The bunny school in Erzgebirge dialect delights young and old alike

For 100 years, the "Bunny School" has been delighting young and old - now also in the Erzgebirge dialect. The rhymes written by Albert Sixtus in Kirchberg near Zwickau were translated by dialect poet Uwe Seltmann. "Hosenhans un Hosengretel/ ginne lustig Pfut in Pfetel./ Frieh im Sechse isses schie./ Laafen durch de Wiesen hie", the story is told.

The whole thing was made possible by the EU Leader Region Zwickauer Land strategy, which launched a tender for the translation in spring and is funding the first 500 copies. They are to be distributed to clubs, kindergartens and libraries. According to the information provided, there were eight applicants for the tender.

Also available in Hessian, Swabian, Kölsch and Franconian

The volume has since been published by Edition Tintenfaß. Although the book has its roots in Saxony, "De Hosenschul" is not the first dialect version. The story already exists in other dialects such as Hessian, Swabian, Kölsch and Franconian.

The book will be officially presented in Kirchberg at the beginning of October. Initiator Anja Roocke from the local Kulturinsel is more than satisfied with the result. She is pleased that many beautiful Erzgebirge words such as Lumich or Kriepel appear in the text, she told the German Press Agency.

Sixtus (1892-1960) wrote the verses in 1922 in Kirchberg, where he was living and working as a teacher at the time. Illustrated by Fritz Koch-Gotha, they were published as a book in the late summer of 1924, which, according to Thienemann-Esslinger Verlag, has since sold more than 2.5 million copies in various editions.

In Kirchberg itself, Sixtus and the "Bunny School" have been increasingly commemorated in recent years: with exhibitions, a plaque on his former home and a street. And at the local elementary school, the book is one of the works that children starting school work through - and thus get them in the mood to read.

In the future, the Albert Sixtus archive, which is maintained by his great-nephew Ulrich Knebel in Kottmar (Görlitz district), will also find a new home in the city as a loan.