Upper bank Christmas game

The Oberuferer Christmas Game is part of a cycle of games about biblical events, so-called mystery games , as they were common in the Middle Ages . The Paradeis game , the Christmas birth game and the Dreikönig game were rediscovered and published by Karl Julius Schröer in the middle of the 19th century . They are named after the place of discovery "Oberufer" (Slovak. "Prievoz = over the bank", Hungarian. "Fõrév"), a village on the Donaufurt of the same name until 1918/20, 77% of Germans and 18% of Hungarians / Ferry station. The village was incorporated into the Slovak city of Bratislava (Pressburg) in 1946 .

The founder of anthroposophy , Rudolf Steiner , published a slightly modified version of these games and suggested performances. The teachers of the first Waldorf school introduced the presentation for their students. They are performed annually in Waldorf institutions around Christmas time by students, teachers, employees and sometimes parents or people associated with the respective institution. Outside of anthroposophical or Waldorf educational circles, however, the games in the form listed there have little significance.

Today's performances usually stick to the original text, which is written very close to the people and rhymed in one of the so-called "Danube Swabian" dialects . There is a lot of singing (solo, but also in the choir). It is typical for plays of this kind that the more serious plot is sometimes interspersed with quite coarse humor. In addition, there is the popular shift of the biblical Christmas events into a familiar environment. So complain in the Nativity play the shepherds in the field about the biting cold, slipping repeatedly on the frozen ground and try each other to steal her gloves, being neglected, that it to the original setting of the story, in Palestine , in winter certainly not freezing.

The game is preceded by an homage to the authorities and authorities, to the audience and, in a joking way, to the necessary props , such as the hat. Such homages were common in the Middle Ages with traveling showmen as well as with the guilds that staged such games.

Notes and sources

↑ Karl Julius Schröer - German Christmas Games from Ungern (Google Books)
↑ The term "Danube Swabian", which is supposed to encompass the German language islands on the Danube downstream from Preßburg ( Bratislava ), is also imprecise here. Not all Germans who emigrated along the Danube in so-called Ulmer Schachteln come from Swabia. The Oberuferer games have been handed down in one of the Bavarian dialects that can most likely be assigned to Lower Austrian ( reading sample ).
↑ Thank you z. B. the Protestant and Catholic church administrations, which allowed the (exclusively) German players to bring the game into both denominations. This approval, which was not an everyday occurrence in the 17th century, is likely to have been directed less towards interdenominational understanding and more towards strengthening the German-speaking island in the Slovak / Hungarian environment until the 19th century.

literature

Karl Friedrich Flögel , Friedrich W. Ebeling, Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen , 1861, pp. 246-251 ( online )
Christmas games from old customs , The Oberuferer Games , ISBN 3-7274-5075-4
Karutz, Matthias , Ir liabn meini singa ... , suggestions for today's understanding of the Oberuferer Christmas games ISBN 3-8251-7152-3
Martin, Michael , Shepherds and Kings in the Oberuferer Christmas Games , ISBN 3-7235-0776-X
Laura Schmidt: Christmas Theater: On the emergence and history of a bourgeois festival and theater culture , ISBN 978-3837638714

Web links

[1] Karl Julius Schröer - German Christmas Games from Ungern (Google Books)

[2] The term "Danube Swabian", which is supposed to encompass the German language islands on the Danube downstream from Preßburg ( Bratislava ), is also imprecise here. Not all Germans who emigrated along the Danube in so-called Ulmer Schachteln come from Swabia. The Oberuferer games have been handed down in one of the Bavarian dialects that can most likely be assigned to Lower Austrian ( reading sample ).

[3] Thank you z. B. the Protestant and Catholic church administrations, which allowed the (exclusively) German players to bring the game into both denominations. This approval, which was not an everyday occurrence in the 17th century, is likely to have been directed less towards interdenominational understanding and more towards strengthening the German-speaking island in the Slovak / Hungarian environment until the 19th century.