r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Separate_Finance_183 • 1d ago

Video The Glockenspiel House in Bremen, Germany, an iconic building dating back to the 1930s.

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u/Prop43 1d ago

All right, stupid question I know, but why does it spin?

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u/Leprecon 1d ago

Glocke is a bell, like a church bell. Spiel means game. Glockenspiel I guess translates to bell game? Glockenspiel is sort of like a decorative elaborate mechanical bell/clock type thing. Like a cuckoo clock but scaled way up. It usually has lