Radschläger Turnier.
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Photo: Dusseldorf.de |
Don’t be surprised if you step onto a street one summer day and find numerous children do cartwheels. It is supposed to be like that on 21 June 2009, the children follow a long Dusseldorf tradition which has turned into an annual competition.
Many, many hundreds years ago boys in Dusseldorf used to do tricks, namely turning cartwheels, in order to earn “eene Penning”, one pfennig, from the onlookers. While cartwheels are internationally known, only in Dusseldorf the repeated wheel-like motion of the body is a typical tradition. Hence the “Radschläger”, as somebody who does a cartwheel is called in German, has always been an affectionate representative of Dusseldorf and was turned into a bronze fountain figure in 1954 or more often into sweet marzipan at the local confectionery shops.
For this year’s competion, starting at 11 am, about 600 kids between 8 and 12 years will meet up at the Untere Rheinwerft south of the Schulstraßenbastei.
A nice bit of additional info is that Dusseldorf’s English partner town Reading actually has a Radschläger monument.
For more information, please see the city’s home page.
German Link: Radschläger…
German PDF: Radschläger 2008 Article…
