Sunday, January 8, 2023

Bobblehead or Bobbele?


Yesterday, on January 7, the US commemorated National Bobblehead Day (?). 

Red Baron had to look it up. Bobbleheads* are figurines with a disproportionately large head mounted on a spring so that it bobs up and down, often made as a caricature of famous persons.
*They are known as bobble heads, bobble head dolls, bobbing heads, bobbleheads, moving heads, nodders, nodding heads, and wobblers. In the UK, bobble head dolls are often called nodding dolls.

Present-day bobbleheads originated in Germany, while ancient Japanese and Chinese string dolls are considered precursors to the German style of bobblehead dolls*. They were made of ceramic, and production began in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
*Bobblehead dolls are believed to date back to the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, who mentioned them in his short story "The Overcoat" in 1842.

Bobbleheads must be distinct from the Freiburg Bobbele. The original narrative is that a real Bobbele must have been born in Freiburg's Elisabeth Hospital and to Freiburg-born parents. 

Bobbele certificate (©BZ)
Peter Kalchthaler, director of the Museum of City History, thinks this is nonsense because the hospital only existed from 1928 to 2002. 

Why was Germany's tennis icon Boris Becker from Leimen in northern Baden dubbed a Bobbele?* Well, in German, a cuddly little child is sometimes called Bobbel or Bobbele.
*Long, long ago

"We don't know where the Freiburg Bobbele comes from," continues Kalchthaler, "my theory is that it goes back to Franz Joseph Bob. Bob was the first principal of the regulated elementary school, which was introduced in Freiburg in 1773."

Be it as it may. Both Bobbleheads and Bobbele are cute.

Fictional character Bobbele (©chili-freiburg)
Chocolate Bobbele (©Café Schmidt)
*

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