Vincke house inscription circle

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The Vincke House Inscription Circle was a research group that carried out important studies on research into house inscriptions in Lower Saxony . Its aim is to explain the folkloric, social, mental and cultural significance of such inscriptions on gates, beams and gables, over doors and entrances. It is named after the church historian Johannes Vincke . The publications of the members of the Vincke House Inscription Circle have provided many fundamental insights into the inscription culture itself, but also with regard to the appropriate scientific handling of such inscriptions.

Objectives and members of the research group

The research group named after its founder Johannes Vincke (1892–1975) was brought into being in the second half of the 1940s in order to “ systematically process the topic of house inscriptions, which is equally interesting for folklore and theology ”. Under the direction of the Freiburg university professor Johannes Vincke - the church historian was also the founder of the Institute for Religious Folklore at the Theological Faculty of the University of Freiburg (1946) - the two pastors Johannes Thomes , Anton Tumbrägel and the journalist who probably joined in the winter of 1949/50 devoted themselves Joachim Widera of the scientific investigation of sayings and inscriptions on houses, driveways and gables (see also the article Hausspruch ), as you can still find them in many places throughout the German-speaking area.

From the footnote of a work by Vincke's house inscriptions published in 1948 - it holds out the prospect of a more extensive investigation into the house inscriptions of the Osnabrück core area and southern Oldenburg - it appears that at this point in time there was already a clear division of tasks among the members of the Vincke house inscription group :

  • Johannes Thomes was supposed to work on the church-historical dimension of house inscription culture in the Osnabrück region .
  • Anton Tumbrägel was responsible for the aspect of religious folklore in the house inscriptions of the Oldenburger Münsterland .
  • Joachim Widera was to research the Südoldenburg house inscriptions largely from the perspective of German studies.

Like other members of the research group, however, Widera also became aware in the course of his thorough preparatory work that the original approach could not succeed without the inclusion of fundamental ethnological issues. Because despite the clear division of tasks, numerous methodological, analytical and content-related difficulties arose in the course of the scientific examination of the house inscriptions. This repeatedly forced them to modify original analytical approaches, in some cases to expand them fundamentally, to rethink the methodology or to have to make completely new assessments in terms of content.

Research activity

The inscription research by Johannes Vincke

Johannes Vincke had already studied the house inscriptions of his Westphalian homeland for a long time, especially those of his home parish Belm. In 1939, his article “Inscriptions in the service of genealogy” (1939) was printed in the house calendar for the Diocese of Osnabrück. In it he still speaks of the fact that it is possible to gain important folklore and family history with the help of the house inscriptions in order to be able to better understand "the world of the ancestors".

Typical building inscription

In 1948 the work "The house inscriptions of the parish of Belm" followed - a fundamental introduction to the house inscriptions of the Osnabrück region. It proves the close connection between the type of construction and the occurrence of the house inscriptions (the house as the inscription body). The decorative and symbolic signs are analyzed in detail and a first differentiation of the characters is made: The building inscription contains the particularly important original components of a house inscription, while the sayings, according to Johannes Vincke, are always an expression of human experiences and insights.

In 1956 a study was published, largely devoted to the Christian IHS monogram, which Vincke also reads as a “clear mirror of popular history”.

Johannes Thomes investigation of the church-historical statements of house inscriptions

The research results of Pastor Johannes Thomes , who died in 1955, have only been handed down in fragments in the form of fair copies and drafts for a planned dissertation. However, the typescripts and handwritten documents that have been preserved, which have since been made available to the interested public as reprints from Johannes Thomes' estate, indicate that the preparatory work for the planned dissertation had progressed quite well.

A smaller part of the inscriptions to which Thomes refers he has directly, i.e. H. collected by hand by precisely documenting the inscriptions by hand. However, he had the much larger part compiled by someone else (indirect method) by writing to teachers who then mostly commissioned students to document house inscriptions according to a given grid - with the associated disadvantage of inaccuracy in the transfer. Overall, one can say about Thomes' work: "Thorough field studies preceded the overall investigation and evaluation of the house inscriptions in the examined areas, which Thomes then meticulously listed before he ventured into evaluations, conclusions and detailed analyzes."

Through a longitudinal study of the occurrence, dating and "frequency of sayings in comparison of the individual offices and priests with each other", Thomes first gained important insights into the characteristics and culture of house inscriptions, the importance of external influencing factors in the formulation of the inscriptions.

