Simandl (legend)

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Simandl is a joking Bavarian - Austrian expression to denote someone who is under the slipper, d. H. Spouses who submit to the landlady.

origin

Simandl is a diminutive of Siemann: effeminate man, henpecked hero . Siemann was sometimes treated as a proper name, which resulted in a mixture with the first name Simon (from the Hebrew Simeon, often interpreted as the one who listens to [God] , then also as the one who obeys ).

Evidence can already be found in Middle High German and Middle Low German ( seman, sailor ).

Historical meanings and synonyms

In the literature of the 16th and 17th centuries, the word was very common (occasionally also: Siman, Syman; and the synonym Weibling ), but in two opposing meanings: "effeminate man" - with Martin Luther a . a. initially also "woman man" (frawenman) - and "male woman, house dragon", the latter also as she-male . The first meaning eventually caught on. In the Bavarian dialect there is also the counterpart Erwei (b) .

Literary history and other influences

Satirical marriage texts have been documented since the Middle Ages, for example Daz buoch from the evil wîbe from the 13th century. As a clichéd literary figure, the Siemann appears for the first time in the Nuremberg poem A beautiful history of how a young companion should weiben from 1515. He has been and remains - in both meanings - in moral sermons since the early 16th century (Luther et al .; later also Abraham a Santa Clara ), picture arches, singing sayings ( Hans Sachs ), proverbs and tracts are often present. In Schwänken, carnival games and folk plays (for example with Wolfgang Schmeltzl , Hans Sachs, Adam Schubart and others) he soon becomes a key character and a favorite figure of popular joke; he is often referred to as "Brother / Master / Doctor Siman".

In the meaning of "dominant woman" (A Schubart 1565: Hauszteuffel ; also particularly pronounced as a type in Johann Sommer's marriage satire Malus Mulier , 1608), the Old High German nickname Siguman (= victory + man) may also play a role. In the New Testament understanding of the name, a Greek origin (from Gr. Simós snub-nosed) also contributed. A similar process can also be observed in English with the first and last name Simon: “In Britain there was also confusion from an early date with Anglo-Scandinavian forms of Sigmund […], a name whose popularity was reinforced at the Conquest by the Norman form Simund. This confusion is also found in other languages, eg Italian. "

The meaning “Siemann = pantoffelheld” finally becomes the southern German diminutive Simandl (as a surname in several variants) and finds its way into the stage works of playwrights such as Nestroy and Anzengruber, who are still well-known today . But Simandl is also an old Bavarian pet form for Simon; this is also used to explain words in folk etymology.

Simandl brotherhoods

In 1517 Siegmund von Dietrichstein - Governor of Lower Austria - founded a brotherhood whose goal was moderation and which, based on his name, was soon jokingly called the Simandl Brotherhood. As a result, numerous Simandl brotherhoods (and, as the St. Simon Society, even in Paris!) With humorous and parodic statutes were founded, especially in Vienna and Lower Austria; they also issued satirical Simandl letters to admonish their members. They finally had their headquarters in Krems (first documented mention in 1747). The Krems Brotherhood lasted until the end of the 19th century. There were already a myriad of them in March. At the beginning of the 19th century, two publications appeared (the history and statutes of the world-famous Simandl brotherhood and the new legal order for violators of domestic duties). The first of these was called the Simandl patent and kept the censorship authorities busy. The second worked against it and showed well-meaning moral tendencies. Nevertheless, like the first, it was banned or at least severely restricted in its distribution. In addition, Emperor Franz decreed: If the Simandl brotherhood really exists, it must be put to an end after all fraternities with a name have been banned.

Say

The Simandl Fountain in Krems an der Donau

Folk etymological reinterpretations eventually led to the emergence of folk tales: In Krems, the name was derived from a Simon Handl who is said to have been particularly badly mistreated by his wife, whereupon he joined forces with fellow sufferers to form the Simandl brotherhood. Since then, this society has met every year on Simonimarkt Days (October 28) and brought rich gifts for their wives with them in order to buy themselves free from further abuse.

