The Tyrolean Wastl
| The Tyrolean Wastl | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| description | Satirical magazine |
| language | German |
| First edition | 1900 |
| attitude | 1917 |
| Frequency of publication | weekly |
| editor | Rudolf Christoph Jenny |
The Tiroler Wastl was an anti-clerical , humorous- satirical weekly that appeared from 1900 to 1917 in Innsbruck and was feared because of its sharp and unusual spelling. The editor of the paper was the writer, playwright, printer and journalist Rudolf Christoph Jenny .
Naming and foundation
The Tyrolean Wastl is the epitome of the upright and shirt-sleeved Tyrolean, who meets the highest moral standards with his upright disposition and his impeccable behavior. The fictional character created in 1796 by the playwright Emanuel Schikaneder in the eponymous singspiel was not a buffoon, but knew how to assert himself, was entrepreneurial, quick-witted and equipped with a lot of wit. It was made to be the motto of the free radical, humorous-satirical Sunday papers for politics, art and life published by Rudolf Christoph Jenny . The fact that the Wastl was also said to be suspicious of everything foreign and a passion that rose to fanaticism confirms this assessment more than it relativizes it.
Rudolf Christoph Jenny, who worked as a writer and playwright in Innsbruck and ran a printing company at Leopoldstrasse 12, acquired the first journalistic experience that enabled him to publish his own newspaper at Innsbrucker Nachrichten , where he worked as an editor for a short, but effective activity unfolded. In 1899 he took part in the satirical magazine Der Scherer , which had become an enemy for the Catholic press due to its biting satire and uncompromising German national-liberal rhetoric. Due to disagreements with its publisher Karl Habermann, it came to a break after just a few issues and Jenny founded his own magazine, the Tiroler Wastl.
The new weekly newspaper was anything but friendly received at the local newspaper market: while Jenny was preparing the first edition of the paper for March 3, 1900, a group of opponents who could be assigned to church circles had deceptively-looking prints of the Tyrolean Wastl distributed. in which it was alleged that this print product was not a press product to be taken seriously, but only a diatribe in the form of a carnival newspaper. This action hit the publisher completely unprepared, but did not achieve the desired effect, but only strengthened Jenny's determination to publish a newspaper in Tyrol based on the style of "Gumpoldskirchner Hansjörgl".
Political orientation, content and form
The Tiroler Wastl did not belong to any particular party and was nevertheless an extremely critical and controversial political magazine. Economically, the independence of the paper meant a competitive disadvantage, but on the other hand Jenny was not obliged to anyone, so that hardly any topic was taboo for him. The fact that he was loyal to the monarchy and distinguished himself from the suspicious social democratic parties and the Pan-Germans saved him from losing the concession that would have threatened if convicted of subversive activities. Most of the articles were well researched, so that those attacked by the Wastl always took a risk to get involved in a lawsuit with the publisher, who was waiting to be able to prove the truth in court.
"The Tyrolean Wastl does not want to sow discord, but to promote the good in people and to stand up against meanness and wickedness," said a well-meaning critic of the paper, but on the other hand did not hide the fact that "a rough woodcutter's fist that crashes down on the massive oak table and plays its strong trump card, in a time of modern law of the thumb, is more appropriate than polite quiet treading. "
This fist was felt especially by the Pope and with him the Catholic Church, which Jennys believed was rotten through and through. It was therefore the declared aim of the Tyrolean Wastl to expose the "black system of anti-Christian ultramontanism" and to emancipate the misled people from the "Romlingen" through educational work. The severity with which he attacked his opponents exceeded even the most aggressive gazettes of the present day. However, the Tyrolean Wastl was not to be blamed for religious hostility in the true sense of the word. Jenny herself always attached importance to the statement that he honored "Christ as a man of God". According to his own account, his struggle was not directed against the church, but only against the unworthy wearers of the priestly robe. Topics that the Tyrolean Wastl devoted himself to during his campaigns against the official church were: The Immaculate Conception of Mary, the questionable miracle of Lourdes, baptism with the help of a hollow needle when there was a risk of death of the corpse, and the haggling in the church in the Middle Ages . The Wastl did not limit himself to accusing the official church of errors in the interpretation of the holy scriptures, but also took up current scandals, such as the case of a girl who was detained in a nunnery against the will of her parents, or the sexual harassment of Minors by religious.
