The "goat group" at the historic town hall tells of self-sufficiency in poor times. The first models of the sculptures go back to the artist Mario Derra.
GROSS-GERAU - What a drama: The can slipped off the handcart and fell on the street, the milk spilled. The horror is written all over the boy's face, who was apparently carelessly out and about with the team of goats: the bronze group of sculptures opposite the historic town hall tells of the value of milk and also of milk sales for the common man's household from the years between the wars to the mid-fifties . She tells of barren times, of worrying about daily bread. The goat was popularly known as "the little man's cow". The multi-part sculpture, which was installed vis-à-vis in 2007, like the “Hesse thresher”, is known under the term “group of goats”. The first models for the sculptures go back to the artist Mario Derra. However, Derra distanced himself from the final form of the sculptures. In its folksyness, made by Friedhelm Trapp GmbH Mainhausen, the installation of the group of goats looks like a picture or fairy tale book and seems suitable to fascinate and educate children. "Hurry makes waste" could be an admonition.
Above all, however, the "goat group" with the stubborn team of goats used for commercial purposes tells an episode from historical everyday life. “In the households of the little people, one or two goats were often kept in addition to other small livestock such as chickens, rabbits or pigs. Less demanding than the cow, the green stuff in the garden was enough for the goat to feed it,” says museum director Jürgen Volkmann on the subject of self-sufficiency, which played an important role until around 1950/1960. "Anyone who didn't own land themselves could collect green fodder for their goats in the district and along the wayside and in this way - even if they didn't sell milk - still ensure that their own family was supplied with milk," he adds. And: "In lean times, self-sufficiency was also planned structurally - the gardens at the housing estates in the northern settlement, which were created in self-help thanks to the Ried building cooperative founded in 1948, bear witness to this."
On display is a bronze sculpture of a cart pulled by 2 goats, the left rear wheel of which has broken off. A milk can has rolled out of the cart. A frightened boy stands by and looks at the scene. The whole thing is presented very lifelike, as if it had just happened.