Rabbit has started

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" Rabbit has begun " is a proverbial Berlin saying from the first third of the 19th century. The " rabbit " stands for the one who is not only the loser in a dispute, but is also blamed for the dispute.

Modified in the form “who is the rabbit?” It can also stand for the question of who was the reason for an argument. The phrase and the question are meant ironically , because the rabbit, as a generally calm and meek character, is not believed to play the role of a quarrel.

Origin of the saying

The phrase probably goes back to the last line of a poem by Friedrich Christoph Förster (1791–1868), which he wrote under the title “Karnikkeltod” in the “Berliner Conversations-Blatt für Poetry, Literature and Criticism” published by him and Willibald Alexis Published November 27, 1827.

The poem describes that a young painter is walking through the market with his dog, a greyhound named Presto. At a gardener's stand, a rabbit is sitting under the kale and the dog begins to “feel his fur”. "Karnikkel thinks: he wants to play 'bake cake'" , the poem continues,

"Makes a male and in all fun
, the dog is so pissed off.
But Presto hardly feels something like that,
He immediately goes off without parlementing,
drives the (!) Rabbit back between the baskets
and breaks his neck pathetically" .

The gardener complains loudly about the rabbit's death and calls the police over, who arrest the painter. Numerous people in the market interfere in the matter:

"A Refrendarius comes forward,
calls: 'quadrupes pauperiem" it says here.
The women with fish and vegetables shriek,
All the world storms on the painter. "

Finally, a shoemaker's boy approaches and speaks to the painter:

"... no worries here.
Dear Sir, you can laugh boldly,
Just always went to the police,
I saw it: Rabbit has started. "

The poem closes with the lines:

"Good Ibrahim, that's what happened to you,
it will be said: rabbit has started" ,

which, as Förster notes in a later and revised version of the poem in a footnote, refer to the Egyptian general Ibrahim Pascha and the battle of Navarino : “When the English under Codington on October 20, 1827 the Turkish-Egyptian fleet under Ibrahim Pascha bored into the ground, they pretended the Turks had fired the first shot. But it was only a gun salute. ” In Berlin, various newspapers such as the Spenersche Zeitung and the Vossische Zeitung published reports on this battle from November 12, 1827, so that it can be assumed that the events of the sea battle were at the time of publication von Förster's poem were still generally known and discussed.

Sources and Notes

  1. ^ Lutz Röhrich: Lexicon of proverbial sayings , 5 volumes, Freiburg i. Br. 1991, volume 3, page 807f .; Lemma: rabbit
  2. ^ A b Hermann Kügler: On "Karnickel has begun" , in: Journal for German Philology 57/1932, pages 178-180
  3. ↑ Quoted from Röhrich, Lexicon of Proverbial Sayings, Volume 3, page 807f.
  4. ↑ Friedrich Christoph Förster: Kriegslieder: a festival for the 25th anniversary of the volunteer hunters , Volume 1, Berlin 1838 on page 144f.

literature

  • Winged words. The treasure trove of quotations from the German people , collected and explained by Georg Büchmann, continued by Walter Robert-Tornow et al., 32nd edition, completely revised by Gunther Haupt and Winfried Hofmann, Berlin 1972, page 305 (“The rabbit started!”)
  • Hermann Kügler: On "Karnickel has begun" , in: Journal for German Philology 57/1932, pages 178-180
  • Otto Pniower : The rabbit has begun , in: Mitteilungen des Verein für die Geschichte Berlins 42/1925, page 110–112
  • Lutz Röhrich: Lexicon of the proverbial sayings , 5 volumes, Freiburg i. Br. 1991, volume 3, page 807f. (Lemma: rabbit )
  • Christian Rogge: Karnickel has started , in: Journal for German Philology 53/1928, pages 189–191
  • Praise God Wunderlich (ed.): Proverbs and figurative idioms. On maintaining patriotic language skills in elementary school , Langensalza 1882, page 56f. ("The rabbit has started")