Stories in Munich

I'll be in Bavaria over the next few days.  Every time I go to Germany, I'm struck by how often I see references to folklore, stories and fairytales. I guess there are reasons for this, and as a tourist I like it  - it helps me to remember I'm somewhere different from home.     Since I probably won't be posting during my trip, I'll share some of the random quaint creatures and odd stories I've come across in Munich in the past.
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One of the main squares in Munich is called the Marienplatz, and this is where you find the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall).  This late nineteenth century building has a really huge musical clock, or Glockenspiel.  At 11 AM daily, its gigantic figures re-enact two stories, while the bells play on and on and on (and on). 

You can see a picture of the Glockenspiel below. It is very large indeed, so those metal figures are at least life size. This movie shows just some of the Glockenspiel's performance - a remarkable feat of clockwork, though I wish they'd made the bells more melodious :) 

The lower part of the Glockenspiel is the most interesting to me. It shows the Schäfflerstanz, or coopers' dance. The coopers are holding garlands, and the story says they are supposed to have danced through the streets in the 16th century when the town was hit by plague, to cheer everyone up and chase gloom away.  Their dance represents fortitude in the face of adversity.

The top half of the display plays first, and it depicts the marriage of Duke Wilhelm V and Renata of Lorraine. As far as I know, there's nothing tremendously significant about them, but you see the members of the court parading past, dressed in interesting costumes. This is followed by a jousting match between mounted knights dressed in the colours of Bavaria (blue and white diamonds) and Lorraine (red and white.). Who wins, you ask? Bavaria, of course, every time. This is after all a Bavarian clock!


The Neues Rathaus is in spiky, elaborate Gothic Revival style. Most times of day the square is so busy that it isn't creepy at all.  But in quiet corners, you may spot some fairly disturbing figures lurking in the shadows.....

What tragedy is going on here, for instance, with one figure wailing and the other serenely indifferent....

And who is this mischievous and not very pleasant gargoyle supposed to be?

Toy museums are always good places for stories, and Munich's toy museum is just off the square, in a Gothic-style tower - that's it in the centre right (below). The tower has many winding old steps - you do almost feel as if you'll end up meeting Rapunzel as you trudge up and up.

It's not a very large museum, far smaller than the wonderful toy museum in Nuremberg, but it is great, and contains many odd and quirky things. Germany is arguably the home of the teddy-bear and I really liked this cheerful fellow. I imagine him cooking a nice meal for his friends

There is a good collection of model figures, and I wondered what story was going on here. - the little man has a dancing bear, a peculiar toy when you think about it.




Not far from the toy museum, I found a large exhibition of art and craft work by senior citizens. It included a big display of fairy tale characters modelled from clay.  I knew some of the stories already, others were a dim memory from my childhood reading of those powerful and fascinating Grimm's Fairy Tales,  I suspect better known in Germany than here.  Here are the Wolf and two of the Seven Little Kids, (see one of the kids in the grandfather clock?)

I'd almost forgoten this tale, which tells how Mother Goat leaves her kids at home to go shopping. Of course the sly Wolf is waiting to get to the kids, and he eventually wheedles his way into their house despite the kids' weak little efforts to outsmart him.  He gobbles them up, and goes to sleep.   All seems lost, but their desperate Mother, finding her children gone, grabs a pair of scissors, cuts open his stomach, rescues the babies and fills the Wolf up with stones. The Wolf wakes up, goes to the well for a drink, but the stones unbalance him and he falls down and is drowned.

I found such a cute video of some tiny children performing it  here in elaborate costumes - they are having such fun in their fancy dress and I think that the young Wolf in particular is an amazingly talented actor.

Then I saw a model of "Hans im Glück" - (Hans in Luck)

This story tells how Hans gets a lump of gold for his good work, but he makes a series of disastrous exchanges and ends up with worse and worse bargains - a useless cow, a stolen pig and so on. They cause him so much grief, that when he finally ends up with nothing, he is delighted, because now he has no more troubles and this is best of all!

I found a good Lego film, made by some German children,  of an updated version of this story, here.  It is in German, but you don't need the words. You'll see how Hans, the businessman, gets a bonus and buys a car, but although all his exchanges come to grief, he ends up happy.

I knew the Four Musicians of Bremen because I remember seeing their statue when I was a child, and being told the story.    It's a nice tale of how four worn out old animals make their fortune, and these days I quite empathise with them! :)

I was mystified by the little creature below, who didn't have any identification. He resembles a mole or a bear in glasses.  Anyone know which he is?

On leaving the toy museum I nearly bumped into this life size lion figure, who somehow made me think of a judge, specifically the brilliant Australian singer Anthony Warlow in "Trial by Jury".  I know the lion is meant to be a Santa, but do you agree with me that he is like a comical judge?  Here's the link to Warlow as the crooked judge, who describes how he tricks his way into his job, uses the law to his own endsm and ends up marrying the lovely young plaintiff himself.

I then spotted a jewellery shop with a window display consisting of animals in a winter woodland, all sporting expensive rings and necklaces.

 It looked quite bizarre, and set me off trying to imagine a fairy tale about how the animals in the wood all thought so much of themselves, and were so proud,  that they dressed up like Kings and Queens. They wouldn't listen to the wise old owl who warned them that they were tempting misfortune. And so...

Well, I'm sure the Brothers Grimm would have found a story about it. 

I wonder if I'll encounter any strange creatures and stories in Munich this time.