Imster running in diagrams

Imster Schemenlauf 2016

The Imster Schemenlaufen , also called Carnival , is a carnival custom in Imst in Tyrol . The Schemenlauf takes place every four years on the Sunday before Nonsensical Thursday (the last Thursday before Shrovetide) and lasts from very early in the morning until exactly 6 p.m. According to an old tradition, only men who embody the numerous male and female figures are allowed to participate. The wives and friends of the participants are responsible for the robes.

Since 2010 belongs Fasnacht Imst - Schemenlaufen for intangible cultural heritage , as declared by UNESCO, on the (National Treasure) Austria List . At the same time it was proposed for inclusion in the worldwide Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity , and in December 2012 - together with falconry - it was included there as Austria's first cultural asset.

The next event will take place on February 9, 2020.

The mask groups

Bear gang

The bear gang

White and brown bears trot along as they walk in the shadows; The bear heads are equipped with an iron frame on the inside and are padded with foam to be able to bear the blows of the driver halfway, covered with fur on the outside. The actor is only able to look outside and catch his breath through the wood-carved, slightly open bear gosche (mouth).

The larvae of their tormentors are of the southern type, darkly framed with a mustache, and their screams also seem strange. The clothing consists of dark trousers, a fur jacket and a felt hat; Sometimes the drivers have adapted to the polar bears and walk behind their animals in Eskimo robes.

The bears, including the tambourines (bell drummers), Schwegler (flute whistlers), monkeys and the bear wagon, are reminiscent of small groups of hikers, as they sometimes wandered through the town in the past and can still be seen in some southern European countries today. The game of the bears - represented by lads clad in sheepskins - with their wild bear drivers, who they try to tame with iron chains, birch sticks and bloodcurdling roars, was also interpreted as a symbolic battle of winter against spring. Such derivations of carnival customs from pagan customs, which are common not only in Imst, are now considered scientifically refuted.

Sackner

With their balloon-like sack filled with corn flakes, the sackers chastise the audience on the roadside more or less gently, thus ensuring a free path.

First of all, these are the Wifligsackner with wild, terrifying larva. Evil tongues claim that the Imst mask carvers use the faces of certain disgruntled old ladies of the place as a model for the Wifligsackner. They wear traditional women's costumes, which consist of a traditional apron, a white blouse, a shawl, a fuzz cap and the eponymous "Wifling". The "wifling" is a heavy pleated skirt with a bodice and a bib, which rises horizontally as the masked person dance. Up to 16 meters of fabric are required to create a wifling.

Opposite the Wifligsackners are Turesackner and Bauresackner , both male: the Turesackner with a (tower) high hat, expansive ruff and two-colored Bajazzo costume, the Bauresackner in Tyrolean peasant clothing from the 19th century - characterized by loden hat, loden jacket, linen shirt, leather pants, long Underpants and high black shoes. The larvae of both types usually have a mustache, whereas the Turesackner larvae have rather strict features, while the Bauresackners have a mischievous grin, which represents the "farmer's cunning".

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  Wilfligsackner

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  Turesackner

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  Bauresackner

Splash

The splashes provide a free path with a light but cold water jet from meter-long metal syringes. Usually the feet of the curious should get the pour. Exceptions are always made - some have achieved a real championship here. The syringes are reloaded at the numerous Imster fountains.

The Altfrankspritzer appears elegantly, in baroque bourgeois clothing with velvet or cloth tailcoats (the Altfrank), tricorn hat, braid or knobbed stockings and an occasionally sneering tobacco mask. The Mohrenspritzer - in the shape of black princes - and their counterparts, the angelic splashes in light-colored clothing and masks , appear exotic . Moore and angel splashes are likely to have entered the carnival quite late - probably via the Epiphany Game - and are characterized by their special elegance.

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  Altfrankspritzer

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  Carrot splash

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  Angel splash

Kübelemaje

Kübelemaje

The Kübelemaje , who is dressed in the simple costume of an alpine dairy woman with a white blouse, pleated skirt with bodice and apron, white stockings and black low shoes and carries a girlish larva, holds in one hand a small wooden bucket with powder, in the other a little handkerchief, with which she dusts the faces of the audience. “Maje” means a nice girl in old Tyrolean usage. There is no evidence for other derivations, for example from the Asian goddess of fertility Cybele and the original word Maja.

In the past, there was water in the bucket of the Kübelemajen, because it was their job to clean the faces of the spectators blackened by the chimney sweeps with their wet cloth. With the overflow of the splash shapes, the work of the Kübelemajen seemed to become superfluous, so in the 1920s it was decided to change their equipment and put fragrant powder in the bucket.

Witches and witch music

Witches

The witches and their witch music are another core piece of the train. Legend has it that there were enough witches in and around Imst in the past. They were burned up at the Galgenbühel, the old high court; At the Üblbachl, a trickle in front of Imst's neighboring town of Tarrenz, they would have indulged in nightly debauchery.

