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TheHeinzelmännchen (German pronunciation:[ˈhaɪntsl̩ˌmɛnçɛn]ⓘ) are helpfulhousehold spirits orkobolds associated with the city ofCologne inGermany, akin tobrownies of Scotland.[1]
It has become traditional to tell their story duringChristmas-tide.[2] The creatures are also loosely referred to as "elves",[2] rather in the sense of "The Elves and the Shoemaker".[3]
The little housegnomes are said to have done all the work of the citizens of Cologne during the night, so that the inhabitants of Cologne could be very lazy during the day. According to the legend, this went on until a tailor's wife got so curious to see the gnomes that she scattered peas onto the floor of the workshop to make the gnomes slip and fall. This infuriated the gnomes, who disappeared and never returned. From that time on, the citizens of Cologne had to do all their work by themselves.[4][5]
Hänneschen once used to be a commonplace character in Cologne's puppet theater.[6] The genuine Kölsch (Colognian) dialect form should beHeizemann/Heizemännche (pl.Heizemänncher), whileHeinzelmännchen is the normalized High German form.[7]
A two-pronged theory on the origin of the name was proposed byMarianne Rumpf [de] (1976),[8] first from the form "Heinzelmännlein" as a colloquial name formandrake dolls,[9] which evolved into lore about them acting as animated house spirits.[10] Secondly, other than being a personal name, "Heinze"[11] or "Heinzen-kunst" was the name for a water-draining contraption in the Erzgebirge mining region of Saxony.[12] By extrapolation, its operators could have also been called Heinz, according to Rumpf.[13]
This legend of the Heinzelmännchen was first written down by the Cologne teacherErnst Weyden (1805–1869) in 1826.[14][15][16] It was translated into English byThomas Keightley and published 1828 in his bookThe Fairy Mythology.[4][15]
Weyden's account opens thus:
Es mag noch nicht über fünfzig Jahre seyn, daß in Cöln die sogenannten Heinzelmännchen ihr abentheuerliches Wesen trieben. Kleine nackende Männchen waren es, die allerhand thaten, Brodbacken, waschen und dergleichen Hausarbeiten mehrere; so wurde erzählt; doch hatte sie Niemand gesehen[14]
It is not over fifty years since the Heinzelmännchen, as they are called, used to live and perform their exploits in Cologne. They were little naked mannikins, who used to do all sorts of work; bake bread, wash, and such like house-work. So it is said but no one ever saw them.[17]
While the lore of the Heinzelmännchen in the city of Cologne was very much alive until c. 1780 according to Weyden, everything about the sprite before that time remains completely in the dark.[18] Weyden seems to have begun his "restoration" effort around 1821.[19]
In 1836 the painter and poetAugust Kopisch published a poem beginning with the words:[20] (also reprinted in his 1848 anthology[21] ), which became immensely popular and garnered the poet his fame.[22][23] The opening lines run thus:[20]
Wie war zu Cölln es doch vordem
Mit Heinzelmännchen so bequem!
Denn war man faul, ... man legte sich
Hin auf die Bank und pflegte sich.
Da kamen bei Nacht, eh' man's gedacht,
Die Männlein und schwärmten
Und klappten und lärmten
Und rupften
Und zupften
Und hüpften und trabten
Und putzten und schabten –
Und eh' ein Faulpelz noch erwacht,
war all sein Tagwerk ... bereits gemacht!...
Once upon a time in Cologne,
how comfortable it was with the Heinzelmen!
For if you were lazy, ... you just lay down
on your bench and took care of yourself.
Then at night, before one knew it, came
the little men and swarmed
and clattered and rattled
and plucked
and picked
and jumped and trotted
and cleaned and scoured –
and even before a lazy bum awoke,
all his daily work was ... already done! ...
It has been asserted that the "literary" lore of Heinzelmännchen only became widely known through Kopisch's poem.[24]
FolkloristMarianne Rumpf [de] (1976) argued that the oral origins materialErnst Weyden (1826) compiled was essentially the sole source Kopisch used to craft his ballad. Some of the underlying assumption, such as Weyden must have owned a considerable library of folkloric writings while Kopisch had none such, has been challenged byHeribert A. Hilgers [de].[25] Hilgers considers Weyden's effort to be a "restoration" of the Heinzelmännchen story begun in 1821.[26]
In the HdA orHandwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens [de], contributorLily Weiser-Aall classed the Heinzelmännchen as a "literary name" type of "kobold", crediting Kopisch for its fame.[24]
Figures of Heinzelmännchen are is featured in various situations at Cologne's annual Christmas season markets held at the Heumarkt and the Alter Markt square (the "Heinzels Wintermärchen").[27]
 | You can helpexpand this section with text translated fromthe corresponding article in German. (September 2024)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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In Cologne, a fountain (Heinzelmännchenbrunnen) was installed on Straße Am Hof, near theCologne Cathedral and the city's oldestbrewery, the Früh. The fountain commemorates the Heinzelmännchen and the inquisitive tailor's wife, and was constructed 1897–1900 by the sculptorHeinrich Renard [de] and his fatherEdmund Renard (the Elder) [de]. The tailor's wife sculpture was later replaced with a replica, while the original is held in display atCologneZeughaus [de] (armoury).[28][29]
The words were set to music by the GermanLieder composerCarl Loewe, who published his "Die Heinzelmännchen" (the brownies), opus 83, in 1841.[30][31]
Acarnival song about dedicated helpers "Heinzemänncher" was authored byJohannes Matthias Firmenich [de] for the year 1844.[32]
The legend about the "little folk" localized inEilenburg,Saxony (Des kleinen Volkes Hochzeitsfest, GrimmsDeutsche Sagen No. 31) has inspired that city to promote their own Heinzelmännchen, including a mascot parodically named "Heinz Elmann".[33][34][35]
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