Messerln

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Messerln is a traditional game of skill that is played by two players with Trattenbacher pocket knives . The aim of the game is to first achieve 1000 points with artful knife throws. Messerln is played in around 30 free clubs, preferably in Upper and Lower Austria and the Salzburg region. In 2015, the Messerln was as part of Trattenbacher Folding Taschenfeitel generation in the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO added.

Play device Trattenbacher Taschenfeitel

Rules of the game

Originally, the knife was often played on tavern or kitchen benches or in nature on tree trunks. Today a spruce board at least 20 cm wide is used as a playing surface, on which both players sit astride, facing each other.

The play equipment, a tightly set pocket knife with a sharp, acute-angled blade is opened about 90 degrees and thrown onto the spruce board from a height of half a meter. A throw is only valid if the point of the knife gets stuck in the board. If the blade slips or the knife does not stay straight, this is considered a failed throw and the other player can make the next throw.

The winner is the player who reaches the 1000 game points first. Different technically demanding throws are assessed with a fixed number of points. Each throw must be carried out according to a special rule.

  • The ten toss (small change) is the simplest toss, whereby the V-shaped, upwardly opened knife - holding the blade with three fingers on the handle - is jerked backwards. After half a turn, the successful throw gets stuck in the game board and the player receives 10 points if the booklet is on the board at the same time. If one or more fingers can be pushed between the end of the handle of the knife and the game board, the number of fingers that fill the space count as a multiplier (e.g. three fingers, i.e. 3 times 10 points = 30 points)
  • The hundred throws (100/200/300/400/500/600/700/800/900) differ in the different starting grip postures, the number of fingers used for the throw and the number and direction of somersaults that perform a Feitl in the air got to. Some throws (the 700 and the 800 throw) are performed with a straight Feitl.
  • The Thousand Throw, also known as the winner's throw, is carried out standing up. A fully extended Feitel is placed on the top of the player's head with the blade pointing backwards and set into flight with a forward movement so that the Feitel gets stuck in the board after one or two somersaults.

Today the knife is played in tournaments in Feitlclubs. Numerous traditions have developed around the knife in the clubs. Many traditional Feitl clubs greet each other with the greeting Feitel! . In most clubs, it is compulsory to bring your own pocket watch; forgetting is punished with a contribution to the club treasury.

As a living tradition that illustrates the current use of the Trattenbacher Taschenfeitel, the knife was awarded as part of the intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO on September 23, 2015.

literature

  • Volker Derschmidt: Messerln: An almost forgotten game of skill . Ennsthaler, Steyr 1998, 13 pp.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Austrian UNESCO Commission: Trattenbacher Taschenfeitel production. Retrieved October 27, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Volker Derschmidt: In the valley of the Feitelmacher: booklet through museums and workshops - Messerln. An almost forgotten game of skill . Ed .: Museumsdorf Trattenbach. Ennsthaler, Steyr 1998, ISBN 3-85068-547-0 , p. 6-11 .
  3. ^ Thomas Jerger: Museum Village Trattenbach - Feitelmacher. In: Neues Museum - the Austrian museum magazine. Austrian Museum Association, 2014, accessed on October 27, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Application forum for intangible cultural heritage: Production of the Trattenbacher Taschenfeitels. UNESCO Commission Austria, 2015, accessed on October 27, 2019 .
  5. ^ Edith A. Weinlich, Caterina Krüger: Heritage for all: 103 traditions from Austria . 1st edition. Vienna, ISBN 978-3-85256-767-9 , pp. 44 .