Hunting customs
The hunting tradition describes the sum of traditional habits and practices in hunting , the hunters among themselves and during the hunting exercise. It should not be confused with, or reduced to, woe justice , which is, however, part of it.
Hunting language and the hunting greeting
The care and use of the hunter language as civil language and terminology is common practice among hunters and is considered a matter of course. It should be avoided towards non-hunters present so that the impression of an inappropriate delimitation does not arise. As a minimum, terms that are not self-explanatory have to be “translated”. Hunters greet and say goodbye to each other with "Waidmannsheil". The hunter responds with “Waidmannsdank” when the “Waidmannsheil” is used as a congratulation for the prey. Likewise, the hunter always replies with "Waidmannsdank" to the "Waidmannsheil" of a non-hunter.
If a comrade is honored in a group of hunters or the Assembly for a round of drinks thanks, one is Waidgeschrei intoned: One shouts " Horrido " and the group responds with a loud "Johoo". It is yelled three times. Usually a common chant follows the line: "A Horrido, a Horrido, a Waidmannsheil, ...".
Hunter's Latin
The hunter's Latin includes stories and narratives, the content of which is conceivable, but incorrect. They have a funny, anecdotal character, but must never be a lie. The untruth must remain recognizable fly out of the building ... ").
Hunting clothing
The hunter wears hunting clothing and a hat or other headgear for hunting and representative gatherings. If hunting trophies are attached to this headgear , it goes without saying that they come from game you have killed yourself, as you do not adorn yourself with “foreign feathers”.
Today, when hunting , the hunter usually wears clothing that is oriented more towards practical requirements than custom. The traditional loden has lost its importance compared to modern functional clothing. For safety reasons, high-visibility clothing or at least a high-visibility vest is worn for company hunts in order to comply with the regulations of the employers' liability insurance association . Hunting camouflage clothing is now widespread among younger hunters, but is rejected by many older hunters because it creates a military-negative impression towards non-hunters.
Hunting signals and hunter's songs
At the beginning of a joint hunt, the signals "Welcome" and "Departure for the hunt" are usually blown. Blowing signals with the hunting horn during the hunt is becoming less and less important today. Mobile phones or two-way radio take over communication during the hunt. In many areas the noise level from the environment is now so high that the hunting horn signals, which can be heard from far away, are no longer sufficient. They are also used by many hunters, e.g. B. drivers, no longer understood. At the end of the hunt, the route is blown with the "dead signals" for the corresponding game species, as well as "end of the hunt" or "Halali".
Hunting music and hunter's songs are blown and sung, especially when playing the bowls (the participants eat together) and on hunter evenings.
Choirs and student hunting associations maintain the tradition of hunting songs, also as choir singing with horn accompaniment.
Fractions
The fraction signs, insofar as they are used as a means of communication, are nowadays replaced by many hunters with forestry routing tapes (colored tapes, mostly made of paper). Using them in their original form is not only appropriate to the needs of the population, but also has advantages in terms of environmental protection . When the hunting master hands a successful shooter the shooter's break, it is handed over on the hat or the blade of the hunting knife and stuck on the hat by the recipient.
Behavior towards hunted game
A piece of game should not only be viewed by the hunter as a handcrafted, cleanly hunted animal, which in the legal sense is no longer just a thing, but he should be aware of his responsibility that he has decided about life and is involved in the " red work " has to supply valuable food. There are also customary regulations for “ breaking open ” (eviscerating) animals, but these are only followed today where they cannot be discarded for reasons of meat hygiene .
Especially in the case of company hunts after the end of the hunt, this idea of responsibility corresponds to laying the course and honoring the game with the appropriate hunting signals . The game is placed on the right side of the body in a specific order. Each hunted animal is given a break , usually a spruce branch with which it is decorated. Increasingly, the route is no longer laid as a whole, but only symbolically one piece per game species. The course area is usually lit with fires or torches, all those involved in the hunt are present. After the announcement of what has been shot, each animal species is "blown" with a "death signal" on the hunting horn and the hunter gives the hunter a break with "Waidmannsheil", which he sticks to his hunter's hat. The hunting horn signals “ Hunt over ” and “ Halali ” conclude.
Bowl driving and hunting court
At the end of a party hunt , in particular a driven hunt , the hunters, drivers and dog handlers eat together, the so-called bowl driving (regionally, e.g. in southern Germany also dumpling bows ). A hunting tribunal is often called up to “punish” hunters, drivers and dog handlers who have violated the customs. The penalties usually consist of drinks and harmless jokes. Corporal punishments, such as hitting the bare bottom with the woad leaf , a large hunting knife, are no longer common. The hunting court can also honor honors for exemplary behavior. A violation of security regulations, however, is not the subject of the negotiation.
