The Wild Bernd

The Wild Bernd is a legendary person in the village of Nienborg in the municipality of Heek in the western Münsterland near the Dutch border. A monument is dedicated to him.

Bernd was a poacher in the Nienborg forests and, during the Thirty Years' War, is said to have saved the village from robbery and pillage around 1633 by warning the garrison of approaching troops and then, when the need for their attack was great, he even shot their leader. The castle guards are said to have granted him three wishes. He asked: "Frie fisken, frie jagen und frie schieten in'n Grawen." The latter referred to the sole right of the castle garrison to relieve themselves in the moat of the castle. Research in archives revealed that Bernd's person may have actually existed.

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