The nine in the weather vane
The nine in the weather vane is a well-known legend from Frankfurt am Main in the 16th century. The legend is about a poacher named Hans Winkelsee , who was incarcerated in the Eschenheim Tower for nine days . He is said to have escaped the death penalty by shooting the number 9 into the weather vane of the 47 meter high tower . The truth of the legend cannot be determined.
Historical background
In the early Middle Ages, the imperial wilderness area Dreieich surrounding the city of Frankfurt was very rich in wild animals. The right to hunt was reserved for the emperor and the bailiff of Hayn Castle appointed by him . With the population growth in the Middle Ages, the forest was gradually cleared or used for cattle drive, especially for acorn fattening , as well as for logging. The game population gradually declined. In 1372 the imperial city of Frankfurt acquired the remainder of the Wildbann. There were legal disputes with the neighbors of the imperial city, in particular the Lords of Ysenburg, about the hunting rights in this area, now known as the Frankfurt City Forest . The city council therefore appointed game rangers to protect what is now urban hunting. Only innocent Frankfurt citizens who had taken the civil oath and fulfilled their tax obligations were allowed to hunt freely against payment of two Reichstalers in compliance with the closed seasons and other legal provisions. Anyone who otherwise hunted in the city forest was considered a poacher.
Content of the saga
The poacher Hans Winkelsee is said to have been caught as a poacher around 1550, sentenced to death and detained for nine days in the Eschenheimer Turm (the Eschenheimer Tor of the Frankfurt city fortifications , built between 1400 and 1428). Then he is said to have offered the city council a deal: in exchange for his freedom, he wanted to shoot a 9 through the iron weather vane on the highest point of the tower with nine shots from his tried and tested rifle , one shot each for his day and night Incarceration. The council agreed to this and promised him a pardon if the masterpiece was successful. A large number of councilors and other people appeared to demonstrate the poacher. Hans Winkelsee saved himself from the sure end on the gallows through the successfully completed feat and obtained his pardon and immediate release.
Lore
In 1859 the landscape painter Carl Theodor Reiffenstein had counted nine holes in the weather vane, which in his opinion had clearly been shot. After a lightning strike on June 9, 1874, the flag fell from the tower and was replaced in 1885 as part of a tower renovation with a new one, in which only six holes were punched. This was not corrected during the tower restoration in 1911, 1932, 1959 and 1963 either. However, since 1976 the newly gold-plated flag has again had nine holes.
During the Second World War , the Hans Winkelsee house, named after the poacher, on the corner of Schillerstrasse and Taubenstrasse was destroyed in the air raids on Frankfurt am Main . In the chimney room of the Eschenheimer tower, however, a restored figure from the facade of the Hans Winkelsee house is to be placed.
According to today's knowledge, Hans Winkelsee was first mentioned in books in 1853 ( Ludwig Bechstein : Deutsches Sagenbuch ), then in 1856 ( Karl Enslin : Frankfurter Sagen- und Märchenbuch ), 1868/71 (Johann Georg Theodor Grasse: Sagenbuch des Prussian State ) and 1911 ( Friedrich Bothe : From Frankfurt's legend and history ). From Professor Dr.-Ing. Helmut Bode, the legend is retold and embellished in the book Frankfurter Sagenschatz 1986. Professor Karl Simrock wrote a poem about the poacher. Him refers even Karl May in the serial novel Waldröschen or The Avengers hunt around the world from 1882 to 1884: "To shoot after the weather vane, as Hans Winkelsee, in Eschenheimer tower, as we Simrock told." Simrock to the name Winkelsee invented to have. In the traditional legend the man was only called Hans. When it came into being and over how many centuries it was passed on from generation to generation is unknown.