Aside from the penalties, objects such as the woad leaf are also used to attract newcomers, e.g. B. Include young hunters in the circle. In addition to the blow to the hunter (cf. accolade ), this initiation rite used to take on degrading features in some places (e.g. fetching objects, drinking spirits through gun barrels).
Superstition
Hunting superstition still plays a role. Example: An even number of cartridges, taken on the hunt, is sure to ensure that it is unsuccessful. So the hunter of white game will die within a year, but have at least seven years of bad luck. The wild hunt also counts among hunting superstitions.
Hunting tradition and customs in the GDR
The hunt in the GDR , propagated by the SED as “people's hunt ”, was divided into a public and a secret hunting system. The SED leadership secured special rights for hunting in specially designated areas and set up diplomatic hunts and elaborate hunting events with industrial delegations, for example in the Schorfheide . The hunting and forestry in the GDR, which in some respects seemed quite feudal, preserved a whole range of hunting traditions including specific uniforms and music. The hobby rituals, which were frowned upon at the beginning, were not dispensed with for purely practical reasons (e.g. signaling). In 1976, our hunt was encouraged to "embed the heathen manners and customs in the socialist hunting culture". Customs were given a socialist tinge by ceasing to thematize the origins of traditional actions. Instead, bowl driving was justified with an “educational value, which primarily serves to strengthen the collective” and new hunter customs such as competitions for increased safety in hunting were introduced.
In addition to the state-owned forest companies, the most important church forest enterprises in the GDR had their own costumes and badges. Likewise, the title of forest master was awarded to deserving wind group leaders, even if they were not active in forestry.
literature
Scientific literature
- Katrin Josephine Wagner: The language of the hunters - A comparison of the Weidmann language in German and English-speaking countries (= forum for technical language research . Volume 143). Frank & Timme, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-7329-0455-6 .
- Jean L. Manore, Dale Miner: The Culture of Hunting in Canada . University of British Columbia Press (UBC Press), 2011, ISBN 9780774840064 .
- Dennis Ray Cutchins, Dennis A. Cutchins, Eric Alden Eliason: Wild Games: Hunting and Fishing Traditions in North America . Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2009, ISBN 9781572336704 .
Other non-fiction
- Georg Kurzbauer: hats on or hats off? Hunting customs, culture & tradition . Österreichischer Jagd- und Fischerei-Verlag, Vienna 2002, 101 pp.
- Karl Lemke, Franz Stoy: Hunting customs . 3rd, revised edition. Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1985, 172 pp.
- Benedikt Hebenstreit: Hunting customs in the past and present . Hubertusverlag, Vienna 1977, 94 pages, ISBN 3-85370-065-9 .
- Walter Frevert : Hunting customs and hunting language . Kosmos, Stuttgart 2007, 262 pages, ISBN 978-3-440-11034-8 or ISBN 3-440-11034-6 .
- Bruno Hespeler : Hunter where? A critical look at German forage . BLV, Munich, Vienna and Zurich 1990, 328 pages, ISBN 3-405-13876-0 .
- Ilse Haseder , Gerhard Stinglwagner : Knaur's large hunting dictionary . Augsburg 2000, keyword: Customs, ISBN 3-8289-1579-5 .
- Carl Zeiss, Fritz Dobschova: Lexicon of the hunter's language and other subject areas of the hunt. Game biology, game diseases, game preservation, hunting operations, hunting policy, hunting customs, weapon technology, ammunition science, gunnery, hunting optics, hunting dogs, falconry and much more. VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1996, 285 pages, ISBN 3-928127-37-3 .
Web links
- Bruno Hespeler: When customs were still useful . In: Deutsche Jagdzeitung , issue 11/2007 ( Memento from June 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joseph von Eichendorff: Who has you beautiful forest: [1]
- ↑ GG Art. 20a
- ↑ Haseder p. 448, keyword Jägeraberlaube
- ↑ Meike Haselmann: The Hunt in the GDR: Between Feudalism and Socialism , 2005.
- ^ Forestry of the Eastern Evangelical Churches: between 1945 and 1991 . Fred Ruchhöft, BoD - Books on Demand, 2012.
- ↑ General forest journal . Volume 43, issues 27-53, Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag, 1988.