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Folk Costumes & tradition

date: 26.10.2023
from: Kathrin Thoma-Bregar

Ruhpolding has two traditional dress associations, D`Rauschberger Zell and D`Miesenbacher Ruhpolding. They both have their own traditional costume. They’re worn on secular and ecclesiastical public holidays. With pride.

Traditional dress used to mainly be an expression of status and character. It was restricted to one region and the way people typically dressed there. The gentlefolk set the tone in terms of fashion. The simple folk followed suit. The traditional dress for different societies that we’re familiar with today developed with the foundation of traditional dress associations at the end of the 19th century. The various forms of old traditional peasant costumes mainly live on in historic traditional dress groups.

Christian Burghartswieser grew up in lederhosen. Today, the 44-year old is the regional traditional dress officer of the “Gauverband 1”, which all the traditional dress associations around Traunstein belong to, and also a member of one such historic group, the D`Rauschberger. His knee-length, heavy frock coat is reminiscent of French uniforms. It’s made of wool, lined with linen and fitted with pocket buttons. The side pockets face backwards. Hence the expression: “Sitting on his money,” explains Christian Burghartswieser. With the coat he wears a shirt, deerskin breeches, white socks and a hat whose interior brim is decorated with his grandmother’s old hand-stitched embroidery. He wears a broad ornamental belt with the finest quill embroidery around his stomach. These kinds of belts were used by farmers as wallets, so that they always had their possessions on them. “Where else would they have left them when they were working in the fields? It wasn’t safe in the house,” explains Burghartswieser.

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He was already a member of the traditional dress association as a child. The reason for there being two of them in Ruhpolding is because of how the town was divided. Before it was merged into one, Ruhpolding was made up of several communities. Both associations have roughly 600 members. The figureheads are the active members aged 16 and older, but only until they get married. They appear at various festivals representing their association. The traditional dress associations definitely shape the social life in the town and organise several events from the traditional fair to the village festival.

The D’Miesenbacher association is mainly responsible for the traditional Christmas pageant at the lumberjack museum in the Laubau part of town. Five performances are presented in total on two to three weekends in front of the wonderful mountain scenery every three years. More than 100 performers, children and all sorts of animals captivate their audience. Christian Burghartswieser takes on the role of director, as the man from Ruhpolding knows his way around the stage. He’s been an actor and director at the Chiemgauer Volkstheater for many years. His traditional dress is also used here now and again, but the term traditional dress only applies to the correct and complete costume. The regional traditional dress officer takes the terminology very seriously. Dirndl means dirndl, Lederhose means lederhose and traditional dress means the associations’ costumes.

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about the author Kathrin Thoma-Bregar