2020-07-14

What are those poems you see in German villages?

Go hiking in Germany, and you’ll eventually end up going through at least one small village. There, you will often see short(ish) poems painted on houses. Some sound like blessings for the houses, others like toasts. Here are a few that I saw in the village of Braubach am Rhein.

The poems of varying length are painted on some houses in German villages that have a strong wine-making or beer-brewing tradition. That being the case, I thought many could just be longer toasts (German: Trinkspruch), but many of them sound more like a blessing for the house on which they are painted. Whatever they are meant to be, they have always intrigued me and I thought I’d take a stab at translating a few to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

These are from the village of Braubach on the Rhine river. I walked through there to get to our hike up to the Marksburg a few weeks ago.

I kept my translations very literal to transport the meaning of the texts. As I am not a poet, I thought if  I took any poetic license I would have lost too much of the denotative meaning. In this case, connatotative meaning is of secondary importance, at best.

Enjoy.

No fire, please

This house is in God’s hands / God, protect it from fire / And may all that go in and out of it / Be blessed by you O Lord.

This one is most definitely meant as a prayer of sorts to protect the (probably centuries-old house) from that eternal bane of homeowners: fire.

This was on a restaurant…
(L.) This house is mine and actually not / I go out, you go in / And who’s gonna be the last one?

(R.) Whoever wants to criticize this house / Just stand still a little bit / And freely thinks in his heart / If his home is any better.

These two (left and right) were painted on a restaurant. I think probably the first owner had a wicked sense of humor, because they are both a little amusing and you can even see part of a third one up at the top of the pic.

A corner pub – literally
Flow on by oh revelers / Get your fill of wine here / And with every new tankard / Have more worries disappear

I think this is my favorite one. Short, to the point and above all honest.

My own tankard
The money is gone / We are sitting in a trap / And can’t walk anymore / Because of all the drinking

I got this tankard at a fleamarket and I really liked the little text on it. Also, succinctly put.

The wagoner’s oath (1691)
I swear this oath to God Almighty that I shall faithfully, honestly and for the rightful price hold and deliver the goods put into my charge by these sworn master metal workers to their destination. I shall not deliver any of these goods to any other destination than that with which I have been charged.

Whatever money or bills put into my care to be returned I shall transfer honestly, not withholding any for my own benefit or to make any purchases. My behavior shall, in every sense be that of an honest, earnest and faithful wagoner.

The Marksburg was originally built to protect a silver mine (which is now mined out) and the village of Braubach prospered from said mine as well. So, it was important to have some kind of assurance from the wagoners that they would deliver the silver where it had to go without any kind of nefarious behavior. This tradition seems to be alive in the village in some form or another.

NOTE: Many thanks to German Transport company “Die Wölfe” for including an easy-to-read version of this oath on their website. The company is over 200 years old, so it stands to reason that their employees may very well have sworn this oath themselves.