Tour of the City

In former times there used to be a number of small markets in the town centre of Mannheim, all of which derived their names from the goods sold there. Two of these market-squares, the Strohmarkt (straw market) and the Gockelsmarkt (fir-cone market), are often confused, possibly because they now exist in name only.

The Gockelsmarkt is in quadrate N 4, officially called the Kapuzinerplanken (Capuchin Planks). It got its name from the Christmas trees and fir-cones, called "Gockeln". The city archivist Friedrich Teutsch examined the history of this square and came to the conclusion that, through the centuries, it had had a number of very different names. From 1701 to 1839/40 the Capuchin monastery was situated in the quadrates N 5 and N 6. This is where the "Kapuzinerplanken" derives its name from, i.e. the square, on the left side of the Kunststrasse, which extends from the quadrates O 5 and O 6. Here, until 1989 there used to be a parking zone, now it is again an open square.

Before 1722 documents indicate the name "Klostergasse" (monastery lane) for the Gockelsmarkt. Around 1780 it was known as St. Johannes Nepomuk Platz as the statue of the Saint of bridges adorned the square. In 1833 it was called Johannesplatz. With the demolition of the monastery, it was then named Kapuzinerplatz, the name it still goes by. As the statue of Nepomuk still exists, it may one day be put up in its old place again.

No documentary proof exists though for the name 'Gockelsmarkt', which indicates that this name may not only be rather recent, but that it also only exists in the vernacular. Today the square is generally known as the "Blumenpeterplatz". "Blumepeter" (Flower Peter), Peter Schäfer being his real name, was a dwarfish little man who roamed the Mannheim pubs with his bunches of flowers and the invitation "Kaaft ma ebbes ab" (Buy something from me). Peter died on June 15th 1940 at the age of 65. People say that he "wasn't quite right in the head", but he was really suffering from a serious glandular malfunction and his mental capacities had not been fostered because schools for the disabled did not yet exist at the time. For years he lived in the Weinheim and Wiesloch nursing homes and he is buried on the joint cemetery of those institutions. In his official medical notes it mentions 'hereditary disease'. "Heart failure" is given as the cause of death. There are rumours but no proof that he was a victim of the barbarous "euthanasia programme" of the Nazis.

It definitely was not easy for Blumepeter and people probably often made fun of him. Nevertheless, he has become the symbol of Mannheim wit and was declared a "Bloomaul" posthumously. The "Bloomaul" award, which has been given every year on Shrove Tuesday for 20 years, depicts Blumepeter looking through his legs at the world upside down, in a carnivalesque manner, showing the world, so to speak, his posterior. Although the little guy probably never told any of the jokes and anecdotes ascribed to him during his life time, Peter nevertheless is a Mannheim legend. His memorial, which was recently moved from the Kapuzinerplatz to the Kapuzinerplanken, is always adorned with a bunch of flowers.