Photo: BMLFUW/Rit...
Metnitztaler Wild
Record Number: 130
Disclosure Date
In the Metnitztaler Wild Region of Delight, regulated hunting has been practiced for centuries by the manorial system of the Bishopric of Gurk (founded in 1074).
Photo: BMLFUW/A...
Metnitztaler Wild
(Metnitztal wild game)
Abstract or claim
Traditionally produced specialities made using venison from red, roe and chamois deer, as well as from game birds and rabbits, in the Metnitztal region in Carinthia.
Due to its high consumption of Alpine meadow herbs, venison from Metnitztaler Wild features even more intense, dark-red colouring than that from other regions.
The wild game is allowed to reach maturity free of stress and roaming free in a natural environment in Alpine meadows and mountain pastures, contributing fundamentally to the sustained upkeep of the landscape of the region.
Compliance with closed seasons guarantees the stock of game in the region is safeguarded.
Name of product, Product class
Game, fresh meat
Name of region
Metnitz valley, Central Carinthia, Carinthia, Austria
Field of search
Food and agriculture
Name of information provider
Klaus Auer
Chairman ARGE Metnitztaler Wild
Name of applicant for title
---
Holder of knowledge or associated resources
1,000 hunters in the Metnitztal region; ‘Wildwirte’ (‘wild game innkeepers’)
Grantee(s), holder(s), assignee(s) or owner(s) of title, if any
---
Descriptors
- History:
Hunting in general:
Humans have been hunting since the Palaeolithic Age. At that time, prey served exclusively as a means of survival and sustenance, with the pelts being used as protection from the elements and the bones to fashion primitive tools and weapons. Meat from animals was an indispensable basis of human nutrition. From the beginnings of such human activity as a hunter right through to the seventh century AD, all game could be caught or slain at any time, in any place and with whatever means available.
With growing settlement of communities and the domestication of animals this brought, hunting increasingly became of secondary importance as a basis for life amongst large parts of the population, and was replaced by agriculture and breeding of livestock.
Hunting in Austria:
Hunting began to be a privilege in the early Middle Ages. In this way, ordinary farmers and citizens, as well as the majority of the lower, landed gentry, were excluded from hunting.
Areas in which the king alone had the right to hunt are described as ‘royal hunting grounds’. Centralised royal power began to dwindle in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the power of the regional landowners grew. The legal rights previously enjoyed by the king passed to these regional landowners, who claimed the right to hunt on the territory they now controlled.
At the end of the Middle Ages (from around 1500), the ‘Jagdregal’ of the sovereign (a law granting the sovereign the right to hunt on another person’s land) resulted in ever greater expansion into areas in which he was not the landowner.
The ruler acquired not just ownerless land and the land of the ruling class, but also private land, and by doing so took control of them. This resulted in ever greater circles of people being excluded from the practice of hunting.
From that time onwards, baronial or knightly hunting was no longer about the prey being caught, but the staging, or the ‘how’ of hunting.
The Middle Ages also created a distinction between ‘high hunting’ – hunting for large wild game, reserved for the nobility – and ‘low hunting’ (for lower clergy and the like) for smaller animals such as rabbits, birds and deer, the only type of hoofed game to be classified as small game.
Kaiser Joseph II (1741 - 1790) lifted the monopoly on hunting enjoyed by the landowners and clergy with his ‘Josephine Patent’ of 28 February 1786.
Already by 1818, citizens and farmers were able to acquire or lease a hunt.
But it was not until the hunting patent of Kaiser Franz-Joseph (1830 - 1916) of 7 March 1849 that hunting on another’s land was repealed, and the right to hunt was declared a product of landownership. This was the beginning of private hunting and of communal, or cooperative, hunting.
Today, hunting in Austria is a matter settled at provincial level.
The first hunting laws in Austria appeared on the statute books at the turn of the twentieth century. From 1945 to 1955, when Austria was under the Occupying Powers in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, Imperial Hunting Law applied in all the provinces of ‘Ostmark’, as Austria was known when part of Nazi Germany. Hunting law became a provincial issue after Austria’s liberation from Germany, since when the nine Austrian federal provinces have each had their own provincial hunting law.
