Goose thief (game)

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Goose thief is the name of an old children's game .

Story and game idea

The game of Gänsedieb based on an orally transmitted folk song whose lyrics and melody already the village teacher, poet and composer Ernst Anschütz (1780-1861) was known when he in 1824 to written by him known text Fuchs, you've stolen the goose for the School usage provided with the same melody.

Hans Thoma : The children's dance, 1884

The game, danced as a round dance, is a symbolic game in which a child is to be found as a “goose thief” from among those playing and to be “branded” for this “outrage”. The affected child is said goodbye to the play group with a mockery .

Because of the decline in street games , but also because of the sensitization of educators for the psyche of children, the "goose thief" has almost disappeared from the children's play repertoire today.

Game flow

The children hold hands and form a larger circle with an odd number of players. Then they move, walking or dancing, according to the verses sung and the melody of the popular folk song:

Whoever stole the goose is a thief.
But whoever brings them back to me, I love them.

The melody has developed regionally differently in the course of the long tradition of the game.

After the last verse, each child quickly looks for a partner from the circle to hug. Since the playgroup requires an uneven number of players, however, a child inevitably remains without a partner. The children point to the child who is left alone in their circle and sing the mocking verses:

There is the goose thief.
Nobody loves him anymore.

The exposed goose thief is allowed to give the signal to choose a new partner in the next round and thus has a head start over the others.

Pedagogical classification and assessment

The goose thief is one of the so-called heme games . This category of games, which also includes the Black Peter game or the April Fool's joke , is about exposing one player to the amusement of the rest. From a psychological and educational point of view, this game idea is not without problems, because sensitive children feel deeply hurt despite the character of the game and such games can lead to disaffection with games.

Games like the goose thief are mainly to be found in free, unsupervised children's play. In today's children's camps organized by adults and in kindergartens , improved training for educators has enabled these forms of play, which also contain positive learning elements for personal development, to develop their usefulness without harming the child's psyche:

Ringelreihenspiel with an educator (1948)

In order to mitigate the effect of the exposure, which is often unbearable for sensitive children, the literature offers tactical measures such as allowing the participating adult (s) to be made a goose thief in the first or second round of the game, or particularly slowly reacting, sensitive or even once choose affected children to be their partner and thus save them from repeated isolation. It is ideal if, if possible, every child learns to endure the unpleasant situation.

See also

literature

  • Johannes Bilstein u. a. (Ed.): Anthropology and pedagogy of the game . Weinheim 2005.
  • Wolfgang Einsiedler: The children's game. On the pedagogy and psychology of children's play . 3rd edition, Bad Heilbrunn 1999.
  • I. Knoll: Heaven and Hell. Street games on the play street . Altberliner Verlag, Berlin 1988.
  • Theo Mang, Sunhilt Mang (ed.): The song source . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2007, ISBN 978-3-7959-0850-8 , pp. 672 f .
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Hämespiele . In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Verlag Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5 , pp. 152-160.
  • Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann u. a. (Ed.): What we played , Frankfurt 1981.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Anschütz: Musical school hymn book. Issue 1. Reclam, Leipzig 1824, p. 38 ( digitized version of the Herzog August library ).
  2. ↑ Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann u. a. (Ed.): What we played , Frankfurt 1981
  3. ^ I. Knoll: Heaven and Hell. Street games on Spielstrasse , Berlin 1988
  4. ↑ Theo Mang, Sunhilt Mang (ed.): Der Liederquell . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2007, ISBN 978-3-7959-0850-8 , pp. 672 f .
  5. ↑ Johannes Bilstein u. a. (Ed.): Anthropology and pedagogy of the game . Weinheim 2005
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Einsiedler: The children's game. On the pedagogy and psychology of children's play . 3rd edition, Bad Heilbrunn 1999
  7. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Hämespiele . In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Verlag Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 152–160
  8. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Who stole the goose ... , In: This: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition, Verlag Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 156–157