Mindener Buttjer Statue

Buttjer was a name for the inhabitants of the upper Mindener old town, which was also a residential area of the Sinti. The verbs are buttchen and buttschern stand for work; the Buttjersprache was (also) the language of the workers of the upper old town. As a self-designation of Buttjersprache there was also the term Lachspeak, latscho means good on Sintitikes. The word Buttjer comes from the roguish, where it means loiter or tramp. The Buttjersprache was used even within Mindens in spatially separated quarters, focal points and streets, but hardly east of the Weser. Voices interviews revealed that some words and phrases were unknown a few streets away. In the vocabulary of Buttjersprache can be noted even for the short period for which written documents exist, a significant language degradation.

(Https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttjersprache)

The artist Paul Wedepohl created the statue, which has become a landmark of Minden over the past few decades. The Buttjer is considered a veteran of the Weser city.
An original like Tünnes and Schäl in Cologne, for example.
He reflects the "Laumalocher" in the best sense of the word, who is outspoken and gets through life well.
The word "Buttjer" comes from Rotwelsch, where it means loafer or vagrant. And somehow there is also a Buttjer in every "real Mindener".The Buttjerschmiede is also part of the Minden Buttjer. It is a proven special language that originally fulfilled the role of a secret language as a sociolect.The oldest known glossary of the Buttjer language dates from 1953 and contains
95 words, the most recent glossary, supplemented by interviews with language witnesses, contains over 900 words. In recent years, this secret language has been extensively researched. A bachelor's thesis on this was published in 2023.A hypothetical fixed point at which the Buttjer language emerged is the arrival of the
first Sinti in Minden. Buttjer was a term for the residents of the Upper Old Town,
which was also a residential area of the Sinti. The verbs "buttchen", "buttschen" and "buttschern" stand for "work".The Buttjer language is also considered the language of the workers in the Upper Old Town.
However, it was also spoken in other districts to the left of the Weser.teutoburgerwald.de/region/ausflugsziele/mein-ziel/mindener-buttjer

The Mindener Buttjer is located directly on the Martini stairs.