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Sign of the butcher’s shop Charcuterie Zimmerlin designed by Hansi (Jean-Jacques Waltz) in the old quarter of the city of Colmar, Alsace, France

Some background information:

Jean-Jacques Waltz (1873 to 1951), also known as "Oncle Hansi", or simply "Hansi" ("little John") was a French artist of Alsatian origin. Born in Colmar, he was a staunch pro-French activist. Hansi is still a local Alsatian hero, who is famous for his quaint drawings, some of which contain harsh critiques of the Germans of the time. However, he is also famous for creating some of the most beautiful and funny hanging signs in all of Europe. However, his hanging signs can only be admired in the Alsace region.

In his early life Jean-Jacques Waltz worked as an artist for the textile industry, who also drew postcards and programmes for local events. In 1908, he started publishing satirical works under the pseudonym "Hansi", making particular fun of German tourists. He became famous after having published his polemical satiric work Professor Knatschke in 1912, which became a bestseller in France, as well as several other militant works. At that time he came to incarnate the symbol of pro-French Alsatians, especially among "revanchist" French intellectuals.

Hansi was imprisoned several times by the German authorities for making fun of the German military and professors, culminating in a one-year sentence given by the tribunal of Leipzig in July 1914. This caused a national outrage in France, making headlines in newspapers and inspiring two editorials by Georges Clemenceau, the then Prime Minister of France. By the way, Waltz’s artist’s name Hansi derives from the children’s book "L’Histoire d’ Alsace racontée aux petits enfants par l’oncle Hansi" (in English: "The history of the Alsace told to small children by Uncle Hansi"), which he wrote and illustrated in 1912.

In 1940, Hansi, still wanted by the Gestapo for his militant works and his treason of 1914, had to flee into Vichy France. He was attacked by the Nazis in Agen, and fled to Switzerland. Badly wounded by this attack, he remained weak until he died in 1951. Today, Hansi is archetypal of Alsace folklore. His original books, published in a few thousand copies, are valued among collectors. It is very common to find plates and every-day items decorated with his drawings, while his books have been republished several times. And finally there are still his great hanging signs hanging in several Alsatian towns and villages, some of them labelled with his name and others even unlabelled.

Colmar is a city in the department of Haut-Rhin in the Grand Est region of north-eastern France. It is the third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse). Colmar is situated on the Alsatian Wine Route and considers itself to be the "capital of Alsatian wine". But the city is not only renowned for its wine, but also for its well-preserved old town, its numerous architectural landmarks and museums, among which is the Unterlinden Museum that houses the Isenheim Altarpiece. Colmar has about 70,000 inhabitants, while its metropolitan area has more than 120,000 residents.

In 823, the settlement was first mentioned in a document under its then name "Columbiarum". At the beginning of the 13th century, the town was walled in, and in 1226, it was granted the status of a free imperial city by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II from the Hohenstaufen dynasty. In subsequent years religious orders established themselves in Colmar. Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians built their places of worship and dwellings, with numerous churches and monastic buildings still standing today in the historical centre.

In 1354 Colmar joined the Décapole city league, which was an alliance formed by ten Imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire in the Alsace region to maintain their rights. The other towns belonging to this alliance were Haguenau, Wissembourg, Turckheim, Obernai, Kaysersberg, Rosheim, Munster, Sélestat and Mulhouse, while the free imperial city of Strasbourg remained outside.

In 1575, the city adopted the Protestant Reformation, long after its northern neighbours of Strasbourg and Sélestat. In the course of the Thirty Years' War, it was taken by the Swedish army in 1632, which held it for two years. In 1635, the city's harvest was spoiled by Catholic imperial forces while the residents shot at them from the walls.

In 1673, Colmar was conquered by France under King Louis XIV, along with the whole Alsace region. At that time the whole Roman Empire of the German Nation was still stricken by the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War and split into many medium-sized and petty states, which acted more or less independently with no unity between them. Hence, resistance against united France was futile. In 1679, the city was officially ceded to France by the Treaties of Nijmegen.

In 1854, the cholera epidemic claimed many lives in Colmar. In 1871, as a result of the Franco-Prussian War, Colmar was annexed by the newly formed German Empire and incorporated into the Alsace-Lorraine province. But after World War I, it returned to France according to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. In 1940, in the course of World War II, it was annexed again, this time by Nazi Germany, and then reverted to French control after the battle of the "Colmar Pocket" in 1945.

Despite the wars, Colmar has remained virtually unscathed and today offers a stroll through its rich history. The city still has a lot of secular and religious architectural landmarks, which reflect eight centuries of Germanic and French architecture. Many monuments dating from the Middle Ages to Renaissance have been finely restored and are on the historical monuments list. Hence, Colmar’s economy is dominated by tourism industry and also wine making, which is reflected by the annual Alsatian wine fair, the largest festival in the Alsace region.

Porträt eines Bentheimer Ferkelchen

Dieses Bild von Tim Reckmann kann frei unter der angegebenen Creative Commons Lizenz genutzt werden. Viele Tausend weitere Fotos findest Du auch auf www.ccnull.de. Darüber hinausgehende Lizenzen (z.B. Nutzung ohne Kennzeichnung oder Social Media Nutzung) werden exklusiv auf www.a59.de angeboten. Der Einbindung der Bilder via Framing, Embedding oder Deep-Link wird ausdrücklich widersprochen.

