!!!Burschenschaft

Burschenschaft: 1) Association of unmarried young men in rural areas; 
subject to strict rules; responsible for the maintenance of local 
customs such as Maskentreiben; also called "Bursch", "Zechen", 
"Irten", "Ruden" and "Passen"; while largely secularized and modified 
by modern developments in society, even today a large number of sports 
clubs, denominational and political youth organizations in rural areas 
take the form of a Burschenschaft. 2) Student organization, 
fraternity; Burschenschaften bear traditional heraldic colours, most 
of them engage in combat (duelling fraternities) and many hold 
nationalist and right wing views; originally founded in Jena in 1814; 
in Austria established under  Metternich; repeatedly forbidden by the 
police; officially permitted since 1859; (oldest Burschenschaft: 
Olympia Wien 1859); in 1994 Austria counted approximately 30 
Burschenschaften, some of which are partly associated with the 
umbrella organization Deutsche Burschenschaft (abbr. DB).

!Literature
W. Galler, Die B. des oestlichen und mittleren 
Weinviertels, doctoral thesis, Vienna 1971; R. Wolfram, B.-Brauchtum, 
in: Oesterr. 

\\
Volkskundeatlas, 3%%sup rd/%  instalment, 1968.


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