- "A True Original"
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| Vitus Zimber |
The following is from "Löcher und Döbel um Dreistegen" (Furtwangen 1979) by Max Braun and was provided to me by Paul Dold :
In the lower Hexenloch, two houses still stand. In the rear one lived the Zimber-Vitt in 1851. This man was an original character. He liked to play pranks.
One day, he was just out fishing when a gendarme (police officer) came along the way. Vitt ran up the mountain on the other side, as if he wanted to flee, and the gendarme ran after him. A piece further up, Vitt stopped and showed the bewildered gendarme his regulation fishing permit.
Another time, he was reported for wood theft. But Vitt said, "I have been getting wood from this forest for over thirty years, and according to this law, I have a right to it."
He was also reported once for poaching because he had set snares for hares in his garden. Vitt said, "The hares always eat the greens in my garden. Now, if one is in the snare, I give his hide a proper beating with a stick and let him run. He won't come back then."
So that he would notice immediately when a hare was caught in the snare, he had stretched a cord from the garden into the living room with a bell attached to it, to prevent the little animal from hanging itself entirely.
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| Zimper-Vit |
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| Zimper-Vit |
He also appears as a character "Der Königenhof," a play performed by Jostäler Freilichtspiele. (The pictures above are of actors playing the part of "Zimper-Vit" in the play.)
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| A moving-eye clock by Vitus Zimber |
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| The signed workings of the moving-eye clock |
The pictures of the clocks above are of a clock that came up for sale recently, which he made. The mechanism is signed by Vitus, apparently a mark of one of the better craftsmen. The clock is a 'moving-eye' clock ie the eyes of the man in the picture move from side to side, and was for sale for over €2,500.
