The Cheeky Boy at Hummel Fountain in Hamburg, Germany

Perched on a building corner overlooking a plaza in Hamburg, a small stone boy – part of the Hummel Fountain ensemble – projects from the façade. He cheekily presents his backside toward the city’s most famous local character, Johann Wilhelm Bentz, portrayed in a larger-than-life sandstone statue atop the fountain below. Behind him, a few grinning children complete the scene.

Bentz was a short-tempered 1800s water bearer who hauled fresh water through the overcrowded, impoverished streets of Hamburg before indoor plumbing. Locals knew him as “Hummel.” He was often taunted by neighborhood children, who reportedly chose their moment well, jeering while he trudged along with a heavy water yoke across his shoulders, unable to give chase. Some accounts add that they punctuated their taunts by baring their backsides. Bentz responded with “Mors, Mors!”, a Low German retort roughly equivalent to “kiss my ass.”

The fountain and its companion figures were created in 1938 by the sculptor Richard Kuöhl, during the Nazi era. Because of that timing, some modern commentators have suggested that the boy’s gesture reads differently in that political context, even as a subtle act of defiance. There is, however, no documented evidence that the motif was conceived as protest; the tale of children taunting Hummel long predates the regime.