Right at the entrance, Wilhelm Tell and Emperor Maximilian I welcome the visitors, both famous representatives of the marksmanship. More interesting, however, is the cardboard figure next to it, Lienhard Flexel. He was perhaps the best-known Pritschmeister, since 1550 he traveled from Schützenfest to Schützenfest. The bunk masters were something like masters of ceremonies, well-known men who entertained the visitors and kept order. Anyone who misbehaved or shot badly got hit with the crate, a flat piece of wood. The Augsburger Lienhard Flexel and his colleagues wrote many commemorative publications on free shooting, which were held in many places at the time – including in Flexel’s hometown in 1509, to which around 1000 competitors traveled, even from Paris.
“These were huge dimensions for the time,” says Mathilde Wohlgemuth. For her as a folklorist, writings such as those by Flexel are an important historical source for understanding the early history of marksmanship. In the new House of Shooting Culture, built on the site of the Farm Museum in Illerbeuren, Wohlgemuth has traced the cultural history of shooting in southern Germany, from the late Middle Ages to the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. More than 3000 exhibits dating back to the 17th century are on display, including shooting targets and historical weapons, trophies and badges. With the help of lighting technology, visitors can even shoot themselves in the ambience of a historic rifle festival.
The importance of shooting is shown by the designation as an intangible cultural heritage in 2015, the shooters also founded the first sports clubs in Germany. The German Shooting Association is now the fourth largest top sports association in Germany. In Bavarian Swabia alone, around 100,000 shooters are organized in clubs. And yet they had to wait a long time before the three-storey museum finally opened: Originally it should have been in July 2016, the building was finished. However, just before the first visitors were allowed in, there was water damage. Expert opinions and legal disputes delayed the opening by seven years.
The museum shows the history of the southern German riflemen using exhibits and interactively with touchscreens, but also with large display boards and drawings on the walls. The Augsburg riflemen’s festival of 1509, for example, is captured in a large painting. “It’s a fun, colorful hustle and bustle,” says Wohlgemuth. There the shooters sit with their crossbows, here people kiss, there they eat, a drunk staggers into the competition area. There is also gambling, stone throwing and foot races. A big festival, a lot of fun – with a serious background. In imperial and residence cities, the citizens joined together in rifle clubs on a voluntary basis, also as a practice with weapons of war for city defense.
Trophies are an invention of the marksmen
In order to encourage enthusiasm for training, city councilors offered prizes early on: goods such as oxen or mutton, but also silver trophies. “Today’s trophies that are awarded in sport go back to the shooters,” explains Wohlgemuth. The focus changed over the centuries until, after the end of the Second World War, shooting became a pure sport. In the middle of the 19th century, the majority of Sagittarians sympathized with free-liberal ideas and felt connected to the nation-state idea. The result was a boom in the founding of associations.
Founded in 1861, the German Shooting Association is the oldest sports association in Germany. Shooters from the USA even came to the 1st German Shooting Festival in 1862 in Frankfurt. “It was a mass sport,” says Wohlgemuth. For a long time – apart from some exceptions that are discussed in the exhibition – it was a purely male sport. It was not until 1950 that women increasingly took part in competitions; today, male and female marksmen are roughly equally represented in clubs.
In contrast to earlier times, weapons are no longer a luxury item, for a long time only well-to-do citizens could afford them. The history of the weapons is shown in the exhibition in the basement. Some muzzleloaders can already be seen, the showcases with the more modern breechloaders are still empty. Safety regulations prevent the museum from placing originals in the showcases, and the employees strive to create realistic-looking 3D prints in a timely manner. There should also be so-called room sockets, which came up around 1870 and were probably developed in Munich. The riflemen could also use the light small caliber rifle inside. “That changed a lot,” says Wohlgemuth and laughs. “People could now shoot in the tavern, sometimes out of the hatch.”
With the help of lighting technology, visitors can also shoot themselves.
(Photo: Rainer Schmidt)
On the upper floor is the shooting range, where visitors can try their hand at it. More than 2,000 badges are also on display here, which are awarded for many things in marksmanship, not only in competitions, but also for services to the club. For Wohlgemuth, however, the marksman’s targets are the highlight of the exhibition, which are hanging here on the walls and distributed over the ceiling. The shooting targets come from the 19th and 20th centuries and have large and small bullet holes. They are not white with a black dot in the middle, but painted brightly with motifs from their time.
Painted shooting targets are a specialty that developed in southern Germany. Similar to the commemorative publications by Pritschmeister Lienhard Flexel, they are an important historical source for scientists. For example, Wohlgemuth likes to show a Memminger disc depicting the famine of 1817. After a volcanic eruption in Indonesia, the harvest failed even in parts of Europe, and grain prices shot up. Two merchants can be seen on the disc, surrounded by their sacks of grain. They philosophize about how well they have earned. “Xaverl, if it were always like this,” says one of the two. The target was pretty well punctured by the shooters.
Current information on opening times and admission prices can be found here: https://www.bauernhofmuseum.de/besuch/allgemeines/ihr-besuch-oeffnungszeiten-preise