Innviertel colliery

The Innviertel collieries were (and are partly still today) traditional comradeships of young, single farm boys in the Innviertel and neighboring areas. The term "Zeche" is derived from "Zechen" in the sense of dining or drinking in a pub. After that, the guest has to foot his bill , otherwise he would commit bill cheating . Another central meaning of "colliery" related to a "society for common purposes", here just to a community of people who drink (table company) in the inn, who pay together after a bill ("zammzoin"), ie pay the bill together.

Unmarried boys could become members of a colliery after leaving school. Most of the colliery members were under 40 years old, in any case membership ended with the marriage (there seems to have been exceptions after the Second World War, when older people were needed to revive the colliery culture). Certain rituals were associated with entering the colliery ( initiation ) and saying goodbye at the wedding. The core area of ​​the spread of the mines was the Innviertel , although in individual cases there are mines outside of this area (northern Salzburger Land , Grossarltal , Mühlviertel , southern Bohemia ), also in Upper and Lower BohemiaThere are mines in Lower Bavaria , albeit with a much lower density than in the Innviertel. Even if only boys could be members of a colliery, "Zechmenscher" (girls) also regularly took part in the colliery societies. These were recruited from among the sisters or friends of the colliery members, and sometimes particularly good singers were also welcome.

history

Disregarding historical models (mines in the sense of church maintenance have been documented since the middle of the 12th century , mines have also been documented as a form of craft guilds ), mines have existed since the 19th century. In the colliery book of the Upper Austrian Volksliederwerk, 302 such groups are listed after the Second World War , in 1939 there were still 540. In the 1950s the colliery groups continued to decline sharply, in 1979 only 58 Innviertler colliery comradeships could be identified, but there were also among them Landler, youth costume, traditional and folk dance groups, which actually only contain a part of the former colliery life. The mines in Upper and Lower Bavaria ceased to exist in the mid-1950s. As the name suggests, the mines were usually committed to an ancestral inn. This could, but did not have to be, in the community from which the majority of the mine members came. For the choice of a drinking companion, living space, sometimes also social and economic conditions (e.g. craftsmen's mines) were decisive. The colliery life took place in so-called "summer houses" during the good season, in winter in the tavern and in the farmhouse parlors.

Community life was central to the mines. a. in singing and making music together, in colliery games (mostly as a kind of improvisational theater ) and in country dancing . Country dancing in particular was a central group task; each colliery had its own Landler and strictly ensured that its landla was reserved for its colliery only. When dancing in the tavern, there was a strict dance order and every mine present had its "Eicht" (= sequence and duration of the colliery). Violations of the dance regulations, mocking Gstanzl about the girls in a colliery, jostling on the dance floor inevitably led to hard tussles and hall battles. It is also known that some colliery members equipped themselves with weapons for this purpose (e.g. bumpers, handguards, nose slashers , oxzeen (= prepared cattle penis ) or killers were used as fighting tools ). Obviously, pranks, mischief and love life were part of everyday mining life.

By living together in collieries, social needs and boredom in leisure time were overcome. At a time when music was not readily available (neither radio nor jukebox were available) and mobility was limited, a culture of its own was created in which everyone had to be personally involved in order to apply. Those guys who were musically and dance-talented were respected and gladly chosen as Zechmeister.

In addition, the mines were apolitical, which means that they easily escape contemporary history. In the inter-war period, competition arose from political organizations of predominantly right-wing origins ( Heimwehr , Landbund , Vaterländische Front ) and later also National Socialist organizations ( SA , SS , Hitler Youth ); the socialist movements ( Republican Schutzbund ) were also present, but of less importance as competition in the country.

The collapse of the mines was initiated by the time before and during the Second World War; the compulsory membership in the nationalist organizations and their rituals as well as the military service interrupted this rural tradition. In the 1950s, the development of the media and traffic ripped the soil from this folk culture. Personal musical skills were no longer necessary to entertain one another, and if not at home, a leisure program was available elsewhere.

At the present time attempts are being made in several places to reconnect with the mining tradition. This takes place in the form of folk dance and custom groups, which the country dances hand down, the revival of traditional customs borne by collieries or the promotion of dialect songs. The mines in the original sense were tied to a historical period that is now the past and that can often only be remembered in the form of folkloric customs.

There are still a few mines in their original form, such as the Michlbach colliery and the Schweigertsreith colliery (both from Maria Schmolln ), whose members are exclusively young, unmarried boys. The two drinking comrades still maintain the old customs such as country dancing, Maschkerer or erecting the maypole. The Hofmarker colliery in Kirchdorf am Inn has also been revived; in 2017 it erected a maypole for the first time since 1953.

literature

• Antonie Prankl: The Innviertel mines. Boyfriends, customs and rural conviviality. Ludwig Buchverlag: Munich, ISBN 3-7787-3395-8 .
• Peter Arnsdorfer, Gregor Gruber, Josef Hofweirer and Hans Stadler: “There was no other possibility than communism or Nazi.” In Andreas Maislinger: The Putsch von Lamprechtshausen. Witnesses from July 1934 report (pp. 50–65). Self-published, 1992, ISBN 3-901201-00-9 .

Web links

• Antonie Prankl: The Innviertel mines. In: Oberösterreichische Heimatblätter, 1989 , pp. 93–121, online (PDF; 5.1 MB) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Arnsdorfer, Gregor Gruber, Josef Hofweirer and Hans Stadler, 1992, p. 62.
2. ↑ Pramtaler folk dance group
3. ↑ Innviertler Maschkerer  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ What are Gstanzln?
5. ↑ mosauerin-Innviertler collieries: Mosauerin rediscovered tradition . In: mosauerin . January 11, 2018 ( mosauerin.at [accessed January 13, 2018]).