Knecht Ruprecht

The Bogeyman is the assistant of Saint Nicholas, who visited the customs of the northern and central German-speaking countries on the eve of the 6th of December, together with the Nicholas children at home.

Cultural history of the servant Ruprecht and customs

The Bogeyman goes back to a very pronounced formation of the so-called stop custom of St. Nicholas. During Nicholas plays a unique role in the positive connotations custom, are all persons accompanying them, negative in all previously known sources. Just as, for example, the antithesis of the fool to the King David or the carnival for Lent - which have large similarities with the Nicholas traditions - it behaves therefore in the figure constellation Nicholas - negative comrade. While one acts as a heavenly messenger, the other will as hell representatives or even " tame devil ", who takes the threat and punitive role.

While Knecht Ruprecht was long known not everywhere in the late Middle Ages the name, but was in each case according to local sensibilities Belznickel, Beelzebub or just simply called the Devil, the name Knecht Ruprecht goes back to figures from the foothills of the Alps or from Thuringia and spread so for now -known figure.

Jacob Grimm said that Ruprecht - as the name - on the Old High German hruodperaht, fame Shining ' and thus referred to the vicinity of the Germanic god Wotan, or that he was a servant ( slave ) of the goddess Holle. In today's research such etymological derivations are discarded. Instead, they are assuming that the name refers to custom figures from the Alps. The derivation of rûhperht, rough Percht 'contains a link to wintry moving figures, affecting predominantly epiphany. A connection is in the form of Perchta. However, more detailed derivations due to the source location can not confirm.

The various forms of the Bogeyman originated in late medieval bogeyman. Since the 16th century, reinforced in the 17th, circulated leaflets with fright figures that urged as an additional means of parenting the children to piety. Most common type was the child-eaters, as it can still be seen today, for instance as Kindlifresser at a fountain in Bern, Switzerland. The figure is based on an originated in Italy in the 16th century notion of the devil devours the souls of sinners. Child Eater, often accompanied by a Butzenbercht, threatened the impious children in cruel verses, take them to slit flogging to the death or even eat them. As Knecht Ruprecht contributed both figures, the child-eaters and the Butzenbercht, a large bag or basket in which they tried to put the children. Due to these circumstances the way the particular Butzenbercht to Knecht Ruprecht is not far, both were written in the genre of Perchten.

While Saint Nicholas especially in Protestant areas over time displaced by the Christ Child or Holy Christ, the servant Ruprecht came mostly unscathed. In some areas it even acted as the sole hermaphrodite figure, the gifted and punished. In Saxony was widely and sporadically the mess and also punishing the kids on Christmas made ​​by the Ruprecht, which is comparable to that of Santa Claus. The piano piece by Robert Schumann, this figure is exactly described, that is not a companion of Nicholas.

Relatively quickly blurred especially in areas reformed the original idea of ​​the Bogeyman as a negative figure or as a counterpart of a saint. Sources indicate a mixing of Nicholas with Ruprecht in denominations as Herre Sente Rupp Erich, so Mr. Sankt Ruprecht. For the first time an attempt was made in the 17th century to derive the figure of Knecht Ruprecht of a legendary priest named Ruprecht, after the well-known legend of the dance wonders of Cölbigk 1020, the godless dancers of Cölbigk - farmers who after copious beer consumption by loud singing and dancing in front of the Church the celebration of the Christmas night disturbed - is said to have cursed. Regardless of the history of ideas, fact of counterparts Ruprecht Nicholas to the community Ilberstedt in Saxony -Anhalt advertises with the present-day district Cölbigk today as home of the Bogeyman.

Today, the servant Ruprecht mostly just more than basket carrier of Nicholas dar.

Appearance and differentiation from other companions of St. Nicholas

The Bogeyman is usually dressed in a brown or black robe, bearded, wearing the belt a rod and sports gifts in a basket on his back - mostly small bags filled with mandarin oranges, peanuts, chocolate, and gingerbread. But earlier today and a regional distribution representations show him also fell- hairy and sometimes even horned.

At regional names, about Rupp servant, servant Nikolas, nickel, nickel fur find ( on the middle Rhine ).

The Bogeyman and the Krampus originate probably originally the traditions of Perchten, but have found different shape. In the Alpine area of Old Bavaria, Austria and South Tyrol, the figure of the Krampus, Bartl or Klaubauf from the figures of Schierchperchten belonging to a Rauhnacht and Winteraustreibe - Customs developed. While the Krampus today are diabolical figures and still occur in the Horde, the Ruprecht comes alone. Knecht Ruprecht also mostly distributed just the rods for naughty children (see " Place the rod in the window " ), while the Krampus thus strikes themselves. Over the entire German-speaking area saw the figure of the Bogeyman is more widespread than that of the Krampus.

In various areas there are also characters with partially similar function but different origin and tradition: From Ghost Rider in the former East Prussian, Buller classes in North Germany via Beelzebub, furs Bock and Hans Muff in the Rhineland, Hans Trapp in Alsace, Schmutzli in German Switzerland to the Klausen im Allgäu, the then already represent the transition to the Krampus tradition. In Luxembourg it is called Houseker, the Netherlands and Belgium, Zwarte Piet ( Black Peter / Peter).

Knecht Ruprecht as a motif in art and literature

In Theodor Storm's probably volkstümlichstem Bogeyman poem ( written in 1862 in Heiligenstadt ) describes the servant of his work in dialogue with the Christ Child. Parts of the poem are recited often in the Advent season to date, especially the opening lines of " From drauss from the forest I Come, I must tell you, Christmas is ."

In the satirical poem Bogeyman children in distress from Paula Dehmel Collection The Love Nest from 1919 gets excited a grown old Ruprecht about the wishes of the children of his time, all of which have only the airship driving on their wish list.

A piano piece in Robert Schumann's Album for the Young (Op. 68, No. 12 ) entitled Knecht Ruprecht.

The French composer Joseph Guy Ropartz identified in his cantata miracle of St. Nicholas the companions of the saint with the butcher who killed three ( then revived by Nicholas) children and pickled and now it is doing penance.

In the German version of the TV series The Simpsons family dog " Bogeyman " is ( in the original: Santa's Little Helper ).