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Friday Slide Show: The Merry Wanderer
14 February 2025
After graduating from high school, we found ourselves among a group of about nine fellow grads shepherded by one adult on a trip through Europe in a VW van. To express our appreciation, we brought a Hummel home for our parents.
Which Hummel was the question. And we gave it a lot of thought.
The trip was only a precursor to our leaving home to attend college 300 miles away. We were marking not only a milestone but, as it turned out, a profound change. We wouldn't just go to college, but we wouldn't return home the following summers, which we spent in the Middle East and Italy.
We were flying the coup.
So when we saw the Merry Wanderer at P. Maeder's shop in Lucerne, we thought he was just the thing. A little boy leaving home with a ticket in his vest. And something to remember us by as well.
He is one of the original 46 figurines released in 1935, we learned. A six foot version of him is installed outside of the Hummel factory in Rodental, Germany. The Merry Wanderer is also the M.I. Hummel Club's motif and used as the official logo, too.
First modeled by master sculptor Arthur Moeller and, after the war, Gerhard Skrobek, the Merry Wanderer is found in more sizes and variations than any other Hummel. Ours is a modest six inches tall.
Mom kept him in her curio cabinet and when none of our brothers claimed him, we took him home to stroll along our mantel piece. And, for a moment, in front of our lens so we could share his singing face here.
