LARGE-GERAU - There was always a lot of chatter when hundreds of geese waddled out of the courtyard riding in the village of Dornheim in the morning to go to the pasture. That's a long time ago. In 1954, a report in the “Heimatzeitung”, as the ECHO was formerly known, read that car traffic on the federal highway 44, which runs through the middle of Dornheim, required “road safety measures”. In short: the rapid progress put an end to the single file.
The document can be found on the website of the home and history association (HGV) Dornheim. The bronze sculpture of the goose herdsman in front of the old school alone is still reminiscent of goose herdsmen and goose breeding. In 2005, the installation of the folk-modeled group of figures "symbolically celebrated the return of the goose herdsman", according to the HGV website.
Meinhard Semmler, chairman of the HGV, says that the association has contributed financially to the group of figures with what used to be five geese: "The most beautiful goose was stolen in 2011, and now another one, so that only three are left. What an outrage.” The likeness of the most beautiful goose was immortalized on a plaque on the history of the goose herdsman, which was put up by the HGV in 2012. Semmler reports on the local history: “Dornheim was characterized by agriculture for centuries. Farming, animal husbandry, pasture and forestry were the basis of life. Shepherds were also part of it, and almost every farm had poultry.” Geese were also so valuable because they provided feathers for bedding, which was warmer than a straw mattress: “In winter, the bedrooms weren’t heated.”
Source: Groß-Gerauer-Echo