With her time on the throne as Oberursel’s fountain queen (Brunnenkönigin) coming to an end, the time came last week to say farewell to Vanessa I. before she officially hands over to her successor on 23rd March.
In the past year she has had 150 official engagements in the town with a approximately a further 20 outside in other towns.
She was accompanied, as ever, by her “Brunnenmeister” Harry Hecker, of whom Mayor Hans-Georg Brum said that you could always tell whether things were going right or wrong with an event by the way he looked.
He also complimented Vanessa, saying that she “always had a smile on her lips”.
During her reign Vanessa visited the twin town of Rushmoor, which he said was the highlight of her year, coming a close second to her own fountain festival in Oberursel.
Now she is looking forward to spending more time with her friends after her busy year, whilst Harry is planning on spending more time in his garden – before he starts organising next years carnival procession!
The identity of Vanessa’s successor is a closely guarded secret, and all she was prepared to give away was the fact that the two of them had been shopping together.
Meanwhile, an interesting problem has arisen in the Stadthalle due to the number of portraits of previous fountain queens hanging there – they have simply run out of space to hang them! So much so that one had to be taken down to make room for Vanessa’s to be in place for the the past year, and causing the committee who oversee the appointment, the Vereinsring, to come up with a solution for the problem.
The role of the fountain queen has so far seen 34 incumbents, and follows on from a tradition of there being an “apple wine queen” (Apfelweinkönigin) in Bommersheim. With number 35 about to be crowned, the portraits are set to be scanned and replaced by a 42 inch flat-screen monitor which will present each of the fountain queens with their name and information about them.
And with everything being electronic, the gallery can also be made available online.
It may be “Good Bye” to Vanessa, but it’s “Hello” to the digital world for the fountain queens of Oberursel.
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