Hunting in Carinthia:
The Carinthian hunting system is distinguished by its lack of a sovereign right to hunt applicable throughout the province. Not even high hunting belonged to the regalia of the regional sovereign; low hunting (also known as ‘Reißgejagd‘, literally ‘hunting in the ‘Reiss' or ‘bushes’) remained a privilege of rural nobles who were restricted by no hunting grounds whatsoever. As long as they were members of the landed elite, nobles were permitted to practice low hunting wherever they wished throughout the province.
Numerous attempts were made to enforce a right to hunt on the part of the regional sovereign.
Even when Carinthia went over to the Habsburgs in 1335, the powerful dynasty was unable to assert a right to hunt on the part of the regional sovereign. It was not until Maria Theresa (1717 - 1780) that the privileges of Carinthian nobles were finally broken, and the legal status of hunting equalised with that in neighbouring provinces.
In 1732, the new Hunting and Fishing Regulation, which continued to feature such strongly class-oriented thinking, was pronounced by the ‘commendable estates of the archbishopric of Carinthia’.
Carinthia witnessed the founding of the first bourgeois hunting association in the German-speaking world, the ‘Klagenfurter Jagdgesellschaft’ (‘Klagenfurt Hunting Society’), in 1798. Its aim was to educate hunters in how to become preservers of nature and protectors of wild game.
Hunting in the Metnitztal:
Regulated hunting has been practiced for centuries in the Metnitztal region by the manorial system of the Bishopric of Gurk (founded in 1074).
In Carinthia, just as in other provinces, farmers did not become sole proprietors of their lands until 1848.
Hunting practice was dominated by arbitrary government and disarray in the decades that followed.
Although red deer disappeared in some parts of Carinthia, this was not the case in Metnitztal, where the Bishopric of Gurk had always strongly treated the species with care. Very large hunting grounds covering thousands of hectares of land were founded which also enclosed rural properties by means of leases.
For over 60 years now, it has primarily been rural landowners hunting in the Metnitztal area, on hunting grounds that are either their own or are communally owned. A number of major landowners such as the Bishopric of Gurk continue to exist alongside them.
In 2000, the ‘Regionalverein Hemmaland’ (‘Hemmaland Regional Association’) was founded as a cooperation between the districts of Althofen, Friesach, Gurk, Metnitz, Micheldorf, Straßburg, Weitensfeld, Mölbling, Glödnitz and Dürnstein in Styria, as well as Brauerei Hirt brewery, Deutsch Ordens hospital in Friesach, the Bishopric of Gurk and the Vitalhotel Agathenhof spa resort. The aim of the organisation is for its members to collaborate to guarantee positive economic and population development.
In 2001, in collaboration with the Hemmaland Regional Association, nine proprietors from the region founded the ‘Wildwirte’, gastronomic outlets specialising in dishes featuring venison.
Hunting doesn’t just play an important economic role in the region. The culture and traditions surrounding hunting are also firmly anchored in the population, and include the ‘Jägerschlag’, a huntsman’s initiation ceremony undergone by young hunters after they shoot their first deer.
The place of venison in cuisine:
Since hunting was the privilege of the exclusive society for centuries, recipes for dishes featuring game were initially only to be found in the cookbooks of the noble-aristocratic and Church circles. Venison (meat from wild game) provided most of the fresh meat used in the kitchens of the court, monasteries and nobility, especially in the winter months.
Only in the nineteenth century did game develop into a trading item, when it found its way into the cuisine of wider strata of the population.
- Region:
Photo: BMLFUW/Rita Newman
It is named after the River Metnitz, and ranges from the Flattnitzer Höhe highlands in the east (at an altitude of 1,400 metres above sea level) via Metnitz (851 metres), Grades (870 metres) and Friesach (634 metres), to the town of Pöckstein Zwischenwässern in the district of Straßburg.
