Fritze Bollman Fountain - Brandenburg, Germany
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member Bernd das Brot Team
N 52° 24.572 E 012° 33.665
33U E 334111 N 5809387
A fountain honoring a local tragic-comical folk hero
Waymark Code: WM10WNM
Location: Brandenburg, Germany
Date Posted: 07/02/2019
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member saopaulo1
Views: 2
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Johann Friedrich Andreas Bollmann, better known as Fritze Bollmann was an original character of Brandenburg, an old town in the East of Germany. He lived from 1852 to 1901 and had a barber shop in the historic center of town. His short temper, his excessive consumption of alcohol and the frequent "Gone Fishing" sign in the window of his barber shop made him a constant target for mockery and practical jokes. In 1885, when word got around that drunken Bollmann, standing in his fishing boat, lost balance and fell head over heels into the lake, neighborhood kids quickly came up with a satirical song.

For the rest of his life, Bollmann successfully sued everybody trying to publish a printed version of the song, so it didn't become "official" until after his death in 1901.

In the early 1920s, local writer Hermann Fiddickow came across the song while working on a collection of town folklore. Out of all the different adaptations, Fiddickow created a version with eight verses that has been the town's unofficial anthem for almost 100 years now.

Fiddickow later also wrote a short novel called "The tragic-comic Brandenburg Barber" which was turned into a movie (Fritze Bollmann: Gone Fishing) in 1942.

Throughout the 1900s, the song and its tragic-comic folk hero became so popular, that today a street, two restaurant, a soccer fan club and the state's official fishing magazine are named after Fritze Billmann. There even is a Fritze Bollman Award for outstanding citizenship - something the real Fritze would have never won.

In 1924, sculptor Carl Lühnsdorf created a fountain, showing Fritze Bollman with his fishing pole, surrounded by fish.

Originally, the fountain stood near the place where poor Bollmann fell into the lake.

In 1981, when Brandenburg's historic center was turned into a pedestrian area, the fountain was moved to the center of town where it is now one of thetown's most popular tourist attractions.

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