lenkeler bessemsbenger

The broom maker, known in and around Lindlar, was convincingly captured in wood by Lindlar honorary mayor Josef Bosbach, and stands prominently in the center in front of the Council Chamber in the Eichenhofstraße (former school). A monument reminiscent of earlier times when poverty ruled most families in the Bergisches Land. More than one hundred years ago the broom-maker made from necessity a virtue of and crafted of local wood street-brooms which were ideal for cleaning the courtyard, pavers or clay floors. That such brooms were cheap for many poor families was a welcome relief. At that time one probably did not enjoy the fact to be called a “broom-maker”, in regard of their ancestors who lead such a life of hard labour in order to survive in difficult times and who revived the name “Bessemsbenger” (broom-maker) in Lindlar to a name one can be proud of. Written, spoken on stage, and now in this carving has come the "broom-maker" back to life. A Lindlar company donated the tree from an Asian jungle (diameter 1.50 m), the trunk was around 800 years old and hard as stone. Josef Bosbach worked almost three months on it and day by day saw the broom-maker kneeling on a bundle of sticks emerge. One can notice in the somewhat rough shape of the broom-maker the emergency which forced him to such hard labour. In 1984 this monument was solemnly unveiled by the order-bearer of the “Broom-maker order” Annele Meinerzhagen.