Anton Tumbrägel's folklore study of house inscriptions in the Oldenburger Münsterland

Unlike Johannes Vincke, Anton Tumbrägel came to the fundamental insight that house inscriptions can be divided into different groups of slogans. An important result of his investigation is the realization that many inscriptions apparently seem to be under the sign of an elementary need for human protection. An essential distinguishing feature between the pre-Christian and Christian inscriptions is, "whether the banishing effect on the evil spirits should be achieved by a magical power inherent in the sign or if it is implored by God." Many of the South Oldenburg inscriptions are clearly in the sign of the Our Father's request "Your will will happen". What is particularly remarkable about Tumbrägel's work is the systematic representation of the inscriptions examined in temporal and spatial arrangement, as well as the cultural-historical classification and explanation of the associated change in content, which is also shown here for the first time in a schematic overview.

Anton Tumbrägel worked for Johannes Vincke at the Institute for Religious Folklore during his studies in Freiburg . Probably on the advice of Vincke, Tumbrägel published two first folklore essays on the “attitude to life” in house inscriptions as early as 1950 and 1957. In these he traces the question of whether and to what extent 'modern' trends (such as secularization ) are also reflected in house inscriptions: New and foreign - such as the emphasis on plaice and courtyard - will not, according to Tumbragel Adopted without criticism, but rather brought to a 'new' synthesis based on existing values ​​and (Christian-influenced) basic attitudes. Even more important and more fundamental for the subsequent research on house inscriptions, however, is the monograph "House inscriptions of the Oldenburger Münsterland" published in 1959, in which Tumbrägel succeeds in embedding the house slogan and house inscription tradition thoroughly in cultural history and from then on as a "pioneer of house inscription research in Oldenburg Münsterland ”.

Joachim Widera: Possibilities and Limits of Folklore Interpretation of House Inscriptions

For Joachim Widera , too , the division of the examined inscriptions into subject groups is imperative in order to “clearly organize the variety of manifestations of the house inscriptions”, to compare them with others based on criteria in order to be able to interpret them historically and in terms of content. Widera introduces three main categories of house inscriptions - based on and the further development of Anton Tumbrägel's content grouping of the slogan groups: building inscription , slogan ( house slogan ) and signs . In a further step of - in terms of content - differentiation, he then distills nine subject groups :

  1. Building inscriptions (with building sayings)
  2. Protective sayings (with petitions and blessings)
  3. Sayings of trust (trust in God, surrender to God's wise will)
  4. Praise (praise to God and saints)
  5. Envy inscriptions (rejection; warding off evil)
  6. Sayings of wisdom (general, religious, eschatological)
  7. Virtue inscriptions (fear of God, morals)
  8. Branding inscriptions
  9. Varia ("miscellaneous")

According to Tumbrägel, some of the inscriptions still have clear references to pre-Christian times in terms of symbolism and decoration, which - according to a view of Widera, which is borne out by numerous examples - indicates an existential and therefore cross-cultural need for protection, as it can be found in pre-Christian periods as well as in the Christian era. Inscriptions changed over time. This happened both “in terms of form and content”, whereby in a temporal view it changed more clearly within the underlying thoughts than was the case in the form.

Based on this, Widera explains that the house inscriptions can certainly be viewed as a “mirror” of the time of their creation. Based on a thorough evaluation of the corresponding house inscriptions and sayings, he suggests the following periodization:

  • From the beginning of the modern era to the end of the Thirty Years' War, “Proverbs of serious faith and life” (approx. 1453–1648) dominated.
  • Between 1650 and the end of the 18th century, the influence of cosmopolitan and moralizing forms of thought increased (pietism, the idea of ​​compensation).
  • New deep religious forms in the inscriptions between 1800 and 1830 are attributed to the failure of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars, but also to reformatory and enlightenment efforts.
  • The period up to 1870 is - similar to the fine arts - characterized by a variety of forms of expression, which stand under the "sign of dissolution, of transition" to new forms of life.
  • After 1870, the culture of inscriptions lost its importance and value - phases of the revival of the old customs (1900, 1930, 1945) hardly changed that.

According to Widera, regional or temporally conditioned inscriptions allow important conclusions to be drawn about “common mentalities in thinking, feeling and believing”. whereby inscriptions in rural areas usually differ very clearly from urban ones.

