The replies from Lower Bavaria concerning the “survey” of the Bayerischer Verein für Volkskunst und Volkskunde, 1908/09

68 answers are available in the collection of the “survey” from the administrative district of Lower Bavaria. Two of them were formerly submitted to the Upper Palatinate and come from places that changed their district association after the administrative reform in 1972. Over the course of time, at least 31 letters disappeared from the holdings.

Who replied?

Of the answers identified by name, i.e. 53 out of 68, all came from male authors with the exception of one teacher, one merchant’s wife and one maid. About 40% of them were local teachers and chief teachers, almost one third were functionaries, mostly mayors. In the latter case, only their public office in local government is known, not their actual profession. A quarter of the answers came from pastors and other clergymen; one was written by an innkeeper. On three occasions, two people answered together, another time even six. About 70% of the responses from Lower Bavaria were between one and nine pages long, less than one-fifth were up to 19 pages long, five were up to 29 pages and 2 up to 39 pages long. The longest reply consisting of 70 pages came from Graineth (district of Freyung-Grafenau).

Population structure of the villages

In c.1900, about half the towns and villages had a population of less than 500 inhabitants, a quarter had up to 1,000 and almost as many had over 1,000; the statistics do not contain any data on social stratification. Less than half of all places were of mixed denomination, in all the others the Catholic faith prevailed, while almost two thirds of the places were exclusively Catholic. Residents of Jewish faith were only represented in eight communities. The answers rarely responded to differences in faith or confessions. An impression of the regional distribution is given by the map, which Torsten Gebhard presents in his essay “Bemerkungen zur volkskundlichen Umfrage” (Remarks on the Folkloristic Survey, Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde 1986/87, p. 7). Correspondents from eight locations in the former Deggendorf district office were published with a scientific commentary by Stephan Deutinger in the Deggendorfer Geschichtsblätter 32/33 (2010/2011).

All answers from Lower Bavaria

Selected collectibles from the “survey” of 1908/09

>>This collection concerns the “survey” of the Bayerischer Verein für Volkskunst und Volkskunde (Bavarian Society for Folk Art and Folklore) from the collection of the Institut für Volkskunde (Ethnological Institute).