Mühlhiasl

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Hunderdorf, entrance to the village

The Mühlhiasl was an alleged soothsayer and prophet from the Bavarian Forest . His name does not appear in any contemporary document, his name was probably Matthäus Lang , Mathias Lang or Matthias Lang , according to other information Johann Lang (born September 16, 1753 or April 28, 1755 , † 1805 in Straubing , 1809 in Rabenstein or 1825 in Hunderdorf ). He was also called the forest prophet . The identity of the man is extremely controversial due to the lack of clear sources, but his life and work are considered likely.

Life

Mühlhiaslweg, to the mill in Apoig
Mill in Apoig
Windberg Monastery via Hunderdorf-Apoig
Mühlhiasl memorial plaque in Apoig at the Sandbiller inn

The Mühlhiasl is said to have lived in Apoig (today belonging to the municipality of Hunderdorf , district of Straubing-Bogen ) and to have been the fifth child of the mill tenant Mathias Lang and his wife Maria (hence the name). On December 23, 1778, Matthäus Lang is said to have taken over this upper monastery mill , which was subject to interest payments to the monks of the Windberg monastery . On August 19, 1788, Lang married the farmer's daughter Barbara Lorenz from Racklberg and had a total of eight children with her, who were born between 1789 and 1800 (some died in childhood). In 1799, Lang got into economic difficulties, had to take out a loan from the monastery that he could not repay in 1801, lost his lease and had to leave the mill property. He is said to have made his first public prophecy out of anger at the canons , with whom he is said to have fallen out over the delivery of allegedly spoiled flour: the monks would soon have to leave their monastery themselves. That was actually the case with the secularization in Bavaria in 1803 , the monastery was dissolved and used as accommodation for the needy.

There are few written sources about the further life of Matthäus Lang. It is possible that he separated from his family and moved through the Bavarian Forest as a migrant worker and day laborer. According to (unreliable) oral tradition, he is said to have often stayed in the village of Rabenstein in the Zwieseler Winkel . This raised the suspicion that it could have been two people with alleged visionary skills who lived around the same time, namely on the one hand Matthäus Lang from Hunderdorf and on the other hand the forester Matthias Stormberger from Rabenstein. Mühlhiasl -biographer Manfred Böckl advocates the thesis that "Stormberger" is the High German version of "Stoaberger" and that Matthäus Lang was described as such in the Rabensteiner dialect, as a man from the Steinberg lordship in the Vorwald region . He worked as a coal burner in a local glassworks and looked after the cattle of the forest farmers on high pastures.

Lang was presumably already an eccentric at the time, who was often out and about in the great outdoors because of his professional activity. In the absence of sources, it is not possible to assess the extent to which he lived as a loner or had contact with the local population. What is certain is that he uttered all of his "prophecies" orally, probably to shepherds, servants and farmers in the area. He is said to have had real attacks in which he spoke to his audience as if in delirium. Because of his lifelong quarrels with the church authorities, he is said to have been buried outside of the former Zwiesel cemetery, on today's town square, roughly where the war memorial is located.

Speculation about identity

The wife of Matthäus Lang, Barbara b. Lorenz, ran a nursery in Straubing with a Mathias Lang. The fact that both men had the same name with different spelling led to the speculation of the Frauenau folklorist Reinhard Haller that Mühlhiasl never existed. Mathias Lang from Straubing died in 1805. Barbara geb. However, according to the entries in the list of residents of Straubing, Lorenz was always listed alone and only officially referred to as a widow from 1809, from which Manfred Böckl deduces that Mathias Lang was not her husband and that her actual (separated) husband, Matthäus Lang, who may be co-owner of the Nursery was, died in 1809 in Rabenstein. Pastor Johann Evangelist Landstorfer argued in an article in the Straubinger Tageblatt of February 28, 1923 for another spelling of the name: Matthias Lang. The local researcher Sigurd Gall takes the view that it was more about Johann Lang, who died in July 1825 according to the parish register of the Hunderdorf parish. The former Straubing school principal Wolfgang Odzuck assumes this identity and claims in his detailed "factual survey" that Mühlhiasl was a Christian prophet in the biblical tradition and had "divine inspirations", a view that sparked a violent controversy in Lower Bavarian homeland research provided ("theological heresy").

Prophecies

As with many other visionaries, the Mühlhiasl's prophecies were ambiguous and symbolic. Many are provided with the suggestive suffix: “Nobody wants to believe it.” His best-known predictions are probably those of a coming “last” war, which he called the time of “clearing the banks”. The time before this war should be recognizable by various signs that he only vaguely indicated, but with strong visuals, and therefore stimulated the imagination of the audience and those who were born afterwards. The attempts to relate these predictions from closer and further distance to actual events are numerous, as is its appropriation by esoteric literature .

