The Bremer Loch is a wishing well located in Bremen, Germany, in the city’s market square. When coins are dropped in, it triggers a photoelectric cell that makes animal sounds representing Bremen’s Town Musicians, a famous fairy tale. The inscription in the local dialect roughly translates as “Don’t crow, don’t howl, don’t growl. Say IA (yes) and put something into the Bremer Loch.” The money, collected in a bucket under the pavement, is given to the Wilhelm-Kaisen-Bürgerhilf, which distributes it to local charities. Since it was installed in 2007, between 12,000 and 17,000 euros are dropped into the slot every year.
The fairy tale, The Town Musicians of Bremen concerns a group of aging friends—a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster—who are abandoned by their masters band together and take over a cottage from robbers in the city of Bremen by creating a ruckus and scaring them away. They are then able to support themselves as musicians. There is a statue of them in the town square.
The story that the animals tell is one of mutual aid — we are stronger together — and a reminder not to sideline the elderly.
