Henriette Johanne Marie Müller, called the ''Zitronenjette'', (18 July 1841 – 8 July 1916) was a popular figure now identified with the city of
Hamburg.
Life
Born in
Dessau
Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...
, Müller made a living in the last two decades of the nineteenth century by selling lemons (in German ''Zitronen'') on the
Grasbrook during the day and at nights in the pubs of the ''Neustadt''. Her famous call while she sold the lemons was ''Zitroon! Zitroon!''. Due to drunkenness and mental illness, in August 1894 she was sent to the
Friedrichsberg asylum.
Memory
A memorial to her is located on Ludwig-Erhardt-Straße near
St. Michaelis' Church. It states in
Low German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
:
:''„Dien Leben wer suur/As de Zitronen, sall/sick dat Erinnern an/di lohnen? Dien Schik-/sol wiest op all de/Lüüd, for de dat Glück/het gor keen Tiet.“''
:''"Your life was as sour as lemons; shall remembrance on you would it be worth? Your destiny is pointing to all the people for whom happiness has no time."''
Theater
Already in 1900, a play named after her was performed in the
Ernst-Drucker-Theater, and other works were to follow. In the 1920s
Paul Möhring
Paul Heinrich Gerhard Möhring (also Paul Mohr; 21 July 1710 in Jever – 28 October 1792) was a German physician, botanist and zoologist.
He studied medicine in Danzig and Wittenberg, and following graduation (1733), he settled as a general pr ...
wrote a play with music entitled ''Zitronenjette''; the role of Müller was originally written for the actor
Ernst Budzinski. In the play, which humoristically depicts Müller and her contemporaries, the lemon seller was frequently played by a man. For example, the roll of Zitronenjette was
Henry Vahl
Henry Vahl (1897–1977) was a German stage, film and television actor.Ball & Spiess p.162 From 1958 he was a star of the Ohnsorg-Theater in Hamburg. His younger brother Bruno Vahl-Berg was also an actor.
Selected filmography
* '' The Muzzle'' ...
's last major performance at the
St. Pauli Theater
St. Pauli Theater is a theatre in Hamburg, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member s ...
and one of his last major roles.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Henriette Johanne Marie
People from Hamburg
1841 births
1916 deaths
19th-century German people