  • "When the iron dog barks through the Vorderwald (the great war begins)"
  • "When you can no longer distinguish between summer and winter"
  • "When there are only red house roofs"
  • "If you never recognize Mandl and Weibl (men and women) from each other (can distinguish externally)" (women no longer wear skirts, but mainly pants and have short haircuts)
  • "When the ravens' heads (head shape like crows) appear and then slowly disappear again" (hairstyle: short at the front, long at the back, hair over the ears)
  • "When dance music comes to the churches and the pastor sings along, then the time has come" (American gospel music in Catholic churches to increase the number of visitors to Holy Mass)
  • "When a big fish flies over the forest"
  • "Monotonous money comes up"
  • "The last war will be the bank cleaner"

After this war a second is to come and a third. Then a “ golden age ” should follow. The Mühlhiasl is also said to have predicted the approximate beginning of the two world wars. The widespread death of the weakened trees of the Bavarian forest is also said to have been predicted:

  • "The forest will be as light as the beggar's rock" (many holes in contiguous forest areas due to tree disease / bark beetles, which from the air looks like the torn clothes of a vagabond)

He is also said to have expressed himself politically and socially critical:

  • "It will show that the beggar man on the horse is not to be ridden" (disadvantaged sections of the population come to power (on the saddle of the horse) and take advantage of this and no longer give up this position)

It can no longer be proven whether the prophecies ever existed literally or even in essence. During the lifetime of the Mühlhiasl, the inhabitants of the Bavarian Forest were particularly superstitious and devoted to mysticism because of the seclusion of the area and the harsh living conditions . The romanticism that began around 1800 transfigured such outsiders and eccentrics. The alleged life of Matthäus Lang fulfills all the stereotypes of romantic literature: The father is said to have been a miller, the Mühlhiasl left the mill, broke with society, went into the forest, became a shepherd and coal burner and was in contact with supernatural powers. Similar motifs can be found numerous in the novels and fairy tales by Adelbert von Chamisso , ETA Hoffmann , Wilhelm Hauff , Joseph von Eichendorff , Ludwig Tieck and other romantic authors.

The stories of Mühlhiasl , which are probably also fabulously decorated, are still being told , and almost everyone in the region knows some quotes that are attributed to him. Old farmers and lumberjacks still show respect and faith for the Mühlhiasl - whether it existed or not - while critics suspect that many of the prophecies that have come about are vaticinia ex eventu , i.e. legends knitted afterwards.

literature

Fiction

Non-fiction

Essays

  • Winfried Baumann: Scare your readers like yourself. Of the sense and nonsense of the Mühlhiasl sayings . In: Heimat Ostbayern , Vol. 8 (1993), pp. 116-122.
  • Sigurd Gall: Critical comments on the Mühlhiasl book by Wolfgang Odzuck . In: Mitterfelser Magazin , No. 9 (2003), pp. 132-136.
  • Sigurd Gall: The clearing of the world of Mühlhiasl and Armageddon of the Bible. Thoughtful notes on an amazing parallelism . In: Mitterfelser Magazin, No. 13 (2007), pp. 118–120.
  • Franz Krojer: Perpetual Mühlhiasl . In: A summer in the Gäuboden, Munich 2006 (difference publisher). ( PDF version )
  • Fritz Markmiller: Mühlhiasl is dead - long live Mühlhiasl research. Notes on Reinhard Haller's "Lang" book . In: Heimat Ostbayern , Vol. 8 (1993), pp. 122–123.

Movie

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The date for Matthäus Lang is documented by an entry in the baptismal register of the Premonstratensian Monastery of Windberg northeast of Straubing
  2. ↑ Johann Lang's date of birth according to http://www.hunderdorf.de/index.php?id=291,27
  3. ↑ Manfred Böckl: Der Mühlhiasl: His Prophecies - His knowledge of earth rays, places of power and holy places. His hidden life , Amberg 1998, p. 6
  4. ↑ Manfred Böckl: Der Mühlhiasl: His Prophecies - His knowledge of earth rays, places of power and holy places. His hidden life , Amberg 1998, p. 7
  5. ↑ Manfred Böckl: Der Mühlhiasl: His Prophecies - His knowledge of earth rays, places of power and holy places. His hidden life , Amberg 1998, p. 9
  6. ↑ Reinhard Haller: Matthäus Lang 1753-1805 called "Mühlhiasl" - On the life and death of the "forest prophet" , Grafenau 1993
  7. ↑ a b The Mühlhiasl - a false prophet. In: sueddeutsche.de . May 17, 2010, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Manfred Odzuck: In the footsteps of Mühlhiasl: A survey of facts Straubing 2005
personal data
SURNAME Mühlhiasl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lang, Matthäus; Lang, Matthias; Lang, Matthias; Lang, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian soothsayer and prophet
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1753 or April 28, 1755
DATE OF DEATH 1805 or 1809 or 1825
Place of death Straubing or Rabenstein or Hunderdorf