During the boat tour, I learned that boats used to transport salt along the river Salzach. Because salt was so valuable, these boats were often attacked by pirates. Hence, the boatmen were armed. Further, they only hired non-swimmers, to prevent them from abandoning their posts. They have a holiday every year to honor the nonswimmers who died during pirate attacks and accidents.
Another tale ... in 1525, the fortress Hohensalzburg was besieged by peasants. The peasants were revolting over their usual petty grievances, probably including insurance, better security, life boats, and paid swim classes for boatmen. The fortressmates were running out of food and were close to surrender. Then the commander had an idea. He marched the last remaining ox around the parapets. That night, they washed that ox and painted him black, and then marched him around again the next day. Oh no, the attackers thought, they have 2 oxen up there! They must have lots of food! They can hold out forever! And so the besiegers dispersed to their lives of 0 vacation days per year and only an 8 hour workday on Sundays. Hence the Salzburgers are now called Stierwashers.
Two tales I heard in Salzburg.
This would not be funny but for efforts to verify it online. I found nothing about the first tale, though I did see a T shirt for sale about the Salzach pirates that seems to corroborate that story. As to the second one, here are some other bloggers' memories.
http://www.vu.union.edu/~bajaja/Germany/Salzburg17March2007/festunghohensalzburg5.html
There was some story of how during some battle the people of Salzburg didn't want to let the enemy know they were starving, so they painted their last ox and paraded it out into the city to make it appear as if they still had livestock.
NO! Now come on, think about this. Wouldn't an unpainted ox convey the same message? If you paraded it through the city, wouldn't some besieger just take your ox, and kill you? Sheesh. Try the tour sober next time. Hint: If you are looking for Oktoberfest in Munich, you're too far south.
http://www.thekua.com/sista/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=6
According to the sign (in around 1525) Salzburg was besieged by the enemy. Despite all efforts to conserve food very soon all that was left was one ox. An idea was born to paint the ox different colours on each side to parade along the fortress parapet to show the enemy that the people of Salzburg were not going to run out of food for a long time. The enemy gave up their fight and Salzburg were free. Ever since the people of Salzburg have been known as "Oxen Washers" (Stierwascher).
What?! What kind of plan is this? You parade the ox around clockwise one day, then counterclockwise the next? Your people are starving! Get with it!
http://www.norseaodyssey.com/Our_Travels/Europe/Austria/Salzburg/salzburg.htm
One of the interesting points is this half brown - half black ox in one of the courtyards. The story goes that sometime around 1525 the fortress was besieged by an enemy army. It lasted long enough that the residents were down to their last ox. Wanting to show their strength, they washed and painted their last ox black on one side, leaving the other side brown. They then paraded the ox along the ramparts, back and forth so the enemy could see they were not near starvation. The enemy was fooled, believing the citizens had enough food to last a very long time and gave up the siege. The residents washed the ox one last time and ever since then the people of Salzburg have been known as the “stierwaschers” or oxen-washers.
No, no, no! Same problem! Just because the statue is half black and half brown, you think it's some kind of chimera like the blackwhite quack from that old Star Trek episode!! Pay attention to the tour guide next time! Or just stay in Amsterdam.
http://hannahefrank.blogspot.com/2006_05_21_archive.html
Apparently an invading army was laying seige to the Hohensalzburg once upon a time. The situation inside the fortress got so bad that they were eventually down to just one ox to eat. To try to convince the seigers that they were doing fine, they paraded this one ox up and down the walls of the fortress, then painted it black and did it again, trying to convince them that they had more to eat than they actually had. The plan worked and the invading army left. Who knew? So now there is a random half-black and half-brown ox inside the Hohensalzburg.
Huh. Aside from misspelling siege, this is mostly correct. No fun.
http://www.francistapon.com/europe/austria.htm
"Let's paint our last cow blue and parade it around the walls so they can see it."
"Sounds stupid, boss...."
"Shut up, you fool! The next day, we wash up the cow and paint it green and show it off."
"What's the point, your worship?"
"You buffoon!! Don't you see!? If we keep that up and keep showing them different colored cows, they'll think we have tons of cows left! Duh!!!"
Believe it or not, just like the bells that ring 12 times at 11, this silly idea worked too. The peasants weren't willing to it stick out through the winter, so they split.
I appreciate the effort at satiric dialog. I wonder how many cows it would take to have a ton of cow. Duh!!!
http://www.ellisnz.com/2005/06/thursday-16-june-2005-salzburg.html
I forgot to explain why "Ox-painters" is the nickname for residents of Salzburg.
The fortress of Hohensalzburg was under seige and although the residents had been conserving food they were down to the last Ox. They were faced with three options:
- Starve,
- Repel the invaders, or
- Surrender.
To show the invaders that they still had plenty of food they paraded the last ox in sight of the enemy. The then painted it another colour, paraded it again. They kept repainted in the ox and parading it until the invaders thought that the foodstocks were still plentiful and they withdrew rather than wait for the Salzburgers to be starved out.
No! They only painted it once. Now, this did seem a weakness of the original story, since two heads (of cattle) are not much better than one. They did not have an unlimited supply of paint, nor potential ox colors, genders, or other identifying parameters.
"Hey, Johannes!"
"Yeah, Gerhardt?"
"Look! It's another ox! He's just coming on to the parapet now!"
"Huh. I guess they got lots of food."
"But this one - he's pink!"
"So?"
"And the one yesterday, and last Thursday - he's the exact same color as the fortress walls!"
"So?"
"And all seventeen of them - they all had that limp in the left foreleg!"
"Yeah?"
"And they're all male!"
"Yeah. Of course. They're all male. We're speaking German."
"Oh yeah."
"Huh?"
"Never mind. Let's go home."
I found other blogs that said the siegers were Turks or that the cow was simply washed without repainting.
Moral: When life is at steak, don't be an ox.
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