Wilde Mändle dance
The Wilde Mändle dance is a tradition in Oberstdorf . It is considered the oldest cult dance in the Alpine countries, according to another opinion, it can be traced back to baroque courtly role-playing in its current form. It is performed every five years, most recently in 2015. With this dance, the Heimatverein Oberstdorf received the culture award of the Oberallgäu district in 2009 .
origin
The " Wilden-Mändle ", associated with many legends, used to be widespread across the entire Alpine region, from the Upper Savoy to the Tatras, from the Dolomites to the Harz Mountains and the Thuringian Forest.
Only in Oberstdorf, under the protection of the mountain valleys, has the dance survived to this day. In many cases it is written off unchecked that the first complete description of the dance, "as it is still performed here today with minor changes" is "in the vita of 615 AD written by Abbot Columban ". The German studies and local history researcher Thaddäus Steiner has proven this to be wrong. Abbot Columban never wrote a CV. The Vita Columbani , written by Jonas von Bobbio after 628, deals with the life of the saint.
The dance is often traced back to a dance from the Celtic times that is over 2000 years old . The dance was mentioned in 1393, on the occasion of the third wedding of one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting at the Hotel Saint Paul in Paris. According to archival records of the Oberstdorf dance, in 1793 the Trier elector and former prince-bishop of the Augsburg diocese, Clemens Wenzeslaus von Sachsen , had exotic "Wilde Mändle" brought to his court for the first time in order to show them to his guests as a comedy by the 12 Wildem-Mann . In 1811 Clemens Wenzeslaus visited Oberstdorf with his sister. The residents performed a wild people dance for them and offered them a song of joy: “Be allowed to us! To play the most illustrious in front of you! You noble ones would like to feel a pleasure. ”The Oberstdorf school teacher Josef Anton Bach recorded the music in 1811 in notation. The dancers also performed their dances in the summer residences as well as in Lindau , Konstanz and Switzerland. Since the dances were also performed before and later by the people, they changed in favor of popular taste.
Actor and costume
The dance is performed today by 13 participants, all from long-established Oberstdorf families. The performer with sewn on a linen Häs (the actual garment) hangs down in long tassels are fir beard (a gray, occurring only in mountain forests of the highlands, formerly frequent, rarer today Bartflechte ) completely masked the whole body except for the eyes. They wear a wreath of holly leaves on their heads and a belt made of fresh fir or spruce branches around their hips.
The dance
The dance is dedicated to the Germanic god Thor . A sequence of 17 different scenes, including a tribute and a fertility dance, an acrobatic pyramid and a club dance, is shown to primeval, hauntingly rhythmic music. In the final scene, the king pours mead and all those involved sing the so-called Wilde Mändle song in a choir.
literature
- Anton Köcheler, Arthur Schult : The Wilde Mändles Dance in Oberstdorf. Special issue on Our Oberstdorf. Leaves on Oberstdorf's local history. 3. Edition. Ed. Beautification Association Oberstdorf. Oberstdorf 1997.