TheBavarian Rummel (German:Bayrischer Rummel;Bavarian:Boarischer Rummel) was the term usedto downplay (Rummel means 'hustle and bustle') the warlike events in whichBavarian troops of ElectorMaximilian II Emanuel invaded theCounty of Tyrol in 1703 during theWar of the Spanish Succession.
On 19 June 1703, Bavarian troops besiegedKufstein. Fires broke out on the outskirts of the town, which engulfed the town itself, destroyed it and reached thepowder store of the supposedly impregnablefortress. The enormous supplies of gunpowder exploded and Kufstein surrendered on 20 June. That same day, the Tyrolese surrendered inWörgl; two days laterRattenberg was captured andInnsbruck was cleared on 25 June without a fight. But the Bavarians then suffered reverses at the hands of the Tyrolese on 1 July at thePontlatzer Bridge in the upperInn Valley, at theBrenner Pass and near Innsbruck. On 26 July,Saint Anne's Day, Tyrol was freed again and Maximilian Emanuel retreated to Bavaria viaSeefeld in Tirol.
In 2011, during construction work inPfons in theWipptal valley, graves were uncovered, which were presumably those of Bavarian soldiers, who were not buried in the cemetery, but in threes near the river bank. The theory rests on clues that were mentioned in the local chronicle ofMatrei am Brenner.[1]
In gratitude for their freedom, in 1704 theLandstände pledged to have aSt. Anne's Column built and this was erected in Innsbruck in 1706.[2]
The Bavarian Rummel forms – together with the struggle for Tyrolean freedom in 1809, which regularly overshadows it both in expert and public discourse – was an important element of Tyrolean historical consciousness and Tyrolean identity and made a lasting contribution to the creation of the image of the "fighting Tyrolean farmer".[3]