The Metnitzer Mountains form the northernmost part of the Gurktaler Alps, and make up part of the Central Alps, geologically speaking. The highest summit is the Wintertaler Nock, which rises to 2,394 metres above sea level. The region is shaped by numerous castles, palaces and monasteries, as well as Gurk Cathedral. As well as the Metnitz, the River Gurk flows through the region.
When referred to in relation to the Region of Delight, the Metnitztaler Wild region takes in the area of both the Metnitztal and Gurktal valleys, and currently extends across the eight districts of Glödnitz, Weitensfeld, Straßburg, Gurk, Mölbling, Micheldorf, Friesach and Metnitz.
Climate:
Metnitztal valley is located in the temperate climate zone of Central Europe. It is shielded by mountains to the south, and open to cold Tauern winds to the north. The vegetation period here is particularly short.
The average annual temperature is around 5 °C. The average temperature in summer is 17 °C, and -4 °C in winter.
Annual precipitation is between 768 mm (Friesach) and 1,148 mm (Flattnitz).
Habitat:
The Metnitztaler Wild hunting ground covers some 60,000 hectares.
Wild game in the area lives in a purely natural environment in the Alpine meadows and pastures year-round, at altitudes ranging between 1,000 and 2,000 metres.
Photo: BMLFUW/Rita Newman
- Wild game:
The term ‘wild game’ is used to describe animals living free in nature and subject to the hunting laws of the respective province.
Wild game is roughly subdivided into furred and feathered game. Furred game includes hoofed game (e.g. red deer, roe deer, wild boar and chamois deer), types of rabbit (rabbit and wild rabbit), rodents (the marmot and beaver) and small furred wild game (brown bear, fox, wolf, badger, polecat and stone marten). ‘Feathered game’ refers to flightless birds, tree birds and waterfowl.
- Metnitztaler Wild (Metnitztaler wild game):
The hunting grounds of the Metnitztaler Wild Region of Delight are home first and foremost to red, roe and chamois deer, feathered game (black grouse such as the capercaillie, black cock and hazel cock), and rabbits. The red deer is the most important species of wild game in the woods.
Stocks of game in the hunting grounds total around 6,900 animals, including approximately 4,000 roe deer, 2,500 red deer and 400 chamois deer.
Method of production:
Some 1,000 hunters devote their time and energy to feeding and hunting wild game in the Metnitztal area, five of whom are professional hunters.
Metnitztaler Wild lives and roams free in a stress-free, natural environment.
Feeding:
Metnitztaler Wild feeds on fruits (blueberries and cranberries),herbs such as the Alpine rose and Alpine Valerian, grasses such as red clover, tall oatgrass and matgrass, the twigs and buds of deciduous and coniferous woods and spring water.
Wild game is only fed in the winter months, when it is fed on grass silage, hay or after-grass (second or third cuts) from farmers across the region. Depending on weather conditions, hunters, foresters and farmers often have to refill the hayboxes, which are located close to the edge of the forest, up to three times a week.
It is not permitted for medication to be used.
Hunting:
Hunting of game is ecologically credible and meets the highest standards of humane animal welfare.
The hunting season runs from 1 May to 31 January. The rest of the year is a closed season issued as a regulation by the regional government (shooting guidelines).
A certain percentage of wild game in each age category has to be hunted each year, with the municipal authority defining what this percentage should be. Only as much wild game is hunted as will grow back under natural conditions.
Approximately 1,750 roe deer, 850 red deer and 50 chamois deer are hunted each year.
After hunting, wild game should be broken apart and gutted as quickly as possible. The meat is then placed in a cooled wild game storeroom to allow it to mature. It is stored at a temperature of 8 °C for four to six days.
Processing:
The majority of the wild game is processed into a range of venison specialities (ham, sausage and liver sausage). A company providing game processing services is located outside the region in the neighbouring municipality of Murau.
Although greater numbers of roe deer are hunted, there is more red deer processed in volume terms. In the Region of Delight, 20 times more venison from red deer is processed and consumed than from roe deer or any other species of wild game.
Fresh meat is also offered in deep-frozen form.
Processed products are vacuum-packed.
Meat description:
Due to its high consumption of Alpine meadow herbs, meat from Metnitztaler Wild features even more intense, dark-red colouring than venison from other regions.
