Köbes the witch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Photo of the witch Köbes (around 1910)
This monument by the witch Köbes is in the upper main street of Bergisch Gladbach.
The Gladbach Fronhof (around 1910)

The witch Köbes (born February 24, 1865 in Bensberg ; † March 17, 1944 in Bergisch Gladbach ) was a German scrap material dealer and well-known original from Bergisch Gladbach. His real name was Jakob Altenrath .

Köbes is the Cologne form of Jakob and is also represented in other dialects in the Rhineland, but is occasionally also used with the connotation of stubborn, angular or squat person .

Life

His comical expressions and sorcery gave him a certain popularity and his nickname , the people of and not the witch Köbes said. He was married and had ten children. The family lived in the Gladbach Fronhof, which was demolished in 1959. There he bought and sold all kinds of used material. He was short and skinny and had a neatly twisted mustache . His agility and agility were widely recognized. He had a blue, faded military cap on his head. He also wore a camisole that buttoned up to his knees and had sleeves that had a venerable sheen on the back. He was a common man with a lot of imagination and a wealth of knowledge. From year to year the business he ran and his family grew. He didn't need money.

The dealer

The witch Köbes was a small dealer who bought and sold all kinds of scrap material. Behind his house there were piles of iron and bones, over which flocks of flies and mosquitos hovered in summer. He had a good reputation as an honest and honest man and daily struggled with a hand truck with which he brought more material. With zeal and skill, he gave discarded everyday objects that were only slightly damaged or rusted a new look and shine. Then he put them up for sale in the anteroom. Everything from stoves to putti, plaster figures, flower stands, grandfather clocks, pots, bowls, kerosene lamps, chests of drawers, cupboards and more could be found here.

The Wizard

His magic was famous. You often met him at the fair , where you could admire his sayings and demonstrations. On such occasions he would pull coins from the mouth and nose or white mice from the pockets of the amazed spectators. With a whistling sound, he pushed a four-inch nail up his nose until it was gone. His card tricks were a particular pleasure.

The collector and his museum

Many objects that came into his hands excited him so much that he no longer wanted to part with them. That gave him the idea of ​​setting up a museum that he made public. Above the door he put a sign saying "Museum" . Whenever he led guests through his museum rooms, he was the "director" who presented his collection with witty humor. After his death, his daughter Maria reported that many people kept trying to buy items from his collection, but that he had not given any of them. On Saturdays, she and her mother often cleaned many individual pieces with a mixture of sand, vinegar and ammonia so that the sun could reflect in them.

The rogue

During his tours of his museum, he also regularly told hair-raising stories about some of the exhibits. For example, the Schinderhannes belly strap lay on a table . In another place standing riding boots of Jan von Werth . A Spartan's sword leaned against one wall , captured in the “ Battle of Marathon ” . The bleached skull of the wolf that had eaten Little Red Riding Hood and his grandmother peeked out next to the snuffbox of the Prophet Mohammed . Finally, there was also a fossilized horse apple from a Roman war horse.

The following story is also known: The witch Köbes asked a friend: “Say, hür ens Jupp, can't you give me five marks?” (Say, listen, Josef, can't you lend me five marks?) Answer: “Yeah, when Then do the aries? ”(Yes, when do I get them back?) Köbes witch again:“ Yeah, if the aries han moss, then de se och can keep them! ”(Yes, if you have to have them back, then you can you keep them too!)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Volume 2, page 68 on the left in Adam Wrede : Neuer Kölnischer Sprachschatz . 3 volumes with 1168 pages. Greven Verlag Cologne. 12th edition, 1999. ISBN 3-7743-0243-X
  2. ↑ Peter Honnen : “Everything is chocolate? - Words and word stories from the Rhineland ”, Greven Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7743-0418-5 , page 127
  3. ↑ a b c d e Hermann Haas, Jakob Altenrath, museum director and magician in Bergisch Gladbach in: Bergischer Calendar 1958 , p. 55 ff.
  4. ↑ Maria Altenrath, Groß-Kellwing, Memories of a daughter Altenrath's on her father ( undated ), Bergisch Gladbach City Archives , E 3/395

literature

  • Death bell , obituary for Jakob Altenrath in: Westdeutscher Beobachter of March 22, 1944
  • Death note, Bergisch Gladbach City Archives, R 7/26/1

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Köbes the witch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Altenrath, Jakob (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German scrap dealer and original from Bergisch Gladbach
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Bensberg
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1944
Place of death Bergisch Gladbach