Exploration of the Bremen Myths and Legends

The other day, I road my bike around Bremen for about 5 hours checking out sites and anything else I stumbled across (real life StumbleUpon). I had researched famous locations in Bremen to at least have some idea of what I was looking for, and here is what I found:

First of all, we have the statue of the Bremen Town Musicians, a reference to a fairy tale written by the Brothers Grimm. If you want to read it, check out my previous post with thestory. All you need to know is that they are part of what makes Bremen famous despite the fact that they never even made it to the city in the story!

Next, I made my way to the “Hole of Bremen”. This unique little donation box plays the sounds of the Bremen Town Musicians, and when a donation is made, the hole will play the “song” of the musicians.

In the market square of Bremen, you can also find the Rathaus (City Hall) and the Roland statue, which marked the center of the city as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. Roland is a symbol of freedom, market rights, and independence of the city. Statues of Roland are located all over Germany, but the Bremen statue is one of the oldest (built in 1404) and most beautiful.

The Bremen Dom is a miraculous building in and of itself, but it also is the birthplace of an awesome tradition. “Domtreppenfegen”, or the sweeping of the cathedral steps, is a tradition started in Bremen that has spread throughout Germany. Unmarried men are coerced by their friends to spend their thirtieth birthday sweeping (generally bottle caps collected by his friends) the stairs of the Dom. He must continue to sweep until an unmarried woman kisses him, freeing him from his endeavor. This event used to be advertised in newspapers throughout the city. However, as of late, many people have taken to surprising their friend with the task.

I was actually fortunate enough to witness this on one occasion, and I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn’t. This man was dressed up in a green dinosaur costume, sweeping bottle caps by the hundred off the Dom stairs (you’d be surprised how much of a scene this causes). Unfortunately, I didn’t know what was going on at the time (I do now thanks to Hannah!), so I paid no mind to it, but trust me when I tell you that it was quite the site to see many grown men picking on their friend while he sweeps these bottle caps off the stairs, yearning for a fair lass to come and set him free from his misery (a.k.a. friends)!

Then I made my way to the “Spuckstein” or spitting stone. These stones were laid into the Bremen town square to mark the location of the beheading of Gesche Gottfried. Between 1813 and 1828, she murdered 15 people with the poisonous gas, arsenic. Nobody knows why, but she was captured and executed at this location on April 21, 1831. People still come by the stone and spit on it to show their disgust for her actions.

In the 1930s, the stone was carved with a cross, causing the stone to resemble a swastika. Thimo tells me that he learned from one of his tours that people would spit on the stone during World War II in disgust of the Nazi regime, but they could simply claim they were disapproving of Gottfried’s actions to protect themselves. It always restores my faith in people to hear stories like this where people will take actions to show they disapprove of wrongful leadership and ideals, even if it is a gesture as small as spitting on a stone in disgust.

From there, I discovered the “Seven Lazy Brothers Fountain”: a local legend based the lazy sons of a Bremen farmer. There was little work for them to do on their father’s farm, so they spent much time idly standing around. After they gained a reputation of being lazy, they decided to go out into different cities where they learned a great deal. They brought their new knowledge back to their father’s farm where they dug ditches to drain fields, built a dyke to prevent the Weser River from flooding their farm, surfaced a road, built houses next to it, and dug a well. Neighbors were amazed at first, but then decided all of these innovations came to fruition out of laziness. These brothers were too lazy to work in wet fields, to clean dirt from the muddy paths off their shoes, and too lazy to fetch their water from the Weser River. However, later generations honor and commend their innovations for their resourcefulness. After all, nobody, especially not citizens of Bremen, was to waste time on unnecessary work when they could be doing greater things through these innovations.

Finally, I swung by a statue of Heini Holtenbeen: a citizen of Bremen born in 1835. He worked in the port as a tobacco inspector when he fell through a skylight. This unfortunate fall left him with brain damage and a stiff leg. Every day thereafter, he could be found in the market square taking cigars from merchants entering the stock exchange. Smoking was not permitted here, and he took it upon himself to enforce this regulation. He then used what remained of the cigars and tobaccos to roll his own cigars to sell and make money. When times were very difficult for Holtenbeen, he would ask people for “loans”. The bronze statue was erected to commemorate this man.

During my explorations, I also found a quaint little quadrant of the buildings and houses you hope (and somewhat expect) to see while you’re visiting Germany. The Schnoor quarter miraculously survived the WWII bombings on Bremen (because it is a large harbor in the northeast close to the UK, Bremen was bombed heavily). This area is full of handmade crafts and souvenirs and is a great place to see 15^th century German architecture.

Bremen is also the home to an old fashioned windmill. In fact, this one is the last surviving of the eight windmills constructed along the walls of the inner city area in the 17th century. Flour was milled here until 1950, and now the inside has been converted into a cafe.

So tomorrow I head to Chicago where I will catch the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins! I know... I couldn't stand to be in the US for two days without doing something awesome, right? I can't help myself. On Thursday, I will finally get to meet all of the Tragos Scholars, and we will head to Greece on Friday! We'll be there for 10 days, and I'll be back in Germany on the 25th or 26th. Then I only have a month left of work, and this amazing and crazy experience in over. I can't believe how fast it's going!