2010) , accessed on October 21, 2010
  3. ↑ Sophie Lange: May custom in the Eifel , in: Eifel Jahrbuch 1993, pages 49-55; online at sophie-lange.de
  4. ^ Poller Maigeloog: We about us ; Retrieved October 21, 2010