The witches of the Schemenlaufen wear an extremely ugly, two-part mask (Gschnapp or Schnapplarve) with pork bristles, a flax wig and a red pleated skirt. They hold their witch brooms horizontally over their heads and dance to witch music. The witch music played by boys sounds intentionally weird, but is characterized by old, strict rules and a traditional rhythm. The name of the most distinctive of their instruments - Scheißheislebaß - says a lot about its melodious sound.

The leader of the witch gang is the witch mother in the clothes of a wifligsackner with a heavy skirt and a fuzzy cap, whose trademark is her ugly full mask with a long tongue hanging out. With the birch rod as a sign of her power, she keeps her “pile” on the go, while the witch father in the red old Frankish costume plays the role of a slipper hero - he is only allowed to keep the witch's book in which all witches have to register.

The witch's awl (witch's grandmother) with a stick and patches made of plaited maize strips is a noticeable phenomenon within the gang. As the home of the desolate women people, the Hexewåge (witch wagon) is the first of the large carnival wagons to follow the bustle of the masks during the parade.

Roller and Scheller

Roller and Scheller

Play media file

Roller and Scheller (video)

The main characters of the Schemenlaufen are the rollers and shells, who each form a pair. The scooter wears a youthful, feminine, wrinkle-free mask with a headdress covered with artificial flowers, the "glow", in the middle of which there is a mirror (to ward off demons?). As a characteristic, he wears the "Gröll" around his hips, a leather belt with 40 to 48 rollers similar to that of a horse-drawn sleigh. His counterpart, the Scheller , wears a stern-looking, wrinkled larva with a sweeping baroque mustache and a much larger headdress with a mirror and yew wreath. His hips are girdled with the up to 38 kg heavy "Gschall", four to eight hand-forged cow bells, half of which are attached to a wide leather strap at the front and half at the back. He lets this sound as soon as "his" scooter has asked him to do so through the corresponding dance. The roller holds a “Pemsl” (brush) in the right hand, which is also needed for the dance; the "Scheller" carries a "Schallerstecke" (Schellerstaff) with an apple attached.

The dance movements of the two seem strange and yet graceful. If a Scheller does not elegantly bring all the Klaffl up to the stop, he is popularly known as a “Busserant”, as someone who never “learns”. Connoisseurs know that the rectangular heads have to be ringed differently than the oval heads. For the scooter, its elegance and jumping height are relevant; he must have the right "Schlånz", as it is called in Imst. A good scooter, it is said, has to be able to jump forward and backward on a tavern table in the evening after walking in diagrams.

These two main masks and their dance game, the "gangl", are interpreted differently today. Some see them as a symbolic representation of the seasons and their struggle, with the grouchy Scheller symbolizing the end of winter, the cheerful scooter symbolizing spring just beginning. Others recognize a graphic representation of the generation conflict between old (Scheller) and young (Roller), a third group believes that they perceive the eternal interplay between man and woman in their behavior and even suspects a sexual act behind the couple's movements.

Laggeroller and Laggescheller

Laggeroller and Laggescheller

The scooters and shells are followed by Laggeroller and Laggescheller , which ridicule the elegant movements of the scooters and shells with a slow but original demeanor. This is also expressed by their clothing, which is not subject to any fixed rule. Nutshells or “Tåtscheln” (cones) are often used as gröll; the large bells are mostly replaced by small "Goaßschallelen" (goat bells) or by wooden bells. On the Schellerstaff of the Laggescheller, the apple finds its counterpart in a beetroot, sometimes also in a "trooper shit" (a stunted corn cob). They come bent over, legs apart and clumsy, their "gangl" runs in slow motion. By their appearance and their movement, they elicit laughter from the audience.

The strange name “Lagge” is often traced back to the Imst dialect word “lagg”, the meaning of which can be rendered as “tired”, “lackluster and weak” or “dull”, which would be a fitting characterization of this strange couple. But the name is also related to the wooden bells, as they are sometimes worn by the lag bells. They originally consisted of small wooden buckets, in Tyrolean terms "lagges", in which "klaffl" (cocks) were inserted.

One is tempted to recognize the symbolic frailty of the beauty represented by Roller and Scheller in the appearance of the "Laggepaarle", in their movements the transience of the vigorous youth, which is expressed in the dance of the main masks. Or maybe it's just mocking figures who want to hold up a reproachful and mocking mirror to the shells who don't make their gossips - the bus rangers - and the scooters who are unable to jump high.

