Blumepeter

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Blumepeter monument on the Kapuzinerplanken in Mannheim

The Blumepeter (also Blumenpeter , actually Peter Schäfer ; born April 5, 1875 in Plankstadt , † June 15, 1940 in Wiesloch ) is a Mannheim local legend . He was a poor flower seller who roamed the Mannheim restaurants.

Life

He was born as Johann Peter Berlinghof, son of the single Barbara Berlinghof, in Plankstadt. In 1891 the family moved to Mannheim. His biological father, Joseph Schäfer, who had married the mother in the meantime, recognized Peter as their son, so that he has had the family name Schäfer ever since. As a result of an underactive thyroid , he remained short , overgrown and had a reduced intelligence ( cretinism ) throughout his life . He also suffered from bone system abnormalities and severe asthma . He never went to school and could not learn a trade later on . His aunt sent him to the streets and to the surrounding bars as a flower seller, so that he could at least partly finance his living. The frequently repeated sentences “Schääne Blume, die Herrschafte!” (“Beautiful flowers, the gentlemen!”) And “Kaaf mer ebbes ab!” (“Buy something from me!”) Are well known. So he became a kind of mascot, a joke figure, but also a victim of jokes.

With progressive mental decline, he showed increasingly behavioral problems, also aggressive to palpable and is said to have appeared as an exhibitionist. In 1919 he was admitted to an institution in Weinheim , then transferred to the Wiesloch Psychiatric Clinic in 1929 , where he died in 1940. It is not clear whether he was a victim of the so-called Action T4 of the National Socialists or died of natural causes. Schäfer's death occurred between the second and third T4 transports from Wiesloch to Grafeneck . Everything else is speculation. Blumepeter's grave is in the asylum cemetery in Wiesloch.

Legend

Today, Blumepeter is part of the Mannheim local color . The legend has been promoted by the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper and the “Feurio” carnival society since the 1960s . Accordingly, he is assumed to be witty and quick-witted and - contrary to his actual life - claims that he always felt like pranks. To this day, jokes are told with him in the lead role. Posthumously he was given the nickname "Bloomaul", derived from the word "blooe" (from the Middle High German word "bliuwen", which means "to beat"), meaning loving stating or tongue-in-cheek exaggeration of an assertion or story. In the vernacular , “Bloomaul” is often used as an epithet for the “typical” Mannheimer, to whom appropriate characteristics are attributed.

Reminiscences

On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Mannheimer Morgen in 1966, the editors donated a bronze fountain in honor of Peter Peter , created by the sculptor Gerd Dehof . The work was initially set up on July 5th, 1967 in Kunststraße on Kapuzinerplatz ( square N 4), but in 1989 it was moved diagonally across from O 5 in the pedestrian zone of Kapuzinerplanken .

The annual Blumepeter Festival is named after Blumepeter , with a raffle and food sales for charitable purposes. In the weeks leading up to the Blumepeter Festival, the local newspaper regularly organizes a fundraising campaign among Mannheim companies, as all items sold at the festival are donated.

The Bloomaulorden has been awarded in Mannheim every year since 1970 . The symbol of Blumepeter, who is bent down and looks back through his splayed legs, is intended to "memorialize the way of life in the Palatinate, the somewhat rebellious philosophy of life, the quick-wittedness, the sometimes unspoilt motherhood of the Mannheimers". It is meanwhile the highest civil honor in Mannheim and is always awarded on Shrovetide as part of a performance in the National Theater.

literature

  • Eberhard Reuß: Memories of the "Blumepeter". A Mannheim fate . Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-88423-276-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plankstadt website , Der Blumenpeter - The Mannheim Original - a native skirmisher
  2. ^ Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung , Memories of the Mannheimer Blumepeter: "Kaaf ma ebbes ab", from June 13, 2015, accessed on November 30, 2017.
  3. ↑ Where does “Bloomaul” come from? In: Mannheimer Morgen. March 17, 2012, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Chronicle Star. MARCHIVUM , July 6, 1966, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Chronicle Star. MARCHIVUM, July 5, 1967, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Honor with a wink , Mannheimer Morgen , Die große Jubiläums-Zeitung, 60 years, July 6, 2006, page 22.
personal data
SURNAME Blumepeter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schäfer, Peter (real name); Blumepeter; Flowerpeter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mannheim flower seller and city original
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Plankstadt
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1940
Place of death Wiesloch