Martin pump hat
Martin Pumphut ( Upper Sorbian Pumpot ; also Pumphutt , Bumbhutt , Pumpan , Punpan or Pumpfuß ) is a legendary figure from Upper Lusatia . He is usually portrayed as a miller's boy with a pointed hat and has great magical abilities. This earned him the nickname “ sorcerer of Upper Lusatia” .
Content of the saga
Pumphut grew up in Spohla as the son of two serfs from the St. Marienstern monastery . His father Jan Niemec was a German who had married a Sorbian farmer. In his early childhood a snake licked his eye so that he became clairvoyant . In his youth he learned the miller's trade and magic on the side. After his apprenticeship years, he went on the rolling .
He used his magic powers to take action against greedy master millers and to help other miller boys. He wandered around as a poor fellow, went to the mills in the Sorbian region and played all sorts of jokes there. If he was treated well, he thanked the millers. However, if the master treated his journeymen badly, he would take revenge on the miller. For example, he could leave the millstone standing or enchant the grain.
Its magical power comes from a magic hat that is pointed and has a wide brim . The hat is also the namesake of Pumphut, as the pump builders wore such hats back then .
Pumphut originally came from a goblin , who was later ennobled by the vernacular as a sorcerer. Illustrations indicate a connection to the devil figure. The later pump hat has features of Doctor Faust and Till Eulenspiegel .
distribution
The legend is of Sorbian origin and is widespread within Saxony . In his work, German Mythology, Jacob Grimm described a pump hat as a goblin who had been around for a long time in the Pausa area and was also common in Westphalia .
Little is known about the historical pump hat. It is certain that he joined the general Albrecht Wenzel von Wallenstein in 1626 . Date of birth and death are unknown. It was probably a charlatan who worked as a magician and thus earned his living. It is also unclear whether he survived the Thirty Years War .
Another point of reference is the "old Dessauer" Leopold I , whom the legend associates with the Pumphut: Pumphut is said to have come to Berlin and fished there in the Spree , which the king had forbidden. When the old Dessau hat fishing, he ordered a rifleman to shoot him with shot. Pumphut caught the pellets with his hand. When he fished again the next day, the old man from Dessauer had a golden ball poured and used it to shoot the fishing pump hat. He caught the ball in his hat. As a result, the Dessauer realized that Pumphut was a magician and they became friends.
Several figures and landmarks can be found in Upper Lusatia.
Spohla
Pumphut's birthplace dedicated a stele and parts of the children's playground to the legendary figure . A memorial plaque also commemorates him.
From 2001 to 2004 and 2007 the Pumphut Days took place here, where local history researchers and folklorists met to exchange ideas.
Wilthen
On August 19, 1939, the first pump hat figure was erected in the municipality of Wilthen . The wooden sculpture shows a man-sized pump hat. Both arms are stretched out to the side, the left index finger points to the Wilthener valley. Franz Rosche, a nativity scene carver, made the two meter high work on behalf of the Wilthener Heimat- und Gebirgsverein. This first figure was vandalized several times and restored by Hans Thuma in the 1950s . The figure was then placed in the village. It has been in the foyer of the Heimatstube in Wilthen since 1994. Herbert Michalz created a second figure that was erected in March 1993. In 1998 a third figure was placed on the pass. The three figures are connected by a circular hiking trail.
The community has a close relationship with the legendary figure and even made him an honorary citizen . The Waldgaststätte Jägerhaus celebrates a "Pumphut Festival" on August 19th every year.
Pumphut statue in Mockrehna
The ax in the church tower
Mockrehna
The landmark of the municipality of Mockrehna is an old carpenter's ax that supposedly belonged to a pump hat. He is said to have thrown it into the church tower around 1705, where it is still today. A bronze figure on the village square is reminiscent of the legend, as does the ax in the municipality's coat of arms.
Wethau
In the Burgenland district , Pumphut is associated with the god of thunder Donar . A nail stone in Wethau attests to this connection. According to a legend, Pumphut is said to have hammered nails into this stone with his hat during a thunderstorm.
Dörgenhausen
The Dörgenhausen district in Hoyerswerda dedicated a day-care center to Pumphut called "Pumpot".
Kyjov
In Kyjov (Krásná Lípa) at the beginning of the Khaa valley in the Czech Republic stands the legendary Dixmühle, in which the pump hat is said to have worked. Several figures and memorial stones remind of the magician.
Literary reception
Pumphut stories can be found in numerous legends. In 1954, Martin Nowak-Neumann mixed a pump hat with the Sorbian Krabat legend for his work Mišter Krabat .
Otfried Preußler dedicated two chapters of his book Krabat Pumphut. In one chapter, one of the miller's boys tells his own story and once Pumphut visits the mill in which Krabat is located. In 1981 he also published the children's book Pumphutt and the begging children together with Zdeněk Smetana .
literature
- Gisela Griepentrog (ed.): Berlin sagas. vbb, Berlin 2010, pp. 95f
- Otfried Preussler : Krabat . School edition with materials. Thienemann, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-522-14410-4
- Otfried Preußler and Zdeněk Smetana: Pumphutt and the begging children . Thienemann, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 978-3-522-41690-0
- Gardener, Rudolf: Bumbhutt, dr Aebrlausitzer Hexnmeestr . Hegel & Schade, Leipzig 1928
- Nier, Alfred: The legends of the Weissenfels district . Hermann Schroedel educational publisher, Halle (Saale) 1937
Web links
- Information page from Hans Tschätze
- Information page of the magician and city guide of Bautzen Reinhard Thomas
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Heiko Fritz: The mystery of the mill. With an interpretation of the events in Otfried Preussler's novel “Krabat”. Igel Verlag, Hamburg, ISBN 978-3-89621-147-7 , p. 102.
- ↑ Jacob Grimm : German Mythology . Volume III: Supplements and Appendix. Berlin 1878, S. 146 / 147
- ↑ Who was Pumphut? on the side of Reinhard Thomas
- ↑ Stories and legends on the page of Reinhard Thomas
- ↑ Griepentrog: Berlin sagas. 2010, pp. 95f
- ↑ Hans Tschätze: The history of the pumphutt . pumphutt.de
- ↑ Heiko Fritz: The mystery of the mill. With an interpretation of the events in Otfried Preussler's novel "Krabat". Igel Verlag, Hamburg, ISBN 978-3-89621-147-7 , p. 68.