According to a second version, the Krems women had proven themselves braver and more successful than the men in a siege by the Bohemian insurgents in 1619; The women then mockingly founded the Simandl brotherhood for their men in order to secure long-term female supremacy.

This, of course, blatantly contradicts the fact that the Simandlbrunnen was built in Krems on the allegedly 400th anniversary of the foundation: It shows a man kneeling pleadingly in front of his wife. There are similar wells in other places in Lower Austria.

A third version is the legend of seven small brothers ("sim Mandln" = seven little men) who formed the first Simandl brotherhood and thus became the core of a large male society in order to encourage one another, to comfort and to be patient admonish.

Simandl balls

Today, especially in rural areas, there are still numerous Simandl balls with roles reversed between men and women according to the old motto of the “upside down world”.

Name variants

The variants Siemandl, Siemandel, Siemantel, Simondl, Symondl and Siemondel appear for the surname Simandl in Europe and the USA. They all go back to the Siemann and the name Simon, whose understanding is ultimately nourished from several sources (see Section 3).

In addition, there are more than a hundred other derivatives for the name Simon - from Italian Simeoni, Simonetti to French Simonett, Russian Semyonov, Hungarian Simonffy etc. to German Siemens, Ziems and numerous Slavic variants in German such as Schimonek, Schiementz, Simmig and many others .

Well-known namesake

Franz Simandl (1840–1912), Austrian double bass player and music teacher

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Lexers mhd. Hand dictionary.
    Simon . In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm : German Dictionary .
  2. ↑ Gustav Goedel: Etymological dictionary of the German seaman's language . Kiel & Leipzig 1902
  3. ↑ Nikola Rossbach: [ http://www.nikola-rossbach.de/?forschung:aufs%E4tze The woman, the man. Gender shifts in the Malus Mulier texts of the 17th and 18th centuries . In: Gaby Pailer, Franziska Schößler (eds.): Gender play spaces: drama, theater, performance and gender . Rodopi, Amsterdam, New York, 2011, pp. 283-296
  4. ↑ Comoedia of the wedding Cana Galilee, 1543: “Preütigam zu Symon: Do sit down with the women You only want to submit to the women you take the Symon and just wait diligently out So he reads you his master in the house "
  5. ↑ [1]  ( 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. see Siemen, Siemens, u. a .: Siman (around 900), Syman (1450/51)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.deutsche-nachnamen.de  
  6. ^ The Oxford Names Companion, Oxford University Press 2002
  7. ^ [2] Friedrich Wilhelm Schembor, Influencing Opinion through Censorship and Printing Promotion in the Napoleonic Era, Habsburg digital, Volume 1, p. 89
  8. ^ The St. Simon Society in Paris. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 39, 1831, Miszelle 36, p. 236.
  9. ^ [3] The new AEIOU Austria Lexicon
  10. ^ [4] Constant von Wurzbach , Glimpf and Schimpf in Spruch und Wort - Linguistic and moral historical aphorisms, Part 2
  11. ↑ Andrea Brandner-Kapfer (ed.): Kasperls comical heirs . 2001, note 64,36.
  12. ↑ Friedrich Wilhelm Schembor: opinion influence of censorship and pressure pumping in the Napoleonic era . Habsburg digital, Volume 1, p. 89
  13. ^ Karl Gustaf Andresen: About German folk etymology . Heilbronn a / N., 1883, p. 71
  14. ↑ Hans Plöckinger : Legends of the Wachau . Krems a. D. 1926
  15. ↑ City tour - Simandlbrunnen, Untere Landstrasse, Wegscheid . Website of the municipality of Krems, accessed on September 14, 2015.
  16. ^ Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander: Siemanndelbruderschaft . In: Deutsches Sprich emphasis-Lexikon, accessed on September 14, 2015.
  17. ↑ Last name: Siemandl . The Internet Surname Database, accessed September 14, 2015.
    The Oxford Names Companion, sv