Wolpertinger, the jesting being of Bavarian hunters
By Ralf Ittermann · last reviewed on
The Wolpertinger is a spirit of the Alpine tradition.
The composite being of hare, bird and roebuck, never caught. Hunter campfire tales cast the Wolpertinger as a jesting creature assembled from mismatched animal parts.
The Wolpertinger is a Bavarian composite being made of hare, bird and roebuck, regarded as the target of a popular hunters’ prank. Neither collectors of legends nor natural scientists have ever managed to catch a living animal, though since the 19th century taxidermists have created stuffed specimens for inns and tourists.
Unlike many Alpine beings, the Wolpertinger was never conceived as a real threat but as a jest between locals and outsiders. Name variants such as Woipertinger, Raurackl or Oibadrischl show how the figure’s regional spread extended beyond Bavaria.
Type: Humorous composite being of Bavarian hunters’ folklore
Origin: oral hunters’ and farmers’ tradition, presumably since the 17th/18th century
Texts: hunters’ tales, tavern jokes, taxidermy specimens documented in museums since the 19th century
Period: according to legend, at night in Bavarian forests
Appearance: composite being made of a hare’s head with antlers, bird wings and varying additional animal parts
Context of tradition
Period of the Texts
The Wolpertinger has presumably been told of among hunters and farmers since the 17th or 18th century; pictorial precursors of a horned hare already appear in woodcuts and engravings from the 17th century.
Area of Diffusion
Found throughout Bavaria, especially Upper Bavaria, with regional name variants such as Woipertinger, Raurackl in Salzburg and Lower Austria, and Oibadrischl in Lower Bavaria.
Sources
No closed early collection of legends exists, but rather hunters’ tales, tavern jokes and taxidermy specimens documented in museums, including at the Deutsches Jagd- und Fischereimuseum in Munich.
Name and variants
Origin of the name: Several theories circulate about the origin of the name: one traces it back to glassmakers from the village of Wolterdingen near Donaueschingen, who produced animal-shaped schnapps glasses called Wolterdinger; another links the name to the dialect form Walper for Walpurgis Night.
Form and behaviour
Appearance
The Wolpertinger has no uniform appearance: usually a hare’s head bears a small roebuck’s antlers, joined by bird wings in place of the front legs, sometimes webbed feet on the hind legs or predator’s teeth, depending on which animal parts the respective taxidermist had at hand. Wild hares infected with the Shope papilloma virus, which develop wart-like horned growths, may actually have provided the natural-history impetus for this pictorial tradition.
Effect
According to legend, the Wolpertinger lives a shy, nocturnal life in the Bavarian Alpine forests and is considered practically impossible to catch. At the heart of the tradition is the so-called Wolpertinger hunt, an initiation prank in which newcomers are sent into the forest at night with a sack and a lamp to wait in vain for the being.
Profile: Wolpertinger
The key aspects of the jocular being at a glance.
Bavarian hunting and tavern folklore with no fixed early collection of legends, documented mainly through 19th-century taxidermy specimens.
Mainly tourists and newcomers as targets of the prank during the nocturnal Wolpertinger hunt.
Hare’s head with small roebuck’s antlers and bird wings, sometimes with webbed feet or predator’s teeth, depending on the taxidermy materials available.
A sociable rite of passage for newcomers and the basis of a lucrative souvenir trade in taxidermy specimens.
No protection is needed, as it poses no threat; those invited on a Wolpertinger hunt would do well to take it with good humour.
The Swedish Skvader and the North American Jackalope as related taxidermy jest-beings from hunting circles.
From horned hare to taxidermy jest
The exact origin of the Wolpertinger remains unclear. It was told of chiefly among hunters and farmers, who reported strange animal shapes said to have been seen deep in Bavarian forests, presumably since the 17th or 18th century. Pictorial precursors of a horned hare already appear in woodcuts and engravings from the 17th century; wild hares infected with the Shope papilloma virus, which develop wart-like horned growths, may actually have provided the natural-history impetus for this pictorial tradition.
The Wolpertinger truly flourished in the 19th century, when Bavarian taxidermists began assembling body parts of various animals, a hare’s head, bird wings, a roebuck’s antlers, into mounted composite specimens and selling them to tourists as a supposedly native wild species. A permanent exhibition area can still be found today at the Deutsches Jagd- und Fischereimuseum in Munich.
Reception and classification
Today the Wolpertinger is a firm part of Bavarian tourism and tavern culture, adorning beer mats, souvenirs and menus. The writer Alfons Schweiggert dedicated several popular books to it, and the report Bayern braucht Wolpertinger by Hannes Burger, Ernst Fischer and Herbert Riehl-Heyse already discussed the figure with a wink as Bavarian cultural heritage in 1977.
In terms of religious studies, the Wolpertinger does not belong among the numinous, fear-inspiring beings of the Alpine region, but rather to the type of the comic figure that arises in sociable storytelling and in dealings with strangers. A living specimen has never been proven to exist; what exists are elaborately assembled taxidermy specimens from the 19th century. The close connection to the taxidermist’s craft shows how craftsmanship, spectacle and legend-making could reinforce one another, without the being ever being credited with any real threat.
Good humour instead of defence
Since the Wolpertinger is not regarded as threatening in any source, tradition knows no protective means against it. The only caution ever mentioned concerns the prank itself: those who did not let themselves be invited on a nocturnal Wolpertinger hunt were spared ridicule, and those who accepted such an invitation anyway did well to take it with good humour rather than false seriousness. Stuffed Wolpertinger specimens were traditionally hung in taverns more as decoration and conversation pieces than understood as protective objects.
Skvader, Jackalope and ancient composite beings
As a jocular composite being from hunting circles, the Wolpertinger belongs to a family of similar figures such as the Swedish Skvader or the North American Jackalope, which likewise arose from taxidermy tradition and hunters’ humour. In terms of the composite-being motif, though from a different cultural and religious context, the Faun and the Satyr of ancient mythology can also be compared, woodland beings conceived as half human, half animal, though regarded as independent nature deities rather than jest figures. Within Bavarian legend, the Tatzelwurm stands beside it as another, though more seriously interpreted, fabled creature.
Frequently asked questions about the Wolpertinger
Does the Wolpertinger really exist?
No, a living specimen has never been proven to exist. What exists are elaborately assembled taxidermy specimens from the 19th century, which served as supposed evidence, along with the tales surrounding the nocturnal Wolpertinger hunt.
Where does the name Wolpertinger come from?
The exact origin is unclear. A derivation from animal-shaped schnapps glasses from Wolterdingen and a connection to the dialect word for Walpurgis Night are both discussed.
Where can you see a Wolpertinger?
Historical specimens are permanently displayed at the Deutsches Jagd- und Fischereimuseum in Munich. Further examples can be found in Bavarian taverns and souvenir shops as touristic display pieces.
Further links
Further reading:
- Alpine region – all beings of Alpine legend
- Tatzelwurm, Schrat – further Bavarian-Alpine legendary figures
- Wild Man, Habergeiss – related fabled and fearsome beings
- Horseshoe, Amulet, Protective candle – objects from the traditional context
- Protection Compass – protective means at a glance
Literature (selection)
Further standard works in the bibliography.
As a Wolpertinger legend, this tale remains firmly rooted in the tavern life of Wolpertinger Bavaria: not a threatening being, but an affectionate prank that still lures tourists into the forest for a nocturnal hunt today.