Besuch während der Fahrradtour bei den Schweinen. Heute haben wir nur ein einziges gesehen. Alle anderen waren offenbar zu Fleisch verarbeitet.

Besuch während der Fahrradtour bei den Schweinen. Heute haben wir nur ein einziges gesehen. Alle anderen waren offenbar zu Fleisch verarbeitet.

Besuch während der Fahrradtour bei den Schweinen. Heute haben wir nur ein einziges gesehen. Alle anderen waren offenbar zu Fleisch verarbeitet.

The Legends of Queen Esmeralda and her wise rule where many and during dark times people of the alliance would recall anecdotes of her life to restore hope when hope was slim or marginalized…

The stories which weren't written down traveled from mouth to mouth, by the well, on battlefields and on the marketplace…

…and because people are as people are, these storytellers would deduct or add to the story as they saw fitting their version of the legend, sometimes to emphasize certain elements or just to make the story better or to suit a political idea they adhered to…

Here is one story presumably originally told by one of the minor kings in the alliance…

So according to the Legend the queen walks through the Capital which according to the storyteller could have been any of the following kings: Richard the Fainthearted, Lord Adler of Albany or Salladin of the Levant???

…anyhow the queen walks through a township chatting away about wars, politics, friends and gardening…

According to some story her beloved pet Dog Iffy Puff was with her, in other stories she rides her wartrained stallion but in most stories she and the minor King are alone…

They either walk through a poor or sometimes the upper class town but in some they are down the harbor looking for Prince Albert who was on a bender last seen on the Inn named: the salty mermaid (fact check: according to tax registers there was never such a pub registered)

…anyhow, here most stories agree: that they were talking about the love of almost all the subjects towards the queen and that however much good deeds this king made, he could never be as loved as Esmeralda…

Then according to some stories a white dove lands on her head and does business on her head, in another story it is a raven and even an ostrich in some but no one believes that story…

Anyhow as the queen gets soiled and so is her crown, the King is bewildered by the fact that she is not angered by the incident, but instead pulls up some seeds from the pocket and holds them in her hand…

The bird flies down to her open palm with treats while the king utters a sentence similar to this: (interrupting fact check: this kind of disproves that it is an ostrich.)

(Ok back to the story!)
The King said: if that was me I would have screamed and yelled and made the creature fly away!!!

Then we come to the end part since they all are so different they are gonna be listed below in no specific order:

A. The Queen answered the king: the damage was already done, what would anger help in this situation? Then the story goes on by them encountering several other animals which she treats in a tender way and with love…

B. The Queen Says: He or she who are eggless and barren shall not throw eggs on other critters, then a horde of wild and domesticated animals gather and carry the queen like a living palanquin…

C. The Queen says: I am just glad it was not an ostrich a sort of wingless bird in the southern part of the known world, then animals appear carrying gold and jewelry that they gift the queen..

There are more versions of this story, but to hear them you have to travel for yourself to the Capitals alliance city and chat with the townsfolk on the Market, at inns or by the city well, people often love to chat with strangers to hear news from all corners of the world…

Ruthenischer Bauernhof in den Karpaten, [Ukraine], deutsche Feldpost vom 5. Mai 1917.

"Die Russinen (oft auch Ruthenen, Rusniaken, Russynen, Karpato-Ukrainer, Karpatorussen, Karpatenrussinen, Ungarnrussinen etc.) sind eine ostslawische (bzw. gemischtsprachige) Bevölkerungsgruppe, die hauptsächlich in den Karpaten in der Karpatenukraine, den an die Ukraine angrenzenden Staaten Mitteleuropas, in Südosteuropa sowie in Nordamerika lebt." Wikipedia.

Ruthenian farm in the Carpathians, German field post dated May 5, 1917.

“The Russins (often also Ruthenians, Rusniaks, Russyns, Carpatho-Ukrainians, Carpatho-Russians, Carpatho-Russians, Hungarian-Russians, etc.) are an East Slavic (or mixed-language) population group that lives mainly in the Carpathian Mountains in Carpathian Ukraine, the Central European states bordering Ukraine, in South-Eastern Europe and in North America.” Wikipedia.

Dieses Bild von Tim Reckmann kann frei unter der angegebenen Creative Commons Lizenz genutzt werden. Viele Tausend weitere Fotos findest Du auch auf www.ccnull.de. Darüber hinausgehende Lizenzen (z.B. Nutzung ohne Kennzeichnung oder Social Media Nutzung) werden exklusiv auf www.a59.de angeboten. Der Einbindung der Bilder via Framing, Embedding oder Deep-Link wird ausdrücklich widersprochen.

Dieses Bild von Tim Reckmann kann frei unter der angegebenen Creative Commons Lizenz genutzt werden. Viele Tausend weitere Fotos findest Du auch auf www.ccnull.de. Darüber hinausgehende Lizenzen (z.B. Nutzung ohne Kennzeichnung oder Social Media Nutzung) werden exklusiv auf www.a59.de angeboten. Der Einbindung der Bilder via Framing, Embedding oder Deep-Link wird ausdrücklich widersprochen.

Micky Maus / Heft-Reihe
Copyright: Walt Disney 1964
EHAPA Verlag
(Stuttgart / Deutschland)
ex libris MTP
www.comics.org/issue/602361/