The Nuremberg Funnel
eyond the gates of Nuremberg lies a mysterious park in the middle of a large forest. Half-hidden by the trees, grave stones stand like lost monuments of the past. According to legend, whoever walks in this forest will soon become lost and never find the way out. The park is called "Irrhain" – The Lost Grove.
In the middle of that grove is a little hut. Inscribed on the door is a verse of poetry which is so magical that it cannot be repeated here. For whoever wants to read it must find his own way through the „Irrhain“ – The Lost Grove. The little grove was established in the Middle Ages by a poets society called the „Pegnesian Order of the Flower“.
Even today the memory of this poets society is deeply engraved in the Nuremberg mind. Actually, it’s not the grove which the Nurembergers still think about so often. It’s something different and still alive today. The founder of the order, Harsdörffer, had written a book with the strange title: „The Poetic Funnel and the German Art of Rhyming Poetry; To Be Poured Within Six Hours“.
With that Harsdörffer had created the picture of a funnel through which the art of poetry and wisdom could be poured into the heads of the ignorant. Since then, the saying which has remained in use in Nuremberg and in the German language goes: "When someone says stupid things then he should have wisdom poured into his head through a funnel". And this is the famous image of the Nuremberg funnel. The magic verse in the "Irrhain", on the other hand, has been forgotten.
Wisdom flows through the "Nuremberg Funnel" (Nürnberger Trichter). A giant funnel by the artist Hans Karl Busch is in the Nuremberg Tilly Park. An exact replica is in room 35.