The black hole punch from Leitz, model 800, dates from 1923 and is still fully functional. Oskar von Miller, the mastermind and planner of the Walchensee power plant, could have used it. This is precisely what makes the cast-iron office tool particularly valuable for today’s operators. The hole punch, which office employees still use, was part of the original equipment of the manager’s office in the administration wing of the power plant, which opened in 1924.
But what does this object, which has existed for a century and which Theodoros Reumschüssel has now presented in the information center in Kochel am See, have to do with Bavarian costume? Is it the permanence that is rooted in tradition? Or is this immutability for costumes often just a cliché? This is precisely the question that Alexander Karl Wandinger, who is responsible for traditional costume advice in the Upper Bavaria district’s heritage conservation department, addressed this evening. Reumschüssel had invited him to the event as a company spokesman for Uniper for hydropower.
With his neatly trimmed white beard and striped traditional shirt, Wandinger himself looks like a perfect Bavarian. And yet he says something right at the beginning that is sure to be hard for convinced traditionalists to bear: “There is no such thing as a real traditional costume, just as there are no real Bavarians.” Ultimately, every garment is just the fashion of the time, says the expert. The traditional costume has also been constantly changing.
Critics often viewed fashion changes as a sign of declining values
At the beginning of the 19th century, traditional costume as an expression of authentic country life was primarily a construct of the urban population. However, according to Wandinger, fashion in the countryside also changed with each new generation. An example of this was the extra high waist of Empire dresses around 1800, which also became widespread in rural areas. Wandinger showed this using a picture of a woman from Holzkirchen in the Miesbach area with a high waist under the bodice. Men’s waistbands also moved below the chest. “Even at the time, critics saw fashion changes as a sign of the population’s declining values,” says Wandinger.
When the Electorate of Bavaria became a kingdom in 1806, its first monarch, Max I Joseph, deliberately promoted the idea of regionally typical national costumes. This was intended to promote national consciousness. “Traditional costumes are becoming ideologically charged,” said Wandinger. This is shown, for example, by a fictitious type that emerged in the 19th century: the perfectly healthy mountain man in short leather trousers as a supposedly natural original.
The figure of the so-called blacksmith of Kochel was also based on this – the archetype of the brave Oberlandler who fought against the occupying power of Austria at the beginning of the 18th century and is said to have died in the Sendlinger Murder Christmas. A statue in Kochel shows the blacksmith wearing short leather trousers, a full beard and neatly trimmed hair. But, says Wandinger: This does not correspond at all to the fashion of 1705. At that time, men wore knee breeches instead of short leather trousers, no full beard and shoulder-length hair.
Nothing changes as much as fashion and musical taste, says Wandinger. And that is especially true for traditional costumes. In Bavaria, the institutionalized preservation of traditional costumes did not begin until 1883. That was the year that teacher Josef Vogel founded the first traditional costume association in Bayrischzell. At the beginning of the movement, such associations were primarily made up of craftsmen, workers and members of the domestic service class, as Wandinger explained. In other words, population groups who had to leave their homeland as a result of industrialization and build a new life elsewhere. Thus, the traditional costume movement, with its many organized members from the social democratic-oriented working class, stood at odds with church-conservative values around 1900. In church circles, the members of the traditional costume association were considered revolutionary with their unusual clothing behavior, alcohol consumption and public displays of good humor, says Wandinger. All the more so as many of them preferred to go to the district festival on Sundays rather than to church services. “Today we would never associate the word revolutionary with a traditional costume association like we did back then.”
Traditional costume parades have their origins in the Wilhelminian Empire
The militaristic traditions of the Wilhelmine Empire are still followed today by the organized parades of traditional costume wearers behind the flag with marching music or the field mass that originally came from the war environment. Especially under the Nazi dictatorship, the traditional costume, which was charged with supposedly time-honored folk and customary values, was appropriated for propaganda purposes and ideologized.
But back to the dress. According to Wandinger, different levels overlap nowadays, especially on the edge of the Alps. There are people who wear traditional costumes privately and for no reason. In addition, there is the traditional costume care organized in clubs. The dirndl was once nothing more than a work dress with a tight top and attached skirt, blouse and apron. And it was widespread throughout Germany, says Wandinger. The first real dirndl fashion emerged in Bavaria around 1910/1915.
“Uniform rules strengthen the group feeling”
Until the 1960s and 1970s, however, men wore normal suits to Oktoberfest. It is fairly new that someone would be met with incomprehension if they went to the Oktoberfest without a traditional outfit, says Wandinger. The rules for tying the apron are completely made up. For example, that a bow tied on the right indicates that the wearer is in a committed relationship – or is still available if the bow is tied on the left. On the other hand, such developments are understandable, says Wandinger. “Uniform rules strengthen the group feeling. There needs to be a good story for everything.”
Such as the hole puncher from the Walchensee power station, which has been in use since the 1920s. Theodorus Reumschüssel associates its simple and easy handling and functionality thanks to robust material with the Walchensee power station, which still functions and generates electricity with its hundred-year-old equipment. A symbol of sustainability, as the Uniper company spokesman believes.