Plum Man (Zwetschgenmаеnnla)

Category: Culinary recipes

Kitchen: german

Ingredients
prunes	16 pcs
figs	4 things
Walnut	1 PC
wire	55cm
toothpicks	1-3pcs
clothes and makeup	taste

Cooking method

In folk culture, there is a variegated picture of the materials used and the richness of recipes for making toys. Dolls were made from what was at hand, depending on the characteristics of the terrain of a particular country. Mostly ordinary people made toys for their children from natural materials and products: tree bark, clay, reeds, chestnuts, corn, potatoes, etc. A striking example is the Plum Man, a traditional German mascot toy. It is believed to bring happiness and good luck in New Years and Christmas.
These are the figurines of plum chimney sweep men displayed in the cities of Germany on the streets
The Plum Men have a long history. More than two hundred years ago, they were toys of poor Nuremberg children, as they were made from available materials. There is a legend that the Plum Men were invented by an old man, who was helped by the religious songs of children to recover from an illness. In gratitude, he made and presented such a toy to his little healers. Today they no longer play with the Plum Man - now it has the status of a popular souvenir and is actively bought by tourists from all over the world.
At first, these fruit toys were made without clothes, but over time, the image became more complicated, and the Plum Men got hats, scarves, various outfits, and traditional costumes. Manufacturers often create whole sketches in their windows, for example, exhibit little people playing cards or sitting in a tavern. In addition to chimney sweeps, which are common in Dresden, you can find a variety of variations of this "sweet" toy: kings, magicians, fairy-tale characters, bride and groom and many others. others. These little men are made of wire and dried fruits - plums, figs and walnuts as a head.
Pflaumentoffel is a typical Dresden toy, the name consists of a plum (Pflaume) and a devil (Teufel). The image of the plum man appeared in 1653, when child labor was widely used to clean the chimneys of city houses. And the plum figurine is a merit of 1801. Since 1930, the little man is doomed to wear a high top hat, and plums are strung on the frame. Pflaumentoffel is traditionally sold in the Bavarian and Frankish markets. The 15 cm figurine of a seven-year-old boy is most often a chimney sweep. In Nuremberg, private producers do not prepare little men for Christmas, but for the Christlkindlesmarkt. This funny figurine brings happiness. According to legend, Saint Nicholas climbs into the house through the air ducts, fills children's socks with gifts and disappears in an unknown direction (as a rule, to the parents' room).
For self-made souvenirs in Germany, ready-made blank sets are sold. A ready-made man costs about 9 euros. We take a thick wire. I was not very thick, I folded it several times. My length turned out to be 54cm.
From below we string prunes on the legs:
Top the figs on the body by connecting the wire:
Next, hands, stick in a toothpick for the neck:
We bend the ends of the wire back, if you are making a male figurine, then you can put a wooden stick in the bent wire (see the photo in the note):
Toothpicks can be used additionally on the legs. Next, paint the walnut: eyes - white "stroke" or acrylic paint, black marker or felt-tip pen. On the "stroke" they wrote faintly, so I took mascara. Hair - threads / yarns. And we put on clothes.I got a glamorous shepherdess for good luck)))) Look at the photo from the link in the comments, there are a lot of funny little people!