The reaction of conservative papers to the attacks by the Tyrolean Wastl and legal disputes
For its part, the conservative press never missed an opportunity to publicly discredit its unwelcome competitor. An article that appeared after the destruction of a wayside cross in the “New Tyrolean Voices” and in the “Tiroler Anzeiger” made particular waves. The remarkable thing about it was not the outrageous act itself, but the fact that a copy of the Tyrolean Wastl was found next to the Christ cut to pieces. The note by the editor responsible for this article that the constant hate campaigns of the Wastl had now apparently fallen on fertile ground, led to a court case in which the clerical and anti-clerical ways of thinking clashed with each other with full force. After an extremely arduous process that dragged on for three days, Jenny's lawsuit was ultimately dismissed on the grounds that a newspaper could not be insulted. Jenny was so angry at this judgment that he published the course of the process in the script: "The Black System". He did not spare criticism of the court and the jury, whom he described as incompetent. This attack on the judiciary was without consequence, but Jenny had to accept it again and again that his paper was confiscated by the public prosecutor. This was the case "several thirty times" (ie about thirty times) in the first ten years of its existence. Jenny suspected that every seizure was an extermination campaign initiated by the conservatives: “They tried to get me out of the world through constant confiscations. The priests would of course have liked it if I had stopped being and it had not been possible to keep the paper. "
Every legal proceeding against or initiated by the Tyrolean Wastl was followed with great attention by the population. The best-known personalities who crossed the legal blade with Jenny were the Innsbruck lawyer Max Kapferer, the representative of Volkshilfe Bregenz JA Greußing and the director of the Innsbruck city theater Ferdinand Arlt. The proceedings in question were - in order to prevent the litigation costs from escalating - ended after a tough legal struggle with settlements. It was common knowledge that the Tyrolean Wastl was a very unpleasant opponent in the proceedings. Even if he lost a lawsuit, the plaintiff could seldom rejoice in the victory. For example, the editor of the Christian social "Tiroler Post", whom Jenny had bluntly called a "bastard", was able to obtain the conviction of the offender, but the judge also found in his judgment that an official was through one in the plaintiff's newspaper published article was driven to suicide.
Jenny, who self-righteously noted the mistakes of others, has never thought about the consequences of his articles. This was particularly felt by the writer Carl Techet , who at the end of October 1909 triggered a literary scandal with the publication of the work "Far from Europe - Tyrol without a mask". Of all the attacks Techet had to endure, the insults in the Tyrolean Wastl were the worst. Rudolf Christoph Jenny not only called the author a "rascal of the most ordinary kind", but even considered "lynch justice" to be appropriate in his case.
The economic situation and the end of the Tyrolean Wastl
According to a contemporary report, the Tiroler Wastl managed to gain a foothold on the Tyrolean newspaper market and to acquire thousands of loyal friends within a very short time. According to recent studies, the Sunday paper is unlikely to have exceeded 800 copies at any time. The discrepancy between the two assumptions is possibly to be found in the fact that the Wastl was read more than it was bought. Jenny herself was quite right when “those who have already read the Wastl pass it on to others and let others read it who would like to but cannot buy it”. For him, it was primarily about making his concerns public, economic success was secondary to him.
As a writer and owner of a book printing company, Jenny had two other pillars that could have given him sufficient financial security. There were many reasons why he nevertheless steered against economic ruin with his “Tiroler Wastl”. One of the reasons was undoubtedly the enormous costs that the countless lawsuits incurred. The losses associated with the confiscation of entire editions did the rest to put the Wastl in financial distress. By the year 1910, Jenny's first signs of resignation were already evident: “It has annoyed me often enough that official liberalism helps me so little in my work, and I thought a tiewetamal (thought a couple of times): Hang it up Flail on the wall and don't care about anything anymore, nothing to do with yourself, because your work is really just (yes, only) for the cat! "
On the advice of his few remaining friends, however, he continued his work for a while. Three years later he handed over the reins to the old Catholic Ignaz Kutschera. When he also lost his printing company, he went to Vienna to start a new life there. But the attempt failed. Rudolf Christoph Jenny, who determined the fate of the Tyrolean Wastl for 13 years and gave the fictional character Schikaneder a new meaning, died impoverished in the Styrian capital Graz in 1917, without any special notice in Tyrol.
From 1918 the Tiroler Wastl with the title “Widerhall”, the Tyrolean weekly for politics, business life and criticism, was continued and sold by Wagner until 1922.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rudolf Christoph Jenny. In: Lexicon of literature in Tyrol.
- ↑ Innsbruck News. February 27, 1900, p. 3.
- ↑ Rudolf Greinz in the separate supplement to the Innsbrucker Nachrichten of April 14, 1900.
- ↑ The black system in court. A lively culture battle picture from the holy land of Tyrol: jury trial of the “Tiroler Wastl” Rudolf Christoph Jenny against the responsible editors of the pious papers “Tirolerimmen” and “Tiroler Anzeiger”. Digital newspaper archive Dr. Friedrich Tessmann [1]
- ↑ Innsbruck News. September 12, 1902, p. 5; March 9, 1904, p. 6; June 9, 1904, p. 4.
- ↑ Innsbruck News. October 11, 1907, p. 9.
- ↑ Rudolf Greinz in the separate supplement to the Innsbrucker Nachrichten of April 14, 1900.
- ↑ Irmgard Plattner: Fin de Siecle in Tyrol. Provincial culture and provincial society at the turn of the century. Studienverlag, 1998, ISBN 3-7065-1252-1 , p. 42.
- ↑ Tyrolean Wastl. August 21, 1910, No. 546, p. 1.