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Saxony-Anhalt
Burgenlandkreis
Weißenfels

Schusterjunge Statue Weißenfels

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Schusterjunge Statue Weißenfels

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    1. Stork Nest in Lobitzsch – Leißling Ferry Bridge loop from Weißenfels

    14.9km

    03:51

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    Intermediate hike. Good fitness required. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

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    Intermediate

    Intermediate hike. Good fitness required. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

    Intermediate

    Intermediate hike. Good fitness required. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels.

    Intermediate

    Tips

    December 5, 2022

    The Stadtjunge was made in a bronze injection molding process by the Schkopau artist Paul Juckoff as a commission for the Oettler brothers, who owned the Oettler breweries in Weißenfels and Zeitz. Juckoff used his errand boy Ernst Hoffmann as a model. The boy worked for the artist for half a groschen a week and carried various things back and forth for him, ran errands and delivered his private correspondence. But whatever the weather, whatever difficult times the boy went through, because at home he also supported his eight siblings and the widowed mother, he was always cheerful and had a little song on his lips. And when asked why he was so happy, he always said "because I'm happy".

    Precisely that sentence seems to have been so dear to the artist that he drove it into the white sandstone and attached the bronze sculpture of the boy, popularly known as the "shoemaker boy", to it. Initially, the two figures, two casts from one mould, were set up in the breweries in Weißenfels and Zeitz. But with the greater demand for beer, the carriages also became larger and finally the automobile found its way into the transport system, but the entrances were too small for the large trucks, so that the little Ernst threatened to be seriously damaged. The Oettler brothers decided to give the bold fellows to the cities.

    Since the old Stadtgottesacker in Weißenfels was being transformed into a park at the same time, the Stadtjunge was placed in the new park. It was solemnly inaugurated in 1905 and a large crowd of people rejoiced in the boy. Then the Second World War (1939-1945) broke out and the War Ministry issued the order to bring all war material (which also included bronze) to the collection points and hand it over to war service. An employee of the city administration wanted to spare the city's popular landmark this fate and sawed it off its base in the middle of the night and buried it in the Leißlinger forest not far from a forest path. At the end of the war he was dying of typhus, but he told his nephew where he had buried little Ernst.

    ...

    Source: burgenlandkreis.im-bild.org/fotos/denkmaeler/stadtjunge

    Translated by Google •

      May 31, 2021

      If you asked the current landmark of Weißenfels why he was so happy, he always replied:
      Because I'm happy😁

      Translated by Google •

        July 27, 2023

        The Schusterjunge von Weißenfels is a 1.40 meter high bronze figure of a cheerful boy in the Weißenfels city park. He stands on a pedestal bearing the inscription;
        "Because I'm happy" and is considered a landmark of Weißenfels.
        In the summer of 1905, the Schkopau sculptor Paul Juckoff was commissioned by a pram manufacturer from Zeitz to model this statue for an exhibition in Zeitz.
        The mayor of Weißenfels at the time liked this sculpture, at his instigation a second cast was made and set up when the old cemetery was transformed into a city park.
        An unknown Weißenfelser kept the "Schusterjungen" in his cellar at the time of the Second World War. Thus, the figure could be set up again after the end of the war.
        Nothing on the figure indicates cobbler's work, but the vernacular has made the actual "town boy" into a "cobbler boy". He is therefore a symbolic figure for Weißenfels and better known beyond the city limits than the original from Zeitz.
        The German Oi! band, the Schusterjungs, was named after this sculpture.


        loquis.com/de/loquis/2256473/Schusterjunge+von+Wei+enfels

        Translated by Google •

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          Elevation 150 m

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          Location: Weißenfels, Burgenlandkreis, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

          Other Popular Places to Check Out

          Old Cemetery in the City Park (Alter Friedhof im Stadtpark)

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