Station: [43] Nobility and doves

“Pigeons are thought of as the “racing horse of the small man” in the Ruhr area. Especially the miners were very proud to devote much of their time to the breeding of these birds. Some of the affectionately named “pigeon fathers” were able to win awards and prizes with their birds at shows. Nowadays, we think of pigeons in a different light; they are thought of as a pest, the “rats of the skies” and are combatted systematically. What would Rutger think of all this and what were his thoughts on the matter? He was one of the so-called “pigeon fathers”, as he had his own pigeonry. In those days, the breeding of the birds was a privilege reserved for aristocrats, partly due to the religious background of doves. In the iconography of the New Testament they were a symbol of the Holy Spirit and Christian virtue. Hardly anybody remembers that these days…”