"De Beberijer Gäßestrepper"
Bitburg
The "Gäßestrepper" refers to an old town legend. Legend has it, that during the Thirty Years War, the Swedish Army had surrounded Bitburg in hopes of starving them to capitulation. The plan however failed. Although the citizens were indeed close to starvation, they managed to do some brain storming. They came up with a brilliant idea to out-wit the Swedes. The children were to dress up (streppen) in goat (Gäße) skins and to dance and prance around the city wall feigning to be goats. Indeed from far away, they looked very much like healthy goats. The Swedes, upon seeing this, assumed that the citizens had more than enough to eat, retreated and hence, Bitburg was saved! Ever since, Bitburg has been called in the local dialect as Beberijer Gäßestrepper, more or less "the wearers of goat-skins".