Labara and Rofn-Kathl

The Labara of the Imst Schemenlaufen attracts a lot of attention . It expresses an old right to reprimand. This is a group of more than 20 people in tails and top hats, who report in a humorous way in words, pictures and sound about a bourgeois prank that happened to a prominent city dweller in the past year. The sequence of incidents, which are sometimes embarrassing for the victim, is captured on canvas, which is rolled out at every stage of the Labara and hung on a pole. Now the declamator begins to explain the event in an original way in Imst dialect with a pointer that he repeatedly smashes against the screen. After the declamation, the whole group, whose face mask consists only of a nose and pair of eyes, starts to play the “Labara song” accompanied by guitars; Once again the morality is prepared in verse form, but now sung.

In return, the one who is so targeted has to pay for the - never small - bill of the whole group; an honor for every Imster. The word "Labarer" is traced back to the Labarum , an illustrated army flag, from which later the canvas rolls are said to have emerged, on which those tragicomic incidents are depicted during the carnival procession, which were then sung about in the manner of the morality pictures.

The Rofn-Kathl , the “official” newspaper of Schemenlaufens, which has something to report about everyone - hardly any Imster house gets away with it unscathed - makes the hearts of lovers of Imst folk joke beat faster. The Rofn-Kathl is sold by a carnival party in the mask of an ancient woman.

Chimneys

The Kaminer or Ruassler in tails and top hats climb up the house walls in daring maneuvers with the help of small ladders in order to blacken the spectators at the windows, which is supposed to bring happiness and fertility. The soot-faced ladies thank their lucky charm with a shot of schnapps or a kiss. Because of their risky appearances, the chimneys were banned for a while at Carnival.

Bird dealer

Bird traders remind of the heyday of the place in the 17th and 18th centuries, when Imst developed into the center of bird breeding and bird trade. "Bird organs" were used to train the animals to whistle some melodies. The bird traders then traveled to many European countries with their goods. When walking in a pattern, the bird traders move in the midst of the procession in original costume with a long loden or velvet skirt and knee breeches, a walking stick in their hand and the baby carrier with the cages on their back. After protests by animal rights activists, no more live birds are carried in the cages today; they were replaced by stuffed birds.

Osier

The Korbweible is a fastnights man who represents two figures at the same time: an ancient woman who, in a very stooped position, has to carry a large backpack in which her husband is sitting. which she carries with her as a constant and heavy burden. “Out of love for you, I always carry you with me” - this is the motto that documents this supposed mirror image of longstanding marital coexistence.

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  Kaminer while climbing

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  Bird dealer

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  Osier

Carnival floats

A carnival car from 2016

After the parade of the masked people, richly decorated carnival floats follow. They were once pulled by a team of oxen, later by tractors, and today some of them are already set up on articulated lorries. The wagons are erected in countless hours of work and consistently show topics related to the location and its past. Ancient peasantry, handicrafts and trades, guilds and mining, but also motifs from the world of legends are shown. A repetition of themes from past carnivals is avoided.

A critical jury evaluates the individual cars. The floats are not just there to look at, the spectators are also involved in the carnival on the floats. Pranks they played it be, by subsequent service inside the car with a jigger outweighed liquor and the like. The vehicle crew then receives a small amount of money for this.

Town music

The town music marks the beginning of the actual parade. The town music comes up with a new costume every time you walk in the shadows. She plays the Imster Carnival March composed by the former conductor Franz Treffner and other pieces. In addition to the often freezing cold, the town music also suffers from a double decimation: On the one hand, those members who participate in the masked run as masked people are canceled, and on the other hand, you have to do without the female musicians, because the rule that only men take part in the schematic running the town music also has to submit.

Collections

• In 2001 a carnival museum was opened in Imst.
• United Festivals Weltarchiv, Vienna

Intangible cultural heritage

Carnival Imst - Schemenlauf
Intangible cultural heritage
State (s):	Austria
List:	Representative list
Number:	00726
Admission:	2012

In March 2010 the Imster Schemenlaufen was included in the national register of intangible cultural heritage in Austria . In December 2012 it was included in the Worldwide Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fasnacht Imst - Schemenlaufen ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . nationalagentur.unesco.at  
2. ↑ Imster Fasnacht is a UNESCO cultural heritage , tirol.orf.at, March 12, 2010
3. ↑ Schemenlaufen, the carnival of Imst, Austria. UNESCO Culture Intangible Heritage Lists.

literature

• Josef Zangerle: The Imster Fasnacht. The Schemenlauf, the sweeping, the Buabefasnacht . Association to promote d. Imster Fasnacht, Imst 1983.
• Carnival in Imst . Self-published, Imst 2008, ISBN 978-3-200-01319-3 .
• Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund (Ed.): Festivals in the Alpine region . Migros-Presse, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-9521210-0-2 , p. 77.

Web links

Commons : Imster Schemenlaufen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• www.fasnacht.at
• Scheme walking on the website of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section of UNESCO ( English and French ).
• Imster Schemenlaufen , video on the UNESCO YouTube channel (10:12 min)