Our Lion

On Wikipedia I found a long article about the Brunswick Lion (in german available only) - I´ve seen the copy heaps of times (due to pollution the original is in the museum), but I never realized he is so big! He is 1,78 m in height! Way taller than me. 2,79 m long and weighs 880 kg. He was probably made by a goldsmith and they even found gold in the lion's mane.

He reminded me of the statue in Goslar, and, yes! In Goslar is a duplicate! As well as in some other towns in Germany. Duke Henry the Lion had them placed everywhere he had his business done!

He was made in 1166 (the lion, not Henry ;-)...) and is the first bigger hollow casting northerly from the Alps since the ancient world (wow, I´m learning new words here! But I don´t think I´ll memorize them...).

He was first restored in 1616, 1812 he was saved from Napoleons´ occupying forces and during World War II they saved the lion by hiding him in Goslar - what a (hi)story!



There is another article on the Brunswick castle that got hit by 40 bombs in World War II. The brunswick people had five years to decide what to do - rebuild it or tear it down. Most wanted the first but with only two votes they started tearing it down and took away an important part of the town, a part of the peoples´ identity.
There was a park ever since, a really nice place to go. In May 2005 they cut down all the trees. They rebuild the castle now. It costs a lot of money and to most people it´s "meaningless" - we grew up with a beautiful park that is gone now! It will become a shopping mall - right beside the city. What about all the smaller shops, what about the city; will it die?
It was again a very narrow voting rate that made the start of this project possible and heaps of protest was there, again, too.

This lion sits on the wall of another rebuild building. World War II hit Brunswick hard due to its industry. But these people always stood up again!



Small as the town is (245.000 residents) it has some really funny products, like the Brunswick Mumme, a beer that was exported even to India and in the Caribbean in the Middle Ages. Other towns tried to copy it but never succeeded. There is lyrics and even a song upon it! In 1736 it was decided to make this beer without alcohol and its popularity went down. Today you get it only here. From being export-article number 1 it went down to a souvenir "for exile Brunswick people and tourists".. and this article suggests, this happend just because it´s nonalcoholic now. I think it´s the taste. Too sweet.



Yep. I sure love my town. I even buy books on it. I never had much interest in the town I grew up in, though.

But here nice things happen all the time. Once I was in my mothers´ car (number plate from another town), having the town map on my knees. A woman knocked at the window and asked if I needed help!

In the town I studied in it was very different! For christmas time they always had the slogan "the friendly people of Hildesheim" - they were needed to be reminded to be friendly!!!
Yeah. This may be a reason I honor my town´s friendliness so much! :-)