Nutrition:
Venison is low in calories and cholesterol, has a low fat content and has a higher protein content than meat from farmed animals. Venison is rich in vitamins B1, B2, B6 and B12, and well-known for its mineral content and trace elements such as iron, zinc and selenium.
Quality control:
Before hunting, the hunter inspects the wild game optically for any distinctive features.
The wild game meat is subjected to a meat inspection for any animal diseases and parasites potentially transferable to humans (e.g. TBC, bladder worms and trichinae) by specially-trained hunters in the case of non-commercial marketing, or by so-called ‘game meat inspectors’ or veterinarians when it is to be marketed commercially.
Following the inspection, the meat packaging is given a ‘health mark’, a veterinarian gives meat intended for trade either a five-cornered stamp (meaning it can be sold both within the EU common market and the national market) or a quadratic stamp (national market only).
Meat not intended for the market is marked by the hunter in the form of a tag bound to the venison.
- Marketing:
Meat from wild game is available during the hunting season (1 May and 31 January) in both fresh and deep-frozen form, with the main venison season running from September to December. Processed products can be enjoyed year-round.
Photo: BMLFUW/Rita Newman
The ‘Wilde Ecke’ (‘wild game corners’) of regional taverns offer guests an opportunity to buy venison-based souvenirs such as sausages in general, and regional speciality sausages.
Once a year at the end of August, a venison festival is held, offering the ‘Wildwirte’ a chance to treat guests to speciality dishes based on game.
Connection with the geographic region and traditional knowledge:
- Special soil and climate conditions in the Metnitztal region, with its diverse
range of local Alpine flora, enable wild game to reproduce in the Alpine
meadows and pastures at altitudes of up to 2,000 metres above sea level.
- In harmony with the native soil: the wild game feeds on grasses and herbs
from Alpine pastures, woodland fruits, and pure, fresh mountain spring
water from the pasture area. Any additional feeding with regional feedstuffs
takes place exclusively in the winter months.
- Metnitztaler Wild lives and roams free in a natural environment year-round,
reaching maturity by natural selection.
- Thanks to this lifestyle, wild game meat has a highly characteristic composition
with a unique aroma and flavour. These are directly related to the local Alpine
flora the animals live on.
- Production of Metnitztaler Wild is the result of traditional knowledge handed
down to those active in the field, including the traditional knowledge and
experience of hunters (compliance with closed seasons and hunting methods),
know-how of slaughterers, and the experience of processors and gastronomic
outlets (‘Wildwirte’).
- Utilisation:
Metnitztaler Wild is offered as fresh venison (whole or ready-to-cook), deep-frozen and processed, in the form of venison meat loaf, venison salami, red deer sausage, chamois deer sausage, wild boar, chamois deer or red deer ham, and venison liver spread.
- Protection:
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Key Words
Food and agriculture, traditional knowledge, Austria, Carinthia, region, Metnitztal-Hemmaland, meat, wild game, Metnitztaler Wild, Metnitztal wild game, venison, meat from wild game
Bibliography / References
- Bundesgesetzblatt für die Republik Österreich, 108. Verordnung der
Bundesministerin für Gesundheit und Frauen über die Direktvermarktung
von Lebensmitteln (Lebensmittel-Direktvermarktungsverordnung)
- HIRSCHL, H. Das Rotwild im Metnitztal ist in Gefahr, Kleine Zeitung,
12.01.2009
http://www.kleinezeitung.at/kaernten/sanktveit/1723170/index.do
- KULTURABTEILUNG-KÄRNTNER LANDESAUSSTELLUNG. Alles Jagd…eine
kulturgeschichte, Kärntner Landesausstellung Ferlach 1997, S. 208f.
- MAIER-BRUCK F. Vom Essen auf dem Lande, 2. Auflage, Verlag Kremayr &
Scheriau, Wien, 1995, S. 162,
- MAIER-BRUCK F. (2003): Wild. In: Klassische Österreichische Küche,
Seehamer Verlag GmbH, Weyarn
- MISCHEK, M. Die Jagd in Niederösterreich vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert,
Diplomarbeit, Wien, 1990, S.41f.
