Janker

A Janker from Trentino in northern Italy.

A Janker (German pronunciation: [Jankər]) is a straight-cut, hip-length jacket made of rolled sheep's wool, the edges of which may be trimmed in a different color. The buttons of a janker are usually made of horn or metal. The color of the jacket is usually gray, green or red. The Janker is a common folk clothing in much of southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy. In the Alpine region, cardigans are also called Jankers. The Janker belongs to the traditional costume fashion.

History

The term Janker was first used in Austria in the 16th century, but at that time it referred to a floor-length women's coat. Since the 18th century, this term has been used for a traditional costume jacket. A variation of the Janker existed in Styria from the middle of the 19th century, which was called "Schlawanka" or "Schlawanker". In keeping with fashionable influences of the clothing of urban summer visitors, the sleeves were cut wider toward the bottom.

The modern Janker was created in the 19th century in Bavaria when the ruling Wittelsbach Dynasty was looking for a way to give the newly formed Kingdom of Bavaria a common identity. At the first Oktoberfest in 1810, Maximilian I Joseph had children parade in different regional costumes for this purpose, led by Felix Joseph von Lipowsky. Joseph von Hazzi had already begun in 1798, on behalf of Elector Karl Theodor, to describe the clothing of the inhabitants of individual regions in addition to economic and statistical data in his volumes of statistical information. Now Lipowsky collected illustrations of supposedly typical and traditional ways of dress, which he published from 1825 in the collection Baierischer National-Costüme. From those various customs he had a new national costume created which combined various pieces of clothing from all over Bavaria and Austria. In honor of the silver wedding anniversary of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Queen Therese, a traditional costume parade took place for the first time in 1835. As early as 1818, the king had forced the artists surrounding him to wear a "national dress."

His successor Maximilian II of Bavaria made the traditional costume acceptable. By decree of June 1, 1853, he had the costume promoted as seemingly rural everyday clothing for the "elevation of Bavarian national feeling." In fact, however, the lederhosen corresponded more to the hunter's garb in mountain regions around 1850 and the dirndl to the fashionable rural summer dress of a townswoman on a country vacation, not to a peasant's or girl's dress. Maximilian II officially incorporated traditional costume wearers into his court ceremonial, wore traditional jankers with lederhosen himself when hunting, and wrote in 1849 that he saw "great importance" in the preservation of folk costumes for national sentiment. His successors continued this, and traditional costumes became popular in neighboring Austria as well: Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria and Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I were known to wear traditional costumes, and they were often seen wearing short lederhosen and Janker when hunting.

In more recent times, the janker tradition spilled over into other jacket styles. Thus, there are casual jankers for leisure wear (e.g. with sleeve protectors) or high-quality jankers for the business world.

See also

• Dirndl
• Haferlschuh
• Lederhosen
• Tracht

References

Category:Folk costumes Category:Culture of Altbayern Category:Austrian clothing Category:Jackets

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