House inscription culture today

Today's way of designing house inscriptions and the self-image it expresses has little in common with the inscriptions of earlier years. Anton Tumbrägel points to this in the essay “Inscription Culture and Criticism of Time” from 1999, where he draws attention to the change from previously predominantly Christian ideas to secular and personal content that is characteristic of today's inscriptions: “They show more self-confidence on the part of the writer and are worded more individually ”. Joachim Widera also addresses this connection when he states that people's attitudes today differ significantly from the customs of earlier times: What the request for protection was supposed to do in the past is now done by the lightning rod, what was once supposed to guarantee blessings, protection and defense is today often just a decoration.

literature

  • The house inscription research of Anton Tumbrägel and Joachim Widera. Good friends and important inscription researchers In: Yearbook for the Oldenburger Münsterland 2015 , pp. 152–172.
  • Eaten early: Johannes Thomes and his important collection of inscriptions from the Osnabrücker Land In: Heimat-Jahrbuch Osnabrücker Land 2016. pp. 162–171.
  • Theodor Tebbe: stroke of luck inscription. A contribution to the research of house inscriptions in the Oldenburger Münsterland. Dinklage 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-023329-6 .
  • Theodor Tebbe: The Vincke house inscription circle. Life and work of Johannes Vincke, Johannes Thomes, Anton Tumbrägel and Joachim Widera. 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-049296-9 .
  • Johannes Thomes: Church-historical statements of the house inscriptions of the Osnabrück country. Typescripts and documents for the lost "doctoral thesis" ed. by Theodor Tebbe. 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-049746-9 .
  • Anton Tumbrägel: Peasantry and Zeitgeist. In: Home calendar for the Oldenburger Münsterland. Vechta 1957.
  • Anton Tumbrägel: House inscriptions of the Oldenburger Münsterland. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. 1959, pp. 1-56.
  • Anton Tumbrägel: House inscriptions of our homeland - wishes and wisdom on door beams. In: Volkstum und Landschaft. Home pages of the Münsterländische Tageszeitung 1971, p. 8.
  • Anton Tumbrägel: “House Inscriptions”, “Chronograms”. In: Oldenburg, a reference work on local history. Association of Education and Upbringing (ed.), Revised edition, Löningen 1999.
  • Johannes Vincke: The house inscriptions of the parish Belm. Osnabrück 1948.
  • Johannes Vincke: Bibliography of the Westphalian house inscriptions. In: Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde. 1963, pp. 99-118.
  • Johannes Vincke: The Westphalian house inscriptions in the mirror of their literature. Reprint from: Westfälische Zeitschrift 1967, pp. 297–327.
  • Joachim Widera: Possibilities and Limits of Folklore Interpretation of House Inscriptions. Frankfurt a. M. 1990, ISBN 3-631-43023-X .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Widera 1990, SI
  2. ^ Widera 1990 SI, Theodor Tebbe (2015)
  3. ↑ Vincke 1967, p. 326, cf. Tebbe (2015) p. 106 and Widera 1990, p. II.
  4. ↑ For more information, see Theodor Tebbe (2015), pp. 106ff
  5. ↑ Vincke 1939, p. 81.
  6. ↑ Dirk Meyer (Der Belmer Kesselhaken No. p. 27) regards this document as a “comprehensive guide for house inscription research”.
  7. ↑ Examples in Tebbe (2015), p. 20 ff.
  8. ↑ cf. Tebbe (2015), pp. 22-24.
  9. ↑ Johannes Thomes (2015): Church history statements of the house inscriptions of the Osnabrück region. Typescripts and documents for the lost "doctoral thesis" ed. by Theodor Tebbe.
  10. ↑ In more detail, Theodor Tebbe (2015), p. 29 f, reconstructs the chronology of the Thomes estate, there also an appreciation of the central research results by Thomes, pp. 47–62.
  11. ↑ Tebbe (2015), p. 47.
  12. ↑ Tebbe (2015), p. 75.
  13. ↑ Tebbe (2015), p. 78.
  14. ↑ cf. The house inscription research by Anton Tumbrägel and Joachim Widera (2015), p. 160
  15. ↑ Tebbe (2015), pp. 73ff
  16. ↑ cf. Widera (1990), p. 103 ff.
  17. ↑ cf. on this Widera (1990) pp. 190-193, pp. 198f, also pp. 233-236
  18. ↑ Widera (1990), pp. 103-108
  19. ↑ Theodor Tebbe (2015) p. 125
  20. ↑ Widera (1990) p. 300f, cf. also the examples in Thomes (2015)
  21. ↑ Tumbrägel (1999), p. 275
  22. ↑ Widera (1990), p. 7, p. 16f