There's music in there!
A brief look at the history of the Palatinate touring musicians
The West Palatinate Musikantenland (mainly the area of the former Rhineland Bavarian Land Commissioners Kusel, Homburg, Kaiserslautern and Kirchheim) is one of the few regions in the German-speaking cultural area with a tradition of traveling musicians.
After the Palatinate gained freedom of trade during the French period (1797 - 1814), the occupational title of musician (musicien ”or“ Musigand ”!) Appears more and more frequently in West Palatinate documents. The exemption from compulsory guilds now allows the folk musicians who live here in considerable numbers to turn their natural talent (= inner reason) into a source of livelihood.
Economic reasons (overpopulation, famine years, crop failures in the barren West Palatinate cultivation area, etc.), similar to those that drove many Palatinate compatriots to emigrate to America in the 19th century, were also what made the first musicians wander around 1830 ( = external reason!). First you traveled to neighboring countries (France, Switzerland) or other German states (Prussia), then the rest of Europe (Spain, Holland, British Isles, Scandinavia, Russia, etc.) and finally - after the middle of the century - literally the entire civilized world.
After thorough trial work over winter, our musicians moved out in the spring, stayed until autumn, provided they were doing their livelihood in Europe, or only returned from an overseas trip after two, three or more years.
In the heyday, around the turn of the century, an estimated 2500 traveling musicians were out and about and earned the considerable sum of several million gold marks annually. A very significant economic factor for the West Palatinate!
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66871 Thallichtenberg
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