Bobblemania hits land of Hermann

Lost and found Hermann bobbleheads for sale

By CHANCE PRIGGE

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- New Ulm Chamber of Commerce member Jeff Gulden had an idea for a fundraiser earlier this year: a Bobblehead for one of the city's biggest people, Hermann, who watches over the city in all his 102-foot glory.

The chamber went with the idea and produced a prototype bobblehead in May. It was taken to several committee meetings to get feedback.

Then, the unthinkable.

"One day it sort of disappeared," Chamber of Commerce President Jeanne Albrecht said.

The statue had been kidnapped during a chamber meeting at the Brown County Museum.

The chamber started receiving ransom notes, which were hand-written but "very hard to distinguish," Albrecht said, adding that they looked as if they'd been written by a little kid.

While the chamber didn't necessarily need the prototype back, it decided to meet the demands.

"We paid a ransom of a six-pack of beer and a bag of pretzels," Albrecht said.

The chamber ponied up the dough for the goods, and the drop off was made behind the museum.

The prototype mysteriously returned in the chamber building unharmed, with a note that said Hermann wasn't kidnapped but that he "just ran away," Albrecht said.

Now, as Albrecht put it, Hermann's army has arrived: 1,000 bobblehead Hermanns.

Several volunteers and chamber members were crowded around a table Friday afternoon in a small back room of the Chamber of Commerce, packing the hundreds of bobbleheads up in boxes.

While the bobbleheads are fundraisers for the chamber, $1 of each sale will go to the restoration of Hermann statue. The copper-sheath statue, over 100 years old, is in need of repairs, especially after a windstorm in July 1997 blew one of the wings off Hermann's helmet.

The bobbleheads are about 6-inches tall, with Hermann adorning a red cape and gold shirt. He has a sword in his right hand, a shield in his left and a silver helmet on his bobbling head.

They will be available at area specialty shops, where they'll be on sale for $19.95. They'll also be available at the Chamber of Commerce.

They were made by Alexander Global Promotions, the same company that makes Twins bobbleheads.