This weekend we celebrated the 150th anniversary of Miss Baba in Niederroßla. Niederroßla is a small village near the town where I live and I’m half-rooted in Niederroßla too. Miss Baba is an Indian elephant that died in 1857 right behind the borders of Niederroßla in a tragedy which became part of the history of Niederroßla (since then also known as “Tickle-Village” where the “Tickling-People” live).
The event is celebrated only every 25 years. I had an awesome and unforgettable weekend. The attraction this time clearly were two living elephants.
Both elephants were brought to Niederroßla in a parade on Friday from the train station in Apolda. We (our fanfare group, yes I play fanfare, timbal and piano) were sitting on a truck (well an old wagon actually, pulled by a tractor) in front of the elephants on Friday. Here is a picture taken with my mobile phone. The quality is poor. Sorry about that.
More pictures (and of much better quality 😉 ) are available here taken by a very active member of the Niederroßla community. They also show the big festival procession on Sunday where our fanfare group walked right in the front (see here, here and here).
Update: Thanks to Thomas Pake which sent me the following pictures of me. 🙂
My ggggrand father was Gottlieb Kreutzberg, the owner of the elephant Miss Baba who sadly died and was the reason behind your festival.
I have tried to find out about my german ancestors without any success and was hoping that someone might be able to help me find out more. I have spoken to Thomas Pake some time ago and he passed my details to the organisers of the festival, because I would’ve liked to see it, but nobody contacted me.
I would be grateful for any help.
Lyn
United Kingdom
Wow, that’s impressive. I know Thomas but I didn’t hear anything about this story. I’m not sure how I can help, though. I’ll follow up with a mail.
hello,
i’am a french collector of éléphants and i’am looking for wellknown éléphants like Fritz, Jumbo, Hanno, Hansken etc
i don’t speak neither read deutch
could you tell me more about Miss Baba her history and more
thank you
Marc Talamon
marc.talamon@sfr.fr
Marc, AFAIK there is no information available in English. Did you try a translation service on the Wikipedia entry about Miss Baba?