Bavaria: the cultural history of the apron – Bavaria

The 85-year-old farmer Anni Sigl from Hilgenreith in the Bavarian Forest led a modest life. And yet it suddenly came into the focus of the media a good ten years ago. First, some newspapers became aware of Anni and her husband Alois. In 2012 Julia Seidl’s book “Anni and Alois – We are not poor: A farmer’s life” was published, which found many readers.

Also because it opened a fascinating view of an existence that was devoid of any luxury. Without central heating, without a bathroom and without a car, today it seems as if Anni and Alois had fallen out of time. Soon there was a nationwide hype about the old couple who, despite all the hardships, led a contented life until Alois’ death a good one and a half years ago, as the two always emphasized.

Anni’s satisfaction is based not least on a piece of clothing that was indispensable for earlier generations, namely the apron. In a film strip that can be seen on the Internet channel Youtube, Anni says freely: “I always wear aprons there, whether it’s Christmas or Easter or Whitsun, it doesn’t matter to me.” If you add up all of your aprons, you get 110 pieces, she explains in the film. “I did 90 percent of the soiba,” she says.

Of course, Schürzl is not just Schürzl. Sources from the Landesverein für Heimatpflege and an exhibition in the Stadtmuseum Kaufbeuren attest to the diversity of this item of clothing, which ranges from the smock apron to the X-ray apron. In clinics, liquid-tight disposable aprons are part of work clothing. Aprons for carpenters are made of sturdy cotton fabric that provides protection from sharp knives. Leather aprons for blacksmiths protect against flying sparks and metal chips. Most of the time, however, the apron is combined with the smock apron, as worn by farmers and housewives in particular.

For the folklorist Esther Gajek, the apron is an object that triggers emotions. “Similar to the garden gnome, opinions differ here too,” says Gajek. Because the apron in particular often reduces a woman to the role of the housewife, from which many women have emancipated themselves today. This also applies to 80-year-old apron collector Ute Dwinger, who used to get a self-sewn apron from her mother at Christmas.

At the end of the sixties the status changed

She later collected aprons, the stories of which reveal a lot about the difficult everyday life of women. Dwinger says her grandmother used her dark apron for everything: drying tears, wiping the table, drying wet hands, chasing away flies, and transporting eggs, apples, and seeds. “And as a little granddaughter, I was even allowed to hide under my grandmother’s apron if necessary.”

The author Albert Sigl describes something similar about a grandmother in his novel “Sonnham” (2005): “With one hand she held the money that she kept in her apron.” At another point it says: “She put ten eggs in her apron.” The apron was an all-purpose clothing, like the blue jeans of the old peasant women. In the film mentioned above, the farmer Anni Sigl tells that in her relatives most women wore aprons. And when they really wore a real dress, they wore an apron over which they could wipe their hands. “I have an apron on my liaban,” says Anni, “I’m airy in there, I can move and it doesn’t pinch anything,” she laughs. Even when she goes shopping on the tractor, she only wears her apron.

At the end of the 1960s, the importance of the apron changed. Thanks to modern washing machines, taking care of clothes became less important, and with it the apron too. The Witt textile mail order company in Weiden is still considered the king of apron fabrics. As early as the 1930s, the practical and fashionably designed wraparound aprons were a bestseller, which is still in the range today.

Until the 1960s, it was common for girls to wear aprons to school to protect clothes from ink stains. The students should all wear aprons that are as similar as possible. There was a firm intention behind this, say the experts Gajek and Dwinger: “The girls should neither develop vanity nor pride.” In 1962, two aprons were still on the curriculum at Bavarian elementary schools: a dirndl apron (5th grade) and an apron in the fashionable shape (7th grade). They stood for an important goal of the handicraft lessons: the preparation of the girls for their later role as housewives and mothers. “Sewing, embroidery, crocheting, darning, mending, knitting – all of these were among the skills that a good housewife, mother and wife had to master in the past,” reads the exhibition.

The apron was an integral part of women’s clothing as early as the 16th century. Noble fabrics, cuts and patterns were a status symbol, the smock apron for working did not gain acceptance until after the First World War. A special feature is the dirndl dress, which established itself as a festival dress in the late 19th century and has also experienced a new upswing as a festival dress in recent decades. The dirndl apron should express femininity. “And the bow becomes an ambassador for the intentions of the wearer,” explain Gajek and Dwinger. If the bow is tied in the front left, that means in the flirtatious language: tying up is welcome!

Open detailed view

“Even with white aprons, a touch of eroticism came into play,” says Gajek, because with delicate fabric and decorated with lace, they resembled contemporary underwear. In addition, the white color referred to hygiene and purity, also in the sense of moral immaculateness and virginal innocence. In this regard, the word apron has long been a gender issue. Because aprons and women were sometimes considered synonymous, especially in the word Schürzenjäger, which no longer fits the time.

Tackled – a date with the apron. Stadtmuseum Kaufbeuren, until March 6, 2022.