I went on a trip to Austria some time back, and part of the entertainment was a folk dance group at a hostelry. Leather shorts, slapping, general mucking about and licenced laddishness. But they were accompanied by a troupe of, for want of a better word, mummers. A fake female, in a wide skirt, with some sort of shaped object for hitting people; a fool, and other characters, some in black-face, some masked (I think the masks may have been black, rather than face paint). There was a deal of leering at the females in the audience, and attempts at kissing. The overall feel of the thing was certainly not the triumph of light over dark, but quite grim. In Innsbruck museum, there were some old costumes. The mask faces were very gargoyle-like. Both the museum images, and the performance were a bit disturbing. A number of costumes, and smaller dolls of the characters, used corn - what do you call the sheaths of maize cobs? - in their construction, which argues against antiquity.
However, they did seem to be related to parts of tradition here in the UK. It looks unlikely that traditions were exchanged during recent wars, or indeed Marlborough's essays into Higher Germany, so it seems that there could be some common origin further back than that.
I don't know if that's any help - perhaps someone knows more about that tradition.
Penny