Every car from HAMBURG has in the registration number “H H” at the beginning, and many people will explain that this stands for “Hansestadt Hamburg”. Farfrom it, however! The real “Hamburgers” think of it as their traditional battle cry “HUMMEL HUMMEL”, which is always answered spontaneously by the resounding call “Mors Mors”. 

The story goes back to the water merchant Wilhelm Benz who lived from 1787 to 1854. he lived in a house which had previously belonged to a soldier of the town called Daniel Christian Hummel. Hummel was a real character. In return for a “Lütje Lage” (one glass of sch naps and one glass of strong beer which must be drunk simultaneously from one hand) he would tell people of fantastic, heroic deeds from his time as a soldier. He was, in fact, so well-known that “Hummel Hummel” became almost a password for those who wished to enter the town. However his successor Benz didn’t care for soldiers at all and so he used to reply to the heroic cry “Hummel Hummel” with his own “Mors Mors”, from the dialect “Plattdeutsch”. This, if translated into High German has the rather irreverent meaning “Arse Arse” (Bullshit). You can see the water merchant - carrying a bucket in each hand with the same amount of water - at the Hummel-Monument in Hamburg opposite the Memeihaus. 

It doesn’t matter whether yoe are in favour of - or against soldiers. The water merchant is a symbol of “Hanseatic Goodwill”.

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