SCANDAL: Dyl Sowizdrzał was really Dyl Ulenspiegel (Till Eulenspiegel), and not Polish!

OK - I am so disillusioned at the moment. I was just reading "Dzieje kultury niemieckiej"
(History of German Culture)...

... and in the chapter about national fairy tales, I found information about Dyl
Ulenspiegel (Dyl Sowizdrzał) which as it turns out to be was a German peasant
from Braunschweig area!

The problem is, my grandmother used to tell me fairy tales about Dyl Sowizdrzał,
a Polish peasant from Świętokrzyskie Mountains! So, my entire life, I believed
this cunning, funny man was Polish and suddenly, when I'm 31, I find out that all
those childhood fairy tales my granny told me were lies!

So, I tried Wikipedia in vain hope of restoring Sowizdrzał (or should I say Ulenspiegel from
now on) for Poland, but it only added to my misery...

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyl_Sowizdrza%C5%82

...the man was indeed German, born in Kneitlingen am Elm and died in Mölln.

I think I need a beer or two at the moment...

*the beer is DAB by the way...*

Not bad but i prefer Becks.

The irony is that the only beer in my refrigerator, after the loss of my childhood hero
to Germany, is German DAB. Very decent beer by the way...

unless this gets back on topic it's going to Off Topic


Well, the point I was making (besides moaning about losing my childhood hero) was
that there is a person, that in Polish popular culture is considered a Pole, who was
without any shadow of a doubt German. So, most probably, there are other people
like Sowizdrzał (Ulenspiegel) in common Polish-German history (Wit Stwosz/Veit Stoß?).

I wonder if any other PF poster had such traumatic experience in his/her life as I had
today? Are there any other Germans thought to be Poles (or the other way around)
that you know of?

*Oh, and I think we can leave Kopernik/Copernicus out of discussion*

I was being told about a Till Eulenspiegel in my Childhood too...and Schweijk. And here I thought for the longest time that Schweijk had been a German...see? You are not alone!

We should start a People Who Were Lied To By Their Grandparents Association ;)

Anyway - I just realized that my grandmother's maiden name was Opitz *rolls eyes*

EDIT: However, I still don't get why my Austrian grandmother would tell me that
a German folk hero was Polish. Oh, well...

TORQ IS A GEERAAAAAAN!


That's Europe in a nutshell! :)

What? How did you come to this conclusion? I'm as Polish as it gets.
I had one Austrian grandmother and my family, both from my father's and my mother's
side, comes from the lands of Austrian partition. Oh - and I had a German shepherd once,
but that's it :)


Yip - the longer I live and more I read, the more I see how complicated things were
in Europe throughout history.

The name Opitz? Heh:)
No, you are Pole but still I had to google the name...

Interesting. Anyway - my granny took my grandfather's name after they married, she
spoke perfect Polish and was fervent Catholic, so no one in our family has ever thought
of her as Austrian.

I'm a bit surprised about the Saxony/Silesian origin, but as it was said before, European
history is very complicated.

Especially in our neck of the woods!

I must say I'm fascinated by it and the more I study and learn the more I like it...so many crossroads, so many facetts and connections.

I find our polish/german/czech history (especially the border regions) the most interesting of all!
(even when others talk all the time about the grande french, italian, roman, english history etc.)

Well said. Also, as time passes, people are more and more willing to admit it, as old
grievances are forgiven and our part of Europe is becoming united again.


That's only natural that we are more interested in our region, and people from other
parts of Europe are keen on their history. I think that we have nothing to be ashamed
of, compared to other European regions' history and accomplishments.

When i was small i thought Jesus was Polish...

Well, wasn't he???

OK... that's too much for today - first Dyl Sowizdrzał and now Jesus...

;)

Yes, I did. When I was little, not only my grandma, but the priests and my parents told me that women have a soul. How do you think I feel now? They don't make a beer that would help me to forget that lie.

I wonder if Sowizdrzał's Silesian companion - Wonichlebiczek - had a German predecessor as well.

@1jola:

LOL

Time heals all wounds, mate. It will be all right, don't worry (and let's not
drag the thread off topic.)


That wouldn't surprise me, to be honest. Looks like it's Polish Folk Heroes Were
Actually German day on PF ;)

Oh, I'm happily married.

I think the Slovaks are claiming our Janosik. If he goes, what next? Although, I am pretty sure that that Berlin bear was originally from forests around Białystok .

it was never ours from the start.. he always was slovak.. jeez