A story that may or may not be true.
Photo courtesy of agencyspy.files.wordpress.com
BY MERLE L. FELTHAM
When we play our jokes on our friends, trick them with our innocent lies, little do we realized how big the shoes we are trying to fill. Such a man was Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Munchhausen. He was born in Bodenwerder, Germany on May 11, 1720 and died there on February 22, 1797.
This was a man who over his long life claimed to have traveled through the Earth, itself, stopping for a visit at Mount Etna in Italy. Who, as a soldier in the Russian Calvary, during a battle, rode a cannonball. In the same breath he recounted how he managed a trip to the Moon. With all the traveling and adventures he went through, he definitely needed a rewards card.
His home town of Bodenwerder has been a town since 1287. The Baron’s house has been acquired by the town and has been turned into their Town Hall in 1935. A room was added for a museum of Baron Munchhausen and his tales of his exploits. Also, a statue of the man has been erected there.
Every May since 1997, the town has awarded the Munchhausen Prize. This award is for special talent in the “Art of Speaking or Presentation”, either in Literature or the Visual Arts, Fantasy and Satire, in the sense of the Baron.
On June 15, 2005, a statue of Baron Munchhausen sitting on a cannonball was erected in the city of Kalinigrad (Konigsberg) Russia. The city is a seaport and a sister city to Bodenwerder. There is also a club called Munchhausen’s Grandchildren which has collected many articles of “Historical Proofs” of his presence in the city.
An international tour over the places visited by Baron Munchhausen is established as a joint venture of Germany, Lithuania and Latvia, and Kaliningrad.
Baron Muchhausen is known not only in Germany but has made his way into Psychiatry. “Munchausen Syndrome” is where a patient will feign or simulate illness in themselves to gain attention and sympathy. “Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy” is an extension of this condition in which the sufferer acting with similar motives to a Munchausen sufferer, will intentionally inflict or prolong the symptoms of an illness upon an individual under their care (most often a mother upon a child).
So, while you are in Germany, pop down to Austria to Vienna where Sigmund Freud founded the Psychoanalytic School of Psychology. Maybe you can find out why we enjoy April’s Fools day so much.
I hope you enjoyed this article, so now decide for yourself whether any or all of this is true or something I just made it up. iT!
Next month, a link between Mother’s Day, Queen Victoria’s day, and Mythology. Maybe.
Merle Feltham is a Great, great, great, grandson of a Beothuk native and a British Lord. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, “say no more”)
Copyright © 2010 · Open Reel Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved ·
