Eulenspiegel Fountain (Braunschweig)

Eulenspiegel fountain

The Eulenspiegel fountain in Braunschweig is an ornamental fountain that is a stroke of the figure of Till Eulenspiegel . There are also Eulenspiegel fountains in other cities in Germany.

history

Owls and monkeys

owl

Monkey

According to the legend, Till Eulenspiegel stayed several times in Braunschweig, where he is said to have played a number of pranks on the town's citizens and craftsmen - including the fact that he bought owls and monkeys instead of bread at a bakery at Bäckerklint 11, a street in Braunschweig's city center baked from the batter. Even today you can get “owls and meerkats” in the form of baked goods in some Braunschweig bakeries .

History of origin

In memory of the fool Till Eulenspiegel and his pranks in Braunschweig, the Jewish banker Bernhard Meyersfeld donated the fountain in 1905, whereby the figure of Eulenspiegel is said to be a replica of a statue from 1639.

The fountain consists of a hexagonal stone base with a bowl. Till Eulenspiegel sits smiling and life-size on the raised head part of the fountain, while a total of two owls and three vervet monkeys, which are designed as gargoyles, sit alternately on the edge of the fountain. All figures are made of bronze .

On the back of the base is the following inscription:

"Set up the funny journeyman Till Eulenspiegel where he baked owls and monkeys. Conceived and made by Arnold Kramer from Wolfenbüttel. Repositioned for the Braunschweig Heimattag on October 1, 1950 in memory of the founder of the 1905 fountain, Bernhard Meyersfeld. "

The Wolfenbüttel artist Arnold Kramer designed and executed the fountain. It was set up on the Bäckerklint, opposite the Eulenspiegelhaus , where Till is said to have baked the owls and monkeys according to history. The unveiling took place on September 27, 1906.

World War II and post-war period

The fountain was neither relocated nor protected during the Second World War , but it was the only structure to survive the bombing of October 15, 1944 undamaged , while the entire area - mostly consisting of half-timbered houses - was completely destroyed.

To protect against theft and to make it easier to clear rubble in the area, the fountain was initially removed in the post-war period, but on the occasion of the Braunschweig Home Day on October 1, 1950, it was placed back in its original location, where it is still today.

literature

Britta Berg: Eulenspiegelbrunnen In: Luitgard Camerer , Manfred Garzmann , Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (ed.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-926701-14-5 , p. 68 .
Jürgen Schulz-Grobert: The Strasbourg Eulenspiegel book. Studies on the historical prerequisites of the oldest printing tradition. Max Niemeyer, Tübingen 1999, ISBN 3-484-15083-1 .
Henning Steinführer : The Brunswick Eulenspiegelbrunnen. Richard Borek Foundation , Braunschweig 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-045363-2 .