Wickenthies Fountain (Spittaplatz, Burgdorf)

The fountain that has been there since 1991 will soon be dismantled and will disappear forever☝️
It no longer works and repairs are too expensive. The entire Spittaplatz is getting a new architectural look.
Instead of the fountain, there will be a new water feature!

A Burgdorf financial institution has erected a monument to him: the shoemaker and fortune teller Wickenthies. In the middle of Burgdorf's central square, the bronze Spökenkieker stands enthroned on a fountain. In his left hand he holds a shoemaker's hammer. His right hand points to the sky. He also raises his head upwards, as if he were interpreting the future. Wickenthies is said to have lived in the first half of the 17th century. Thies is a short form of Matthias. He was given the nickname Wicken - a Low German word for prophesy that is hardly used anymore - because he made some seemingly fantastic predictions that also came true.
At night he often couldn't stay in bed any longer and was driven outside. His prophecies are said to have come about on his nightly walks, which he then told people about in the morning. His predictions were initially passed on orally. Later they were recorded and distributed as leaflets at fairs. "Wahr mutt dat sin, Wickenthies hat dar seggt" (It must be true, Wickenthies said it) was a common saying.
One morning he told his wife that a corpse would soon be carried out of the house of a poor Burgdorfer. However, he did not know the dead man. Soon afterwards, a foreign preacher came to town and died in the house Wickenthies had mentioned. Another time he went to the bailiff and reported that a guy with curly hair was being brought and broken on the wheel. The bailiff laughed at the shoemaker. But during the conversation, a young man who had killed his father was brought.
Wickenthies also announced that the iron clapper of the large Burgdorf church tower bell would break. This happened on a Sunday in 1715. He also correctly predicted that a large stone would break in front of the town hall.
The prediction that in the Auestadt a cow would give birth to a calf with two heads. For example, the prophecy that the village of Dachtmissen would one day turn completely red also came true: the former straw roofs have been replaced by red tiled roofs.
...
Author of the above text: Friedrich-Wilhelm Schiller
From the book: “LEGENDABLE PLACES and EVENTS around HANNOVER (1995)
My opinion: It would be foolish to remove this monument from there!

The Wicken-Thies fountain is located on Spittaplatz.
Wicken Thies was a shoemaker with the gift of clairvoyance. He lived in Burgdorf around 1600.