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

76 answers are available in the collection concerning the “survey” from the administrative district of Middle Franconia. Five of them were originally submitted to Upper Franconia and come from places that changed their district association in 1972 with the administrative reform. Over the course of time, at least one report disappeared from the holdings.

Who replied?

Of 76 answers, 71 are identified by name, all were written by males. On three occasions, two people responded together. In fact, 74 people are known by name. Just under half of them were local teachers and senior teachers, only about 14% were public officials, i.e. administrators or mayors. Concerning the latter, only their function in municipal administration is known, not their actual profession. Barely a fifth of the answers came from pastors and other types of clergymen. A pharmacist, a barber surgeon, a cantor and a factory worker also provided answers; a “member of the embellishment association” wrote one report. Almost two-thirds of the answers from Middle Franconia are between one and nine pages long, almost one-third reach up to 19 pages, three arrive at 29 pages, three at 39 pages and one is 56 pages long. The most comprehensive report with 85 pages covers the towns of Warmersdorf, Buchfeld, Frickenhöchstadt and Weingartsgreuth in the Erlangen-Höchstadt district.

Population structure of the villages

In c.1900, half of the villages had a population of less than 500 inhabitants, a little more than one-fifth had up to 1,000 and somewhat less than a third over 1,000 inhabitants; the statistics do not contain data on social stratification. Almost three quarters of all places were predominantly Protestant, slightly more than one-tenth predominantly Catholic. Almost 90% of all places were of mixed denomination. In three places lived only Catholics, in seven only Protestants. Inhabitants of Jewish faith were represented in 21 places; additional religions are indicated as “others” for 14 places. The answers, however, hardly took diversity of faith or confession into account. 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. 11).

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).