First Sunday in Advent--Heinzelmännchen

While DH was visiting, we were lucky enough to see a collection of paper sculptures in the Schiller Galerie mall at the transit stop in Blasewitz, just across the river from my apartment.  They illustrate in amazing detail the myth of the Heinzelmännchen, nighttime elves who were said to do all the work for the tradesmen in either Köln (Cologne, dort drüben in western Germany) or Cölln (now part of Berlin); my internet sources couldn't agree.  The men had it easy, until one housewife (of course it was a meddling woman!) became too curious about the mysterious visitors and left peas on the floor, presumably so whoever it was would trip and wake her up to discover their identity.  This made the little men so mad that they never came back, and from then on, the unlucky laborers of the city had to do their own handiwork.  You can read August Kopisch's (1799-1853) famous poem about the Heinzelmännchen in its entirety in German or English here.  This rambunctious tumbling of verbs was first published in 1836, and the author of the site I link to has made it into a children's song.  This story reminds me of one of Grimms' fairytales, of "The Elves and the Shoemaker."  My mother has this Märchen in a little book with the most adorable illustrations of wee little shoes and clothes for the elves.  It was one of my favorites as a kid.

These are DH's photographs (the link takes you to my Flickr page).  Even though the dioramas are made almost entirely of paper, the artist managed to capture many different textures: bread, brick, lace, beard, metal, wood, stone.  Unfortunately, as they are white on white, most of the whimsical details are difficult to make out in a small picture posted online.  Hopefully you will still enjoy them!

Presumably Schiller Galerie purchased the display rights for these showcases from the artist as a lead-up to the holiday season (and it probably costs more to display the closer to Christmas).  I am not sure why the Heinzelmännchen "fit" with Christmas.  I guess because there is supposed to be something "magical" about the season: singing snowmen, stable animals talking at midnight, a fat man in a sleigh squeezing down chimneys to bring toys to children the world-over, etc.  This must also by why the Overture to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte is currently playing on the Classic Holiday station on my online radio.  (The Magic Flute, get it?)  At any rate, we are finally officially in the Christmas season: may it be merry for you!