At its core, however, the legend is told in the same way:
The nine in the weather vane
Variant 1 (Bechstein, 1853):
“In Frankfurt there is still an old tower from the former city wall. The Frankfurters had once caught a poacher, his name was Hansel Winkelsee, and he had been sitting in the dark hole for nine days before the verdict and judgment was passed on him, and every night he heard the weather vane screeching and roaring over his airy lot high up in the Eschenheimer Turnre and said: If I were free and if I were allowed to shoot as I pleased, I would shoot you, you lousy flag, - as many holes through the tin as when I sat here overnight. - The jailer heard this speech and carried it in front of the city councilors of the free city, and the latter said: The fellow has no mercy but the light gallows; but if he wants to be such a good shot, we want to let him try his luck. - And then the Winkelsee was given his rifle and told that he should now do what he measured himself; if he could do that, he should go away freely, but if even one ball went wrong, he would have to dangle, and no rooster would crow after him. Then the game shooter took his rifle and discussed it with good hunter's sayings and took bullets that weren't without it, and put on aim and aimed at the flag and let go. There was a little hole in the tin and everyone laughed and shouted bravely. And now eight more times, and each bullet in the right place, and with the ninth shot, the nine was done, which can still be seen in the flag on the Eschenheimer tower, and was a big hello to the shooter. But the city council thought to himself: Oh dear, our poor deer and other game, when this sniper and fun thief comes out into the woods again - and consulted, and the city councilor said: Listen, Hansel, we have that you can shoot well felt for a long time in the common town of Wildstand and now also seen your art with eyes. Stay with us, you should become a rifle captain in our vigilante group. - But Hansel said: With favor, gentlemen, I shot into the tin, and I will also shoot your rifle captain. Your roof flags are trilling too much for me, and your rooster crows too little for me. You will never see me and you will never catch me! Thanks for the hostel! And took his rifle and walked away defiantly. Hansel had only talked out of ridicule with the rooster, he meant the Frankfurt landmark, the overgold rooster in the middle of the Sachsenhausen bridge, which the devil had helped build. Because when the builder couldn't finish it, he called the devil for help and promised him the first soul that would run over it, and then first of all chased a rooster over the bridge in the morning. Then the devil was angry, tore the tap and threw it through the bridge; Two of them were made of holes, which to this day cannot be closed and walled up, and everything that was bricked up during the day falls back in at night. On the bridge, however, the rooster became an eternal landmark. Hansel Winkelsee said that he crowed too little, namely not at all. "
Variant 2 (Grasse, 1868/71):
"At the end of the Eschenheimer Gasse, famous for the former Federal Palace standing there, at the so-called Eschenheimer Thor after it stands a high round tower that was built under the government of Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria in 1346 and that was left standing because of its beauty. when the fortifications of the old imperial city were demolished. Right at the top of the middle and highest of the five spiers is a weather vane, if you look at it very closely, you can see nine holes in it, which represent a nine and owe their origin to the following incident.
A poacher by the name of Hans Winkelsee once drove his creatures in the Frankfurt forests, but he refused to be caught, no matter how often he was hunted. At last, however, he was caught and taken in safe custody to the prison which was intended for people of his gelights up in the Eschenheimer tower. Here he sat for nine days and nine nights, waiting for the judge's verdict, which he did not expect to be very pleasant. So he listened to the jailer, and when he heard that the gallows was as good as certain for him, he said that if you let him go, he would shoot a master shot and in memory of the nine nights he spent in the tower shoot a nine into the weather plate with nine bullets.
The jailer went out and straight to the council and told what Hans Winkelsee had said. The councilors did not trust the bad fellow and now thought of getting rid of him in a good way. So they accepted it and said to the poacher: "If even a single bullet goes wrong, you must immediately go to the gallows." On the following day a large number of people had gathered around the tower to see the rifle show , Alderman, councilors and citizens crowded up when Hans Winkelsee appeared with his rifle, led by the jailer. Conscious of victory, however, the daring archer looked up to the tower for the weather vane, took his rifle, put on and shot and hit: a round hole was in the weather vane. He shot again: a second little hole close to the first. He shot again and again and when he shot nine times, there was the most beautiful nine, made up of round holes, all visible in the flag. Then the crowd cheered, but the councilors were in horror, because they believed that the bad guy was involved and were almost glad that they were allowed to keep their word and let the poacher free. But one of the lay judges came up to him and said, "Hans Winkelsee, you have clearly demonstrated your innocence with your shots. So we give you the freedom to go wherever you want, but give you the advice to abandon your dangerous trade and become an honest man! 'But the latter laughed mockingly, threw his rifle over his shoulder and opened up from that. The old tower is clad in Epheu below, which climbs higher and higher, and the legend goes that a stone cannot be removed from the tower, which is often supposed to be torn down, until the Epheuranken have reached the mysterious weather vane .
At the keystone of the pointed arch of the gate on the city side is a stone human head that is said to have suddenly been there once, without anyone knowing where it came from. That should be Hans Winkelsee, the safe shooter. "
literature
- Helmut Bode: Frankfurt saga treasure. Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7829-0209-2 .
- Friedrich Bothe : From Frankfurt's legend and history. 1911.
- Karl Enslin : Frankfurt saga and fairy tale book. 1861.
- Kristina Hammann, Katharina Hammann: Frankfurt sagas and legends. Audio book. John Media 2008, ISBN 3-9811250-6-1 .
- Vinz de Rouet: Frankfurt sagas and stories after Karl Enslin. Berlin 2010, ISBN 3-8693-1733-7 .
- Ludwig Bechstein: German book of legends. Leipzig 1853.
- Johann Georg Theodor Grasse: Book of legends of the Prussian state. Volume 2. Glogau 1868/1871, pp. 685-686.