Table Of ContentPERCHTEN AND KRAMPUSSE: 
LIVING MASK TRADITIONS 
IN AUSTRIA AND BAVARIA 
 
 
Molly Carter 
 
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PhD in Folklore and Cultural Tradition 
National Centre for English Cultural Tradition 
 
February, 2016 
 
 
 
 
 
(Please note that this version of the thesis has been                                                              
redacted due to copyright restrictions.) 
 
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DEDICATION 
 
To my parents, Joseph and Nancy Carter, Garth Powell,  
and the Perchten and Krampusse of Austria and Bavaria. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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ABSTRACT  
 
Two centuries-old mask traditions native to Austria and Bavaria enjoy ongoing popularity 
due to a creative mingling of old and new elements (heavy metal music and fireworks 
alongside hand-carved wooden masks and birch rod switches). The Krampus is the 
menacing companion of St. Nikolaus, who visits children on December 5 and 6, although 
nowadays groups of Krampusse may appear alone. The Perchten, who are associated with 
the magical female folk-figure Perchta, appear on January 5 and the week before. While the 
Perchten and Krampusse represent distinct traditions, their history has intersected at various 
points, and their contemporary manifestations share many elements, including a movement 
towards a “modern” aesthetic and the employment of such resources as tourist publicity and 
the internet to promote their appearances, educate the public, and network with each other.  
While the house visit was formerly the primary setting for these masked figures (or 
mummers), today it is the public parade. These parades, while rooted in and resembling 
conventional display-custom performances marked by a static division between performer 
and spectator, actually consist of a kind of fluid, interactive ritual theater in which the 
partially improvised, partially scripted performances of masked figures and the responses of 
spectators shape one another. Contemporary manifestations of Perchten and Krampus 
traditions will be explored in light of the ongoing cultural dialogue between performers and 
non-performers who seek to define and interpret the tradition, and the interplay of academic 
and popular discourses surrounding invented tradition, Folklorismus (folklorism) and 
Rücklauf (feedback), and the nature of authenticity. Questions of cultural heritage 
“ownership” surface in the debates over form and meaning, while in the hands of the 
Perchten and Krampusse themselves, tradition emerges as an active process and 
collaborative artwork rather than a fixed commodity with boundaries which can be defined 
and navigated by outside observers.  
 
 
 
 
 
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
 
I am profoundly grateful to the Overseas Research Committee, whose generous scholarship 
funded the first three years of my research and made it possible for me to complete this 
work; my advisors, Dr. Joan Beal and Dr. Malcolm Jones of the National Centre for English 
Cultural Tradition at the University of Sheffield; Garth Powell for support of all kinds, 
including help with editing and proofreading; Dr. Maria Darcy; Erika Strenski, Markus 
Lessmann, Sarina Stützer, and Cynthia Dyre-Moellenhof for advice regarding German 
translation issues; Silvia Lenglachner for acting as my interpreter for my initial interview 
with the Salzburger Schiachpercht’n; Joe Anzenberger for help with audio and visual 
materials; and Veronika Pichler of Institut St. Sebastian in Salzburg for rescuing my field 
recordings from loss in transit and for providing a home base in the field. Thanks also go to 
Emily Lyle and the members of the SIEF Working Group on the Ritual Year, whose 
comments on work in progress helped me to refine my ideas and shape a sprawling project 
into what I hope is a coherent whole. 
Most importantly, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all of the Perchten and 
Krampusse who generously gave of their time to help me come closer to seeing these 
traditions through their eyes and understand their motivations for carrying them forward 
into the twenty-first century, especially Günter Polanec of the Salzburger Schiachpercht’n 
of Salzburg and Sonja Edlinger of the Thomasnikolo group of Gams bei Hieflau, Styria, 
whose friendship and generosity transformed this task into a true labor of love. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 
GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND NOTES ON THE LANGUAGE  1 
Place Names  6 
Words Commonly Used to Describe Perchten and Krampusse  7 
General Notes on Translation  7 
Mumming Defined  8 
A Note on the Video Appendix  10 
1. CONTEMPORARY PERCHTEN AND KRAMPUSSE: AN INTRODUCTION  11 
1.1 Overview of the People and Place  11 
1.2 Perchten Defined  14 
1.3 Krampusse Defined  16 
1.4 Distinctions between Perchten and Krampusse  17 
1.5 Shared Characteristics  19 
1.5.1 Testing Grounds for Notions of Continuity, Tradition, and Authenticity  19 
1.5.2 The Juxtaposition of Antiquity and Modernity  20 
1.5.3 Stewardship of Cultural Heritage and Issues of Authority  21 
1.5.4 Continuing Cultural Relevance  21 
1.5.5 The Incorporation of New Technologies  22 
1.5.6 Popularity, Tourism, and Self-Promotion  23 
1.5.7 Aesthetic Evolution  23 
1.5.8 The Redefinition of Boundaries and Identity  24 
1.5.9 Rewards and Punishments  24 
1.5.10 The Performance-Encounter  25 
1.6 Performance Forms and Settings  25 
1.6.1 The Procession  26 
1.6.2 The Free Run (Freilauf)  27 
1.6.3 The House Visit (Einkehrbrauch)  28 
1.6.4 The Leaving of Gifts (Einlegenbrauch)  28 
1.6.5 The Catechism-Interrogation (Katechese)  29 
1.6.6 The Krampuskränzchen (“Krampus-Gathering”)  30 
1.6.7 Dances and Hellshows  31 
1.6.8 The Nikolaus Play  31 
 
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1.6.9 Mask Exhibitions (Maskenaustellungen) and Kinderkrampusstreichelzoos (Children’s 
Krampus Petting Zoos)  32 
1.6.10 Perchten and Krampus Group Websites  33 
1.7 Thesis Overview  34 
2. METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES  36 
2.1 Defining the Subject  36 
2.2 Research Questions and Objectives  39 
2.3 Research Design and Preparation  41 
2.4 Fieldwork Methodologies  42 
2.4.1 Participant-Observation  42 
2.4.2 Conducting Interviews  44 
2.4.3 Collecting Ephemera  46 
2.5 Outsider Identity: Challenges and Opportunities  47 
2.5.1 Culture  47 
2.5.2 Language  48 
2.5.3 Gender  49 
2.6 The Ethnographer/Field Subject Relationship  50 
3. LITERATURE REVIEW  53 
3.1 Early Volkskunde and the Continuity Problem  53 
3.2 The Second Wave: National Socialist Volkskunde  57 
3.3 The Third Wave: Restoring Historicity  60 
3.4 Mummers in their Own Words  68 
4. PERCHTA AND PERCHTEN: ORIGINS AND IDENTITY  71 
4.1 The Meaning of the Name “Percht” and Name Variations  72 
4.2 A Typology of Perchta References  74 
4.3 Butzenbercht and Kinderfresser: Early Mumming Evidence?  75 
4.4 Perchten Mumming from 1550 to 1900  80 
4.4.1 The Criminalization of the Perchtenlauf  81 
 
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