“Tünnes und Schäl” by Wolfgang Reuter, 1974
An Groß St. Martin
Cologne, September 2024
“Tünnes and Schäl aren’t real people — but two bronze life-size statues of them stand in front of Groß St. Martin (Great St. Martin's Church) church in Cologne’s Altstadt (Old Town). They give us concrete, hands-on evidence that all over the world the collective human spirit is capable of taking on physical form. Tünnes’ nose has been rubbed shiny by the many hands that have touched and rubbed it. That’s because his nose is reputed to be a lucky charm. Tünnes and Schäl are the two legendary cult figures of the Hänneschen puppet theatre in Cologne. The founder of the first Hänneschen theatre, Johann Christoph Winters, created Tünnes in 1803, and Schäl joined Tünnes in 1850. Rumour has it that Schäl was created because there was a competing puppet theatre on the Schäl Sick, the ‘wrong side’ (right bank) of the Rhine. Tünnes is the short form of Antonius in the Rhineland dialect; he’s a naïve country bumpkin with a bulbous nose and a tranquil soul. Schäl is thinner and always wears a tailcoat. He’s a rascal, often sly and sometimes even underhanded. He considers himself smarter than Tünnes, but he isn’t. The word ‘schäl’ has more than one meaning in the local dialect. It refers both to Schäl’s squint and to his ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ behaviour. After all, he’s from the Schäl Sick, the ‘wrong’ side of our metropolis on the Rhine.” (Tünnes and Schäl statues, Cologne Tourism)
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