- NEUMANN W. Zur Geschichte der Jagd in Kärnten. In: Bausteine zur
Geschichte Kärntens, 2. Auflage, Verlag des Kärntner Landesarchivs,
Klagenfurt, 1994, S. 272-279
- Verordnung des Bundesministers für Gesundheit, Sport und Konsumentenschutz
über das Inverkehrbringen des Fleisches von Wild aus freier Wildbahn
(Wildfleischverordnung), BGBl. Nr. 400/1994
- Bistum Gurk-Dorst- und Gutsdirektion im Stift St. Georgen am Längsee
http://www.bistum-gurk.at
- Das Haarwild
http://www.jagdverb-ooe.at/Wildkunde/Haarwildarten/HAARWILD.htm
- Die Fleischqualität ist abhängig von:
http://www.8ung.at/kirischitz/beschau.htm
- jagd.wien.at
Das Webportal des Wiener Landesjagdverbandes
http://www.jagd-wien.at/Weidmannsheil.1128.0.html?&no_cache=1
- Geschichte der Jagd – 39. Teil
http://www.st-hubertus.at/?id=2500%2C1011789%2C%2C
- Herzlich Willkommen auf der eite der ARGE Genussregion Metnitztaler Wild
http://www.metnitztalerwild.at/index.php
- Jagd
http://de.wikipedia.org./wiki/Jagd
- Kärnten
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A4rnten
- Kennzeichnung durch den Tierarzt
http://www.8ung.at/kirischitz/beschau.htm
- Klimatographie von Österreich
http://www.boku.ac.at/imp/education/Klima-b/STKAP4CO.DOC-
- Kultwelt Hemmaland
http://www.hemmaland.at/
- Metnitz (Fluss)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metnitztal
- Metnitzer Berge
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metnitzer_Berge
- Metnitztal
http://aeiou.iicm.tugraz.at/aeiou.encyclop.m/m580891.htm
- Metniztaler Wild
http://www.genuss-region.at/article/archive/19828
- Mittelkärnten
http://www.mittelkaernten.com/index.htm
- Mittelkärnten- Eckdaten zur Region
http://www.verwaltung.ktn.gv.at/4737_DE-k%e4rnten%3amitte-Region.64D66462983897385235eba64b300edb2a57ab6
- Niederwild
http://www.jagd.it/niederwild/index.htm
- Region Mittelkärnten
http://www.hemmaland.at/
- Region Mittelkärnten
http://www.tiscover.at/at/guide/5,de,SCH1/objectId,RGN293506at,curr,EUR,season,at1,selectedEntry,home/home.html
- Rund um Friesach im Hemma-Land
http://www.3sat.de/3sat.php?http://www.3sat.de/aufgegabelt/20692/index.html
- Weinviertler Waidkameraden
http://www.weinviertler-waidkameraden.at/
- Wild, en.: game, fr.: gibier, it.: cacciagione, caccia, es.: salvajina, venado
http://www.lebensmittellexikon.de/w0000450.php
- Wild in den Alpen
http://www.jagd.it/hochwild/index.htm
- Wildbret – ein Beitrag für gesunde Ernährung?
http://www.raumberg-gumpenstein.at
- Willkommen bei Steirische Wildspezialitäten: Coloman Strohmeier
http://www.wild-strohmeier.at/total.htm
- Zeugninisverteilung Jäger Sommerfest in Schloss Mageregg
http://www.kaerntner-jaegerschaft.at/index.php?content=show_content.php&dir=php&main_section=45&id=203
All internet references last accessed on 27 October 2009.
Language Code
German
Product of www.genuss-region.at
Yes
Regional contact
Cilly Höferer
Erlebniswirtshaus Speckladle
Wienerstraße 12
9360 Friesach
Phone: 04268/2392
E-Mail: speckladle@aon.at
Authors: Doris Reinthaler, Eva Sommer, Erhard Höbaus
30.12.2011, Lebensministerium III/4