Forbidden hunting – tracking down poachers between the Black Forest and Schönbuch
Neuenbürg. Poaching is the hunting of wild animals by persons who do not have permission to do so. Historically, poaching has only existed since the 15th century, when the rulers of a country laid exclusive claim to hunting. Hunting was considered the highest and most noble pastime of aristocrats. Other sections of the population were largely excluded from hunting. On the contrary: they had to make themselves available as beaters as part of the hunting corvee, had to keep dogs ready, and had to carry out extensive preparations for hunting festivals. Last but not least, the farmers suffered greatly from the high number of game that the rulers needed for hunting. The animals provided themselves with food in the fields, and partially or completely lost harvests exacerbated the food situation for the poorer sections of the population.
Penalties from the 16th century in the Pforzheim area show that more than 10% of those sentenced to feudal rites and expulsions from the land were accused of poaching. Especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, punishments were disproportionately harsh: blinding, imprisonment, galley imprisonment, caning, and even execution were common. In more recent times, imprisonment and fines have been imposed.
More or less detailed written sources and oral accounts provide evidence of the motives of poachers: Often, food shortages and damage control were the reasons for driving wild animals from the fields. However, there were always individuals who pursued their passion for hunting or whose "criminal energy" drove them. The latter became even more prominent in the 19th and 20th centuries, when the food situation improved for all segments of the population.
Forestry officers faced the difficult task of apprehending poachers and bringing them to justice. In doing so, they put themselves in great danger: all too often, they were killed or seriously injured.
For almost 300 years, the castle was the seat of the Neuenbürg State Forestry Office. And for just as long, forestry officials were more or less intensively involved in prosecuting hunting offenses in the Neuenbürg Forest. There were some truly spectacular cases: Baron von Wechmar, who was the chief huntsman here in the mid-18th century, as the head of the office was known at the time, had to deal with various "arch-poachers," or repeat offenders. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was Count von Sponeck, a committed supporter of the aristocratic hunt, who pursued poachers with particular vigor. He wrote several times to the Württemberg government, requesting snipers to dig up the various "poachers' nests." He suspected Lehmannshof in the Eyachtal Valley, in particular, of being a poacher's hideout. Here and there, sharpshooters were actually deployed at the end of the 18th century, but Sponeck was no longer able to enforce this wish in his time, around 1810: Württembergian frugality – after all, travel expenses would have had to be paid – and the dawn of democratization had already brought about a change in consciousness.
The population had never truly accepted the rulers' hunting privileges, which is why the demand for freedom of hunting was one of the central demands of the bourgeois revolution of 1848/49. This was also evident in Neuenbürg, where local residents, along with farmers from the administrative districts, gathered at the castle in March 1848 to inspect the forestry office's files. As the Neuenbürg historian Adolf Reile writes, this led to arguments, and several files were allegedly thrown out the window. In fact, the bourgeois government revoked the hunting privilege and abolished the hunting corvée. Now, even bourgeois forest owners and municipalities were allowed to hunt.
The heyday of poaching was over by 1960 at the latest. Poaching only occasionally occurs in our country. However, poaching in Africa, India, and other countries is noteworthy, where protected species are illegally killed to make souvenirs for tourists.
The exhibition on the first floor of the south wing (former forestry office) provides an overview of hunting with nearly 130 exhibits on various topics. It can be viewed from Saturday, March 12, to Sunday, July 23, during museum opening hours: Tuesdays to Saturdays from 13 p.m. to 18 p.m., and on Sundays and public holidays from 10 a.m. to 18 p.m. Groups may also access the museum outside of these hours by prior arrangement. Admission is €2,50, with a concessionary rate of €1,50.
Content and concept: Elke Osterloh and Dr. Erich Viehofer, Ludwigsburg
Design concept: Silvia Schlecht, Karlsruhe
Graphic: Julia Ocker, Neuenbürg
Exhibition setup: Manfred Lepold, Sven Krause, Christine Nonnenmann, restorers of the Badisches Landesmuseum
Stage design: Susanne Paret, Karlsruhe
Painting: Mike Überall, Karlsruhe
We thank the following for their help: Helmut Ries, Neuenbürg | Prints SB-Werbetechnik, Neuenbürg
We would like to thank the following for their kind support:
Self-service advertising technology, Gerald Kunzmann, Neuenbürg | Enzkreis District Forestry Office
Lender:
Baden State Museum | State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg | Baden-Württemberg Police Academy | General State Archives Karlsruhe | Prison Museum Ludwigsburg | German Fishing and Hunting Museum Munich | Electoral Palatinate Museum Heidelberg | County Museum Wertheim | Local History Museum Bonlanden | State Museum of Technology and Work Mannheim | Württemberg State Museum Stuttgart | Carlsberg Forestry Museum of the Tauber Franconian Folk Culture Association Weikersheim | Bietigheim-Bissingen City Museum | State Natural History Museum Karlsruhe | State Natural History Museum Stuttgart | Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Bonn
Parallel to the exhibition “Forbidden Hunt” on the first floor of the south wing, the artist Sinje Dillenkofer is showing “The Duel” in the castle cellar.
The installation can be understood as a "portrait series of seven mammals and seven birds." The photographic objects under investigation were taken from the inventory of the Natural History Cabinet of the Dukes of Württemberg, founded in 1791, and formerly archived as objects for display and study. Dillenkofer presents the significant shells of the animal bodies, however, outside their relationship to museum reality, as isolated artifacts in a strict typology. Turned belly-up, slightly flattened, with all four legs stretched out, they become a symbol of exposure and defenselessness. As life-size inkjet prints, the animal images hang in two parallel rows from the ceiling of the castle cellar. This "symbol of the encounter and duel of man with his suppressed inner nature" is complemented by the juxtaposition of two backdrop-like photographic prints, each installed at the front of the vaulted cellar. "In the Snow" depicts a group of naked people with raised arms in a seemingly infinite pictorial space. The antagonist in this spatial duel is an enlarged print of a felt-lined box containing hollow molds for two collapsible shotguns from the early 20th century. Admission to the art installation in the castle cellar is free.
