Seven lazy ones
The legend of the seven lazy people comes from the folk tale writer Friedrich Wagenfeld (1810–1846) from Bremen . The legend tells of seven lazy sons of a poor farmer who go out into the world and come back with innovative ideas. The seven lazy fountain by Bernhard Hoetger and the figures by Aloys Röhr on the house of the seven lazy people in Bremen's Böttcherstraße remind of the brothers .
history
The story tells of a man who owns large lands in front of the city. The fields, however, bring little yield because they are either so sandy and dry that the cabbage withers on them or they were so swampy that the hay harvest is not enough for a cow and he has to be content with a goat. His seven sons were all strong and each taller than the other, but they had no desire to work and were called the seven lazy by the neighbors because of their idleness. In order to earn some money like their peers, one day they decided to offer their services to the people of Bremen. But they were known to be lazy in town and nobody wanted to give them work. So they left town together.
When the brothers returned after years from far away countries - probably the Netherlands - they began to work in their parents' fields and apply what they had learned. They dug ditches to drain the fields, built a dam towards the Weser to ward off floods, paved a path and built houses for themselves and finally dug a well. But the astonished neighbors said: "They are just too lazy to work in the wet fields, to clean the shoes that are soiled on the muddy paths and to fetch the water from the Weser."
location
Wagenfeld lays its story in the area in which the Stephansstadt, today the “Stephaniviertel” with its Faulenstrasse, stood outside the fortified Bremen city center in the 13th century - in what is now known as the Faulenquartier . The area (also known as the “crooked city”) was populated by boatmen, fishermen and craftsmen from the growing city of Bremen. The street name Faulenstraße is historically likely derived from the medieval or Low German name for damp, rotten, swampy ( fuhle ). The condition of the dirt road was poor, and so day thieves were allowed to build their houses there to pave the road - according to the unpaved tradition.
Individual evidence
- ↑ otium-bremen.de: Friedrich Wagenfeld - The seven lazy ones http://www.otium-bremen.de/js/index.htm?/autoren/a-wagenfeld.htm
- ^ Radio Bremen: Steffensstadt, Stephaniviertel or Faulenquartier ( Memento from December 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive )