Child eater fountain
The Kindlifresserbrunnen (dialectal Chindlifrässerbrunne ) belongs to the main group of figure fountains of the 16th century in the old town of Bern .
history
The fountain was built in 1545 by Hans Gieng instead of a wooden fountain from the 15th century. The fountain, originally called Platzbrunnen , was first documented in writing in 1666 as a Kindlifresserbrunnen . The fountain was moved slightly in 1997 as part of the renovation of the tram lines on Kornhausplatz. When moving, the year MDXXXXV (1545) appeared on the floor of the well basin .
The fountain figure is a child- frightening figure (child eater, in English ogre ) leaning on a pedestal , which is just devouring a naked child. There are more children in a sack hanging around the neck. The child eater wears a pointed hat with a rolled brim. The fountain sculpture stands on a Corinthian column hung with garlands . The lower end of the column is decorated with a bear procession. The bear procession is made up of bears dressed to defend themselves. The Bears carry muskets, helmets, swords, troop, a wine jug, ball bags and bandoliers with Swiss crosses.
interpretation
The child eater is a widespread child horror figure of the Middle Ages and early modern times. The figure is shown with a shoulder bag in which the naughty children are put, which is also the case with the Kindlifresserbrunnen. The shape of the figure's hat may be traced back to Georg Pencz 's graphic depiction of Saturn ( Kronos ) from 1531. Kronos is also represented in the visual arts as the devourer of children. However, the fountain figure must not be addressed as a clear representation of Kronos, as he is only shown with one child at a time and the sickle is clearly missing as an attribute in Gieng's sculpture. On the other hand, the child eater is not shown wearing a hat. It can therefore be assumed that the Freiburg sculptor Hans Gieng, who came from Swabia, fused contemporary iconographic elements of the child eater and Saturn in his child-terrifying figure. This is already done on a woodcut from Nuremberg from 1492, where the child eater, expressly marked as Saturn, wears a Jewish hat and has a Jewish ring on his dress.
In the vernacular there are various interpretations of the Kindlifresserbrunnen, such as the fact that the child eater's hat is a Jew hat , the figure of a Jew reminiscent of an alleged ritual murder committed in Bern ( Rudolf von Bern ). Others saw a carnival figure in the child eater , which is unlikely, because the Bernese authorities tried to stop the carnival after the Reformation in 1529 and therefore hardly commissioned a carnival figure as a fountain sculpture.
Roy Oppenheim supports the ritual murder interpretation; the anti-Jewish background is obscured by the interpretations as child fright or Saturn.
additional
In the Yiddish short story Der Kinderli-Freser from the series Chlomot fun a Wanderer by David Einhorn , the first-person narrator has a conversation with the Kindlifresser, who takes care of the children tenderly at night and turns out to be a Jew who was executed in the Middle Ages with his mask off, who during the day has to put on his anti-Semitically inspired grimace as a fountain figure. The Kindlifresserbrunnen plays an important role in the novel L'ogre (German title: Der Kinderfresser , translated by Marcel Schwander) by Jacques Chessex . In it he is a symbol for the father of the first-person narrator who stole his childhood, his first love and ultimately his will to live.
Drinking water
The drinking water network of Energie Wasser Bern ewb supplies the well with drinking water , the quality of which is regularly checked.
literature
- Paul Hofer : The art monuments of the canton of Bern. The city of Bern - cityscape · fortifications · city gates · installations · monuments · bridges · city fountains · hospitals · orphanages . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History (= Die Kunstdenkmäler der Schweiz . Volume 28 ). tape 1 . Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1952, Die Stadtbrunnen II. Figure fountains of the 16th century 6. Kindlifresserbrunnen, p. 276–283 (467 pp., Biblio.unibe.ch [PDF; 68.9 MB ; accessed on January 30, 2018]).
- Berchtold Weber: Historical-topographical lexicon of the city of Bern. Kindlifresserbrunnen (Places \ Sch \ Schweiz (CH) \ Bern (Canton) \ Bern (BE) \ K) . Ed .: Burgerbibliothek Bern (= publications of the Berner Burgerbibliothek ). Bern 2016 ( archives-quickaccess.ch [accessed on February 4, 2018]).
- Joseph Victor Widmann : The festive poem. Comedy in two parts. 1873 ( books.google.lv ).
- Hans Mödelhammer: The child eater and other contributions to folklore and symbolism. A trip into the past. Puchheim 2001.
See also
Web links
- Documents on the Kindlifresserbrunnen in the online archive catalog of the Burgerbibliothek Bern
- Information on the Kindlifresserbrunnen on g26.ch ( Memento from January 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Bernhard Ott: Is this fountain figure hostile to Jews? In: Der Bund , August 5, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chapter 3: Public Buildings. In: Bern journal for history and local history. Volume 63, Issue 2-3, 2001, ISSN 0005-9420 , pp. 106-107 ( e-periodica.ch ).
- ↑ The Bear Train appears for the first time in Diebold Schilling's Spiezer Chronik (see Commons file .)
- ↑ Georg Pencz: Series of "Planet Pictures", Saturn. Woodcut, 1531, 36.9 × 23.3 cm (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, zeno.org ).
- ^ Roy Oppenheim: Speaking of "Black Lives Matter": Why is nobody actually protesting against the Kindlifresser fountain? In: www.tagblatt.ch. July 23, 2020, accessed July 26, 2020 .
- ^ Bernhard Ott: Is this fountain figure hostile to Jews? In: Der Bund , August 5, 2020.
- ^ Di yidishe velt. 1913/2, pp. 48-60.
- ↑ Drinking water quality. The quality of drinking water in the city of Bern is checked regularly. In: bern.ch. Information service of the City of Bern, November 17, 2015, accessed on February 6, 2018 .
- ↑ The protagonists are Mrs. Berna , the great Christoffel and the bear , in addition to the child eater .
Coordinates: 46 ° 56 '54.5 " N , 7 ° 26' 51" E ; CH1903: 600,675 / 199711