Birthday Of Worlds Greatest Liar

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32298, 16 May 1970, Page 14

Birthday Of Worlds Greatest Liar

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BODENWERGER ] (West Germany), i May 14. I’ Admirers of the, world’s greatest liar, ; Baron Hieronymus von Muenchhausen, have' celebrated his 250th birthday many with a massive hangover. They can blame the “morning after" feeling on the week-end's festivities which ; included pumping beer ; instead of water through the ; fountain of the northern , German town, Bodenwerder, birthplace of the yarn-spin- , ning baron. The fountain statue shows ; Muenchhausen astride the , severed front half of his , trusty steed, watching )

.bemused as the water it 'drinks spurts out behind. The baron claimed that his stallion’s rear end, sliced off in, i the heat of battle, galloped off alone to a nearby field to enjoy the favours of an| accommodating mare. A rival attraction to the beer-fountain was a re-enact-ment of Muenchhausen's! claimed ride on a cannon ball; while serving in the Russian Army. Contest Held Muenchhausen's yarns, first published in Oxford, England, in 1775, were the subject of a special competition encouraging enthusiasts to dream up a new exploit by the baron. The winner of the liars’ contest was a German housewife, Gerda Curland, who had Muenchhausen escaping from a pack of ravenous wolves by using onions as tear-gas bombs. Muenchhausen’s descendants, several of whom returned to the family seat for the baron’s birthday, say; their notorious name can often prove an advantage. Their favourite story concerns a member of the family who was tried for causing a public nuisance after appearing at an exclusive fancy dress ball dressed —or rather undressed—as Adam. Laughter disrupted j the proceedings when he told the court his name, and the judge passed a lenient sentence. Fact and fiction about the baron himself are hard to separate. Members of the family claim that his stories were often based on real-life experiences exaggerated to absurdity. Muenchhausen's life was certainly colourful. He saw action in the Russian Army in campaigns against the Turks, and was made a cavalry captain by the Rus-; sian Empress Elizabeth. Soon after the death of his first wife, Muenchhausen, ; then 74, married a 17-year-old ! Bernadine von Brunn. She squandered the family fortune and deserted him not' long before his death in 1797.