Title: Boßeln (Bosseln)

General Information about Item:

• Type of Lore: Drinking Game
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: Germany
• Informant: Nicolay Ostrau
• Date Collected: May 28, 2019

Informant Data:

• Nicolay Ostrau is a Professor and Senior Lecturer in Dartmouth’s department of German studies. His home region is Northern Germany. He heard of this drinking game through his many experiences with German culture, although he never partook in the game itself.

Contextual Data:

• The game has a large social component to it. As the informant mentions, it is often the entire village that plays the game. Because Germany allows drinking at the age of 16, typical games such as those found on American college campuses seem to be less prevalent, whereas older, traditional games that can be played by elders seem to be more common.

Item:

• “I’ve never taken part in it myself or even seen it played, but I know that it exists…
  I think the most interesting [drinking game] culture wise is… It’s a pastime. I don’t know whether to call it a sport… It kind of is a sport. It’s called Boßeln.  And the best way to describe it and to translate it would be that it’s a form of cross country bowling. It’s really strange.
  It’s coming from my home region northern Germany. Because you can imagine Northern Germany is really flat. And, it is usually played by older people or by entire villages – small northern German villages. You take a bowling type ball, you get together with a bunch of friends or with your family… You start in the village center and you start rolling this ball down the street. You have two teams and the attempt is of course to roll that ball as far and as quickly as possible. Who ever rolls the ball the fastest and arrives at a given destination that has been agreed on beforehand wins the game. Also I think you get points for the times that you have to roll. So it’s like it’s like miniature golf. The fewer times you have the roll that ball the more points you get.Why is it a drinking game? Because traditionally you take along a handcart you walk with and this handcart is filled with liquor. So every time every time you roll that ball you ought to drink a shot. You can imagine as the game progresses, things get heated and then more and more funny. Then at the end everybody ends up at a “Gaststätte” (at a pub) and then people traditionally eat that famous northern German dish…They eat cooked kale with a fat sausage, which then soaks up all the alcohol to that you have had before.
  So that is, I think, the most interesting one.”

Informant Comments:

• “This is interesting because it is also really rooted in tradition. This is local northern German families and villages that get together… I don’t know when it was invented maybe in the 19th century I couldn’t tell how long this has been around, but it is very traditional.
  It’s that village culture and it’s also… I mean the aim of the game is to, number one to stay warm in winter. The more liquor you drink, the warmer you stay. And that’s of course the reason to do it in winter because you have an excuse for drinking a lot outside. And it’s really bringing the community together. Right, it’s the entire village that plays together, that has fun together, and then also you always go sit down in a pub and you eat a traditional northern German dish together.
  So it’s connected to food. I think it builds community. And then also, you’re consuming a local drink. That is, Korn which is a corn liquor that’s especially popular in northern Germany. So in that respect also, it’s really rooted in tradition and specific to that to that region. And then also it takes advantage of the landscape…You would have a much harder time playing cross country bowling in Bavaria in a village that’s located on a slope. Either you would be running after the ball or the ball would roll back and it wouldn’t really come to a standstill anywhere.
  So in that respect that it’s rooted in the landscape and the food and also the village community.”

Collector’s Comments:

• I found this game quite interesting because as the informant mentioned, it is usually played by older people (or entire villages). The fact that Germany has a low drinking age seems to have made drinking more institutionalized than here in America, allowing such traditional games to take place. It doesn’t seem to have the “legitimization” aspect that many college drinking games seem to; Rather, it seems to be played simply to have a great time with friends and family, with no judgement – because drinking in Germany carries none of the stigma that drinking in America does.

Collector’s Name: Michael Steel

Tags/Keywords:

• Ritual. Drinking Game. German.