In 1894/95, a "Questionnaire for the collection of folk traditions" designed by the Freiburg university professors Elard Hugo Meyer, Friedrich Kluge and Fridrich Pfaff was sent to the 1,500 school towns in the Grand Duchy of Baden. A separate questionnaire was sent to the pastors to record the religious and ecclesiastical cultural area.
The return was about 20 %. Elard Hugo Meyer evaluated the questions on "customs and traditions" and published his work "Badisches Volksleben" in 1900. Since 1914 the questions on "Linguistics" and other answers concerning the dialect have been evaluated for the Badisches Wörterbuch.
Of the total of 7,400 preserved reply pages for 507 locations, the collection contains the digital copies of the 130 folders owned by the University. All other folders are kept in the Badisches Landesmuseum, Außenstelle Südbaden/Landesstelle für Volkskunde in Staufen.
Rudolf Post: Die Erhebungen zur Sammlung der Volksüberlieferungen Badens 1894/95 und die Anfänge des „Badischen Wörterbuchs“, in: Rudolf Bentzinger/Damaris Nübling /Rudolf Steffens (Hrsg.): Sprachgeschichte, Dialektologie, Onomastik, Volkskunde. Wolfgang Kleiber zum 70. Geburtstag (Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik. Beihefte. 115), Stuttgart 2001, S. 259–275.
Elard Hugo Meyer: Badisches Volksleben im 19. Jahrhundert (Forschungen und Berichte zur Volkskunde in Baden-Württemberg. Band 8), Stuttgart 1984 (ND).
Specifically, the questionnaire covered the following topics:
1. Place names
2. Field names (microtoponyms)
3. Family names and given names
4. House construction
5. House marks or farmstead coats of arms
6. Traditional folk costume
7. Food and diet
8. Crafts and trades
9. Folk songs, nursery rhymes, folk plays, proverbs, humorous tales and anecdotes, local jibes, occupational sayings, village sayings, and riddles
10. Fairy tales
11. Legends
12. Customs and traditions
13. Language and dialect
A separate questionnaire was sent to parish priests in order to document the religious and ecclesiastical sphere of culture. It covered the following topics:
I. Church doctrine and religious belief
II. Sacraments
1. Baptism
2. Confirmation
3. The Eucharist
4. The Sacrament of Penance
5. Holy Orders
6. Marriage
7. Anointing of the Sick
III. The Commandments and their transgression
IV. Religious observances and customs
1. Prayer and devotions
2. Veneration of the saints
3. Vows, pilgrimages, and processions
4. Consecrations and blessings
5. Churches and churchyards
6. Crosses and wayside shrines
V. The liturgical year, feast days, and festivals
In addition, a third questionnaire is known to have existed, specifically intended for Protestant clergy.