The Dräulzer Legend Trail

The Sendschotten Madonnaand the "Ümmegang"

Even today, early in the morning during the "Ümmegang" at the beginning of July, rolling firecrackers remind us of the legends told about the unsuccessful robbery of the Madonna statue.

TABLE 2:

The Schanhollen of Germinghausen

Similar to the Heinzelmännchen in Cologne, the Schanhollen are very reluctant to appear to the people of Sauerland. But they too help the craftsmen and farmers with their work. There was a cobbler in Germinghausen whom they helped, but only for a year at a time! In neighboring Köbbinghausen, they helped the farmers with their work.

TABLE 3:

The clairvoyant of Essinghausen

The legend of the clairvoyant has a kernel of truth, as with most legends. Although it was forbidden to read the future, people were keen to take a look into what they hoped would be a better future, especially in bleak times. If the authorities found out about it, the clairvoyant was fined, which the seer in Essinghausen probably paid, but she simply carried on.

TABLE 4:

The Hänschen von Voßsiepen

This legend is also based on a true story that took place shortly after the Thirty Years' War. It is about a shepherd who was probably plagued by evil apparitions in the solitude of the mountain meadows and alleged voices commanded him to commit sinister atrocities. The voices whisper to Hänschen that they will make him master of the world if he carries out their orders.

TABLE 5:

The Robbing Abbess

In the early modern period, new religious beliefs emerged that brought much unrest to the country. In particular, the Truchsess turmoil, the apostasy of the Archbishop of Cologne from the Catholic faith, caused fierce fighting in the Sauerland. A few years later, a lady became abbess who did not actually want to become a nun, but she left the monastery in Drolshagen after a short time, albeit taking the monastery treasure with her, and fled to the neighboring "foreign country".

TABLE 6:

The sunken bellin the Glockensiepen

In this beautiful legend, a moral mirror is held up to the people of Drolshagen so that they should live their lives on earth in a pious and God-fearing manner. After the devil had lost his influence over the people of Drolshagen, he wanted to demonstrate his power to them through a particularly evil deed with lasting consequences.