This Photograph shows a proud German Hunter of the 19th century with his Roebuck.
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German Vintage Hunter




Gunwolf

Gunwolf,
The Reh is likely a studio prop. Notice it has not been "aufgebroken", as it surely would have been, if it were the hunter's. Notice there is also no "last bite", which a hunter of that era would have included.
Mike

Mike,

of course it's a studio shot, as I mentioned in my text. Indeed the question is, if the roebuck was that of the Photographer.. ;-) The problem would have been, that there were several hunters with the same bag.. ;-))

Gunwolf

That's true, maybe even more. The problem is, such photos are so rare we aren't likely to find another.

Mike

Mike, is aufgebrochen the same as auswaiden?

Steve,
I'm not sure what auswaiden is, auswaiten means to stretch out or widen out. Aufgebrochen means it was broken open. We have a couple problems here, number one: I had no schooling in German, whatever I think I know I "picked up" from hunters, engineers, foresters, gunsmiths, citizens living in Bavaria( mostly Lower Franconia);much of which is dialect rather than "High German". Number two, Waidmann's sprache (hunters language) is from old, old tradition and uses terms not used in normal German.
Mike

Ausweiden means "to eviscerate", "to gut", or as we say in America, "to field dress". "Auswaiden" is an alternative spelling.

xausa is right. Today we say in Germany always "aufbrechen", indeed "auswaiden" is the old form. If we congrate a succesful hunter, we say " Waidmannsheil" and this is also written "Weidmannsheil". I always prefere the classic version. As Mike said, the German hunters language is a very special thing and the "normal" people don't understand it.
Unfortunately it disappears more and more and even novices to hunting do not know the most important words...

Waidmannsheil,
Gunwolf

Gunwolf,
What is the past tense of aufbrechen? A friend that had a severe surgery always joked "ich war aufgebrochen wie a rehbock". I just do the best I can, and it has been 36 years.
Mike

Mike,

yes, that's correct! After work, the Rehbock was "aufgebrochen" and in this case, your friend,too! ;-)
By the way, the weight of our game is mostly told aufgebrochen, that means, the live weight was some more higher...

Wolfgang

Wolfgang,
Yes, we(all my friends)usually did too, but now we have some that bring them back to the hunting cabin to dress them. I always liked to do it in the woods and reduced the weight I needed to drag out 20%.Now my friends have 4 wheelers to pick them up. A couple even have a processor gut them too. I don't know what the younger generation is coming to. I guess it is the same in Germany, Axel showed photos of drive hunts, where the hunters were wearing Orange. That wouldn't have happened when I hunted there. At least they still had the streckelegen(?). Since I'm almost 3/4 century old, the young hunters bring mine back to be gutted too, now.
Mike