Jena: Philisterbrunnen gegenüber den Wehranlagen "Am Pulverturm" von Karl-Heinz Appelt, 2004, Bronze und Edelstahl - Philistine Fountain opposite the Defensive Wall at the Gunpowder Tower.
Der Brunnen setzt das Motiv eines doppeldeutigen Spottbildes zu Altjenaer Studentengeschichten um, den "Fremdenenpump": Die immer hungrigen und vor allem durstigen Studenten pumpten dabei Philister - ein damaliges Synonym für Bürger bzw. Nichtakademiker, später auch Spießbürger - und einmal sogar den Großherzog um Geld an. "...Die und die Wirte / sind die besten auf der Welt. / Wein und Bier in vollen Humpen / tun sie den Studenten pumpen / und dazu noch bares Geld! ..." Jenaer Studentenlied, um 1830 Beschreibung entnommen einer Informationstafel vor Ort, die mit dem Hinweis endet: "Diesen Philister können Sie bedenkenlos anpumpen!"
The fountain, more accurately an artistically decorated water pump, evokes a common practice of Jena students in old times, that is borrowing from strangers. And now I am at a loss to translate the bun at the origin of this fountain. To borrow from or take on credit is translated in colloquial German by "anpumpen" what means pumping in English. The old Jena students, always short of money, but thirsty for beer, used to borrow money from Jena citizens, showing at the same time their disdain for them by calling them "philistines", a term that in German has about the same meaning as in English: "a person who is guided by materialism and is usually disdainful of intellectual or artistic values" (Merriam-Webster), or, as it was also used by the students, simply a non-academic person. All this is explained on an information panel next to the pump, ending with the notice "Don't hesitate to pump (water on) this philistine", evoking once more the double meaning of the verb which I can't reproduce adequately in English.
Jena: Philisterbrunnen gegenüber den Wehranlagen "Am Pulverturm" von Karl-Heinz Appelt, 2004, Bronze und Edelstahl - Philistine Fountain opposite the Defensive Wall at the Gunpowder Tower.
Der Brunnen setzt das Motiv eines doppeldeutigen Spottbildes zu Altjenaer Studentengeschichten um, den "Fremdenenpump": Die immer hungrigen und vor allem durstigen Studenten pumpten dabei Philister - ein damaliges Synonym für Bürger bzw. Nichtakademiker, später auch Spießbürger - und einmal sogar den Großherzog um Geld an. "...Die und die Wirte / sind die besten auf der Welt. / Wein und Bier in vollen Humpen / tun sie den Studenten pumpen / und dazu noch bares Geld! ..." Jenaer Studentenlied, um 1830 Beschreibung entnommen einer Informationstafel vor Ort, die mit dem Hinweis endet: "Diesen Philister können Sie bedenkenlos anpumpen!"
The fountain, more accurately an artistically decorated water pump, evokes a common practice of Jena students in old times, that is borrowing from strangers. And now I am at a loss to translate the bun at the origin of this fountain. To borrow from or take on credit is translated in colloquial German by "anpumpen" what means pumping in English. The old Jena students, always short of money, but thirsty for beer, used to borrow money from Jena citizens, showing at the same time their disdain for them by calling them "philistines", a term that in German has about the same meaning as in English: "a person who is guided by materialism and is usually disdainful of intellectual or artistic values" (Merriam-Webster), or, as it was also used by the students, simply a non-academic person. All this is explained on an information panel next to the pump, ending with the notice "Don't hesitate to pump (water on) this philistine", evoking once more the double meaning of the verb which I can't reproduce adequately in English.