Ribbeck

Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland, Ein Birnbaum in seinem Garten stand, Und kam die goldene Herbsteszeit Und die Birnen leuchteten weit und breit, Da stopfte, wenn's Mittag vom Turme scholl, Der von Ribbeck sich beide Taschen voll, Und kam in Pantinen ein Junge daher, So rief er: „Junge, wiste 'ne Beer?” Und kam ein Mädel, so rief er: „Lütt Dirn, Kumm man röwer, ick hebb 'ne Birn.”

Squire von Ribbeck at Ribbeck in Havelland, In his garden, there stood a pear tree grand, And when autumn came round, the golden tide, And pears were glowing far and wide, Squire von Ribbeck, when noon rang out, would first Fill both his pockets full to burst. And then, when a boy in his clogs came there, He called:" My lad, do you want a pear?" He would hail a girl that chanced to pass: "Come over; I have a pear, little lass!"

©Friedrich-Carl von Ribbeck

Read more of the ballad text on Friedrich-Carl von Ribbeck's international website.

 

©Friedrich-Carl von Ribbeck

Here Friedrich-Carl reads the complete ballad in German to children.

The poet and novelist Theodor Fontane wrote the popular ballad Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland in 1889. Up to today, it has been published in German anthologies and learned in schools. Red Baron doesn't know whether it's still the case, but we learned Fontane's ballad by heart in school.

The text refers to a member of the Prussian lower nobility, Squire von Ribbeck. The family residing on Ribbeck Manor in the Havelland region has been attested since 1237, and the Ribbeck estates figure in the 1375 register of Emperor Charles IV.

The back of the Ribbeck Manor in 1893

The legend of kind-hearted Hans-Georg von Ribbeck (1689–1759) and his pear tree first appeared in a collection of fairy tales published in 1887. Fontane used this text as a base for his ballad, which he wrote in the summer of 1889.

Touring the site, it's pears everywhere. We opened our visit, typically German mit Kaffee und Kuchen - a pear (!) pie - and continued with a special guide in the park around the Ribbeck Manor, looking first at the German pear garden. 

In the park, our local guide stands under the pear tree from Lower Saxony.

In honor of Theodor Fontane, each of the 16 German states donated a pear tree planted in the park of the Ribbeck Manor.

The city-state of Hamburg's Conference Pear bears fruit a hundredfold.

The backside of the Ribbeck Manor. The East German regime expropriated the von Ribbeck family in 1946.

The pear tree of plenty stood in this place, made famous by Theodor Fontane. A storm broke it down on February 20, 1911, and a new tree was planted in 2000. Our excellent tour guide is looking for the text to recite the ballad. This recital was included in the travel service booked.

The new pear tree near the Ribbeck church in the background and the ceramic sculpture "Pear of Ribbeck" by Juliane E. Gansen.

Pears continue to fill the museum inside the Ribbeck Manor. 

A pear to climb into from the other side ...

… different pear varieties are on display ...

… and a weathered sandstone torso of King Frederick William I of Prussia. It's a classical pear shape.

Look at Friedrich Wilhelm I., the Soldier King, in a painting by Konstantin Cretius. Here he received Salzburg exiles in Berlin on April 30, 1732. The arm-lifting old man with hat and cane could have been my great-great-great...grandfather. Read more in German.

The Friedrich-Carl mentioned above von Ribbeck is the grandson of Hans-Georg Karl Anton von Ribbeck. He was a cavalry captain in the First World War and, during the Weimar Republic, a member of the "Stahlhelm," the association of front-line soldiers. After the Nazi seizure of power, Hans-Georg von Ribbeck resisted joining the SA. Although he did not belong to any resistance movement, his opposition led to his arrest in May 1944 as "an enemy of the people."

©Axel Auruszat/Wikipedia

Hans-Georg Karl Anton von Ribbeck was imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at the age of 64, where he was murdered in February 1945, as evidenced by a stumbling stone in front of the Ribbeck Manor.

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