'Real Thusnelda' wins contest

'Tess' Koenig

is NU native

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Ninety-one-year-old Thusnelda "Tess" Koenig of Minneapolis appeared quite thrilled Saturday afternoon after she was named winner of the Thusnelda Look-a-like Contest in the New Ulm Chamber of Commerce Office.

Koenig, a native of New Ulm, won $100 in New Ulm Chamber Bucks and a Thusnelda bobble head doll, topping nine other contestants of both sexes and various ages.

While living in New Ulm, Koenig worked as a nursing aid at Loretto Hospital before moving to Minneapolis in her 30s. She worked as a housewife for 40 years until her husband died.

Koenig keeps busy now helping an elderly woman in her home and does volunteer work at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Minneapolis.

She often attends German festivals here and visits her sister, New Ulmite Dolores Schiller.

Thusnelda, daughter of Segestes -- in case you don't know -- was Hermann the Cheruscan's sweetheart and became his bride after he came home from battle.

Segestes and Hermann were rival tribal leaders. Segestes opposed the marriage and sent his pregnant daughter to the Roman General Germanicus in exile.

Thusnelda was displayed as a trophy of war in a Roman victory parade. She gave birth to her son in captivity. She never saw much of Hermann after the marriage. Her son became a Roman gladiator.

One of the Thusnelda contestants, Jan Burt of St. Cloud, appeared to be pregnant after placing a pillow under her dress. She finished second in the contest and won $50 in Chamber Dollars and a bobble head.

Hermann, by the way, was portrayed by Jan Helling of Hanska.

Other Thusnelda contestants included Thusnelda Chamberlain, 83, of Brooklyn Center, and a native of Arlington; two men that dressed up like women including Jeff Gulden of New Ulm in an inflatable Halloween costume of a voluptuous German woman.

A female contestant held a children's baby doll signifying Hermann and Thusnelda's son.

Prior to the contest, the German American parade was held on Minnesota Street, from the Glockenspiel to Center Street. Families that participated despite the rain, carried signs that dated as far back as 1954, the year ancestors of the Mack family came to New Ulm. The Alwin family originated in New Ulm in 1855.