Thusnelda bobbles her way into New Ulm

By KEVIN SWEENEY

Journal Editor

NEW ULM -- What do you give the person who has everything, including a Hermann Bobblehead doll?

How about a Mrs. Hermann Bobblehead doll?

The New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce, following up on the success of its Hermann Bobblehead fund-raiser, will be selling bobblehead dolls depicting Thusnelda, who was the wife of Hermann the Cheruscan. Sales will start after the German-American Parade, on Oct. 11, during the second week of Oktoberfest.

The Chamber will hold a Mrs. Hermann Lookalike Contest, with contestants (anyone can compete, male or female, young or old) participating in the parade. The Chamber points out that no one really knows what Thusnelda looked like, so all interpretations are valid.

First prize in the contest will be $100 in Chamber Dollars and a Thusnelda bobblehead. Second prize is (no, not two Thusnelda bobbleheads) $50 in Chamber Dollars and a Thusnelda.

Entry forms for the contest are available at the Chamber.

The Chamber is hoping the Thusnelda bobbleheads will sell as well as Hermann. A 1,000 first edition of Hermann quickly sold out, and the Chamber ordered a second edition of 5,000 dolls. There will be 1,000 Thusneldas in the first run as well.

The proceeds from the sale will go to the Chamber. As with the Hermann sale, the Chamber will donate $1 per doll sold to the Hermann Monument Restoration Committee.

The new Thusnelda doll has a blond "Swiss Miss" braids (the kind Princess Leia wore in "Star Wars"), and a rather stern look on her face. That's not inappropriate for the wife of Hermann, who had a rather sad history.

Hermann, of course, is the First Century chief of the Cheruscan tribes who united the German tribes and led them on the historic Battle of the Teutoberg Forest. Three elite Roman legions were wiped out to the last man in the battle, and the Roman expansion into Central Europe was abruptly canceled, changing the history and development of Europe.

According to research by Arnold Koelpin, Hermann returned home and married his sweetheart, Thusnelda, daughter of Segestes. Segestes, a tribal leader himself, opposed the marriage. A rival against Hermann, Segestes sided with the Romans and handed his pregnant daughter over to the Roman General Germanicus.

Thusnelda was dragged off to Rome, never to see Hermann again, and put on display in a Roman victory parade. She gave birth to Hermann's son in captivity. The son became a Roman gladiator and suffered the gladiator's fate in the arena.

Hermann, unable to hold the tribes together, was killed by his countrymen, stabbed in the back for trying to amass power. Segestes had to flee the wrath of his countrymen and lived out his live in exile, a pensioner of the Roman empire.