Fünsing is a fictional German "
village of fools". The 19th-century ''
Deutsches Wörterbuch
The ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (; "German Dictionary"), abbreviated ''DWB'', is the largest and most comprehensive dictionary of the German language in existence.[Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...]
defines the word Fünsinger as a silly person, a simpleton whose actions provoke laughter; Latin: ''baburnus'', ''
stultus'', and compares the word with "
Schildburger".
Making fun of peasants was common in 16th-century German drama, drawing a contrast between smart and well-mannered city dwellers and stupid and clumsy peasants.
Fünsing is best known from two by the 16th-century German poet and playwright
Hans Sachs
Hans Sachs (5 November 1494 – 19 January 1576) was a German ''Meistersinger'' ("mastersinger"), poetry, poet, playwright, and shoemaking, shoemaker.
Biography
Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg (). As a child he attended a singing school that w ...
: "Der Roßdieb zu Fünsing" ("A Horse Thief from Fünsing") and "Die Fünsinger Bauern" ("Peasants of Fünsing") (1558).
In the first one, one of Sachs' best-known pieces, the caught horse thief defends himself by arguing that he is no more dishonest than the judges, who, he asserts, would do the same if they had the opportunity. The judges let him go after he promises to come back after the harvest to be hanged.
The second one tells of the stupidity of the Fünsinger in verse. One of the tales goes as follows:
There is a
Molbo story
A Molbo story is a Danes, Danish folktale of the "town of fools" type about the people of Mols, who live in eastern Jutland near the town of Ebeltoft. In these tales the Molboes are portrayed as a simple folk, who act foolishly while attempting ...
similar to that of "Die Fünsinger Bauern".
References
{{reflist
Towns of fools
German humour
Fictional populated places in Germany