Hummel, Hummel........... by tini58de
You will find figures of a water carrier throughout the city of Hamburg. There is a story to it that I would like to share with you and that explains where the famous Hamburg greeting Hummel, Hummel - Mors, Mors comes from!!:
The story goes back to the water carrier Johann Wilhelm Bentz who lived from 1787 to 1854. He was a pretty evil tempered man who lived in the same appartment that previously the charming soldier Daniel Christian Hummel had lived in. And this man had been very popular with the kids in the neighborhood.
Those neighborhood kids missed Hummel and in order to get the bad tempered water carrier angry they would shout: "Hummel, Hummel" in his direction. Well, with 30 liters on his shoulders he could not really do anything but shout "Mors, Mors" in their direction, which is Low German and means a**, a** ............
And that is how this Hanseatic "greeting" came about!
