Isabella Mueller Baroness of Stainton le Vale
Radolfzell am Bodensee is a town over 1,200 years old on the northwestern shore of Lake Untersee. Nestled in a scenic landscape, this town, one of the oldest settlements in the Lake Constance region, is located between Lake Constance, the Höri and Bodanrück peninsulas, and the cultural landscape of the Hegau. The cruel castle governor Popolius, known as Poppele for short, is said to have once lived in Hegau with its volcanoes and mountains. A painting in the castle at Schatt unter Krähen bears witness to this to this day. This skinny, frail castle governor on Krähen was a nasty character who exploited the simple farmers. Those who did not obey him were killed or thrown into the dungeon. According to legend, an abbot from a Swabian monastery sought him out to put an end to the evil haunting of the castle keeper. He confronted him about his disgraceful behavior and asked him to see reason. But Poppele just laughed mischievously and insisted that the corpulent abbot see the dark dungeon for himself. When they arrived at the dungeon, the castle governor quickly pushed the poor abbot into the gloomy cell and locked the heavy iron door. Laughing, he shouted that he would only let him go when he had become so thin that he could pass through the eye of a needle. In total, he kept the innocent abbot imprisoned in the dark dungeon on bread and water for 7 years and 40 days. After that, he set him free. The emaciated abbot pondered terrible revenge. When he discovered a book of spells, he cursed the evil castle governor Poppele to a restless life after death, in which he would constantly torment people as an evil spirit so that they would curse him again. This curse was so powerful that a few days later, the castle governor fell from his horse and broke his neck. Since then, he has been haunting the Hegau region and Radolfzell on Lake Constance as a mean ghost. An ancient legend about Poppele and his pranks tells of a miller from Radolfzell. He had sold his goods at the Möhringen market and on his way home, an old man was standing by the side of the road not far from Hohenkrähen Castle, who asked him to give him a ride on his cart. The good-natured miller thought nothing of it and took the stranger as a passenger. Shortly before Singen, the miller took a break and noticed that his money bag, which he carried on a belt around his waist, had become very light. He immediately asked the stranger if he had stolen from him. But the stranger replied with a broad grin on his face that he would only have to walk all the way back to find his talers. Sure enough, he found the first taler right behind his cart. This continued every twenty steps until he finally arrived at the place where he had picked up the old man. In the meantime, the old man had disappeared, laughing loudly. The poor miller now had to walk back to his cart again. He now knew that he had fallen for the ghost of the castle keeper Poppele and cursed him again, just as the abbot had prophesied. But these were by no means the only pranks played by Poppele, who liked to rob people of their night’s sleep by imitating the post horn or transforming himself into a tree stump that disappeared when people rested there, causing them to fall to the ground. No one was immune to the castle governor’s pranks, who lives on in legend to this day as the Hegauritter Poppele. Whether he ever found peace and let people live in peace remains unclear to this day, as people continue to report evil, inexplicable pranks.
