The eventful life of the forester Maria Sigl, who died 30 years ago, is surprisingly well documented. A new book now provides insights into an existence that seems almost unreal from today’s perspective.
A large proportion of those people who are considered poor according to today’s definition would probably still have been classified as well off a few generations ago. An inexorable companion of poverty at that time was hunger, because of which many a villager let himself be carried away to acts of desperation. The small farmer Maria Sigl (1899-1993, also known as Sigl Marl), who came from the Bavarian Forest municipality of Böbrach, knew the need from her own experience. “Church habit,” she once said, was adopted by the poorest people in the villages. When someone died, the parishioners swarmed out to let the parishioners know when the funeral would be. As a reward, they often got eggs, a piece of butter or a bit of meat.