The 'black money of Schneeberg'
Among the various religious and popular customs which developed at Schneeberg, one which never failed to impress visitors was the so-called Anrennenlassen, or ‘coining of the black money of Schneeberg’ (a kind of initiation rite for new arrivals). From 1703 onwards, almost all annotations in the visitors’ book refer to it. This ritual, theatrically staged for new workers or visitors, interrupted the miners’ monotonous life and, in a manner half-way between the painful and the merry, welcomed victims into the mining community of Schneeberg.
‘During his stay, every male guest had to pay the so-called money of Schneeberg, in other words, he was made a fool of. A strangely dressed figure, called Schreimartel, grasped hold of the guest and, amid shouting and clowning about, tied him to the rail of a stove and whipped him until the poor guest paid a certain amount of money.’ (Beda Weber, 1852)
The comments in the visitors’ book made precise distinctions among the various types of money which had to be ‘paid’ before guests humbly submitted to their fate and were granted the right to the mine. They ranged from simple money, mine money, fool’s thalers (1719) and cash (1720). In 1722, the painter Nicolaus Auer received twelve Schrämartl thalers, and then there were more fool’s thalers (1730), good money (1732), black and white money (1737), and fool’s wooden thalers (1751).
Since 1719, there had existed a special new welcome tankard, from which new visitors could drink after their painful beating. All moneys ‘paid’ were recorded in the mine album, the ceremony concluded the official entry of a member into the mining community, and everything was then washed down with copious drinks - for which the new arrival again had to dig into his pocket.
No-one was spared. Everyone had to undergo this rite, from the mine foreman, to the mining judge, his scribe, mine owners, ore buyers, noblemen, the high and low clergy, and even noblewomen, like Ursula von Leitner and Theresia and Maria Barbara von Klebersberg who, in 1721, ‘were honoured with small coins’. (It is interesting to note that even ladies took part in the Hauptbefahrung, the main visit of inspection of the mine, an honour normally reserved only for men).
Paying Schneeberg money to visitors and employees also had to be repeated after long absences. Thus, the Schneeberg foreman Georg Praxmarer, in 1727 and 1729, and in 1731 for the third time, ‘was handsomely paid in black coins, I wanted to weep rather than laugh’. On August 18 1748, Franz Jacob von Erlacher was also harshly treated when he took part in the ore inspection and separation: ‘It had been snowing all day, and during the night the wind blew horribly hard, it would certainly have taken the roofs off the houses if they had been made of wooden shingles. But in spite of that, I was even more scared of the terrible glare of the Schrämartl. The judge accused me of having used black magic to cause the storm, and they even wanted to punish me properly and drive me out of the village, but first I had to pay the usual price (Schneeberg money) because, according to them, I had already received enough cash from the mining fraternity. But in the end the accusation was deemed to be unfounded, I was accepted as a Schneeberg miner, and my name was recorded in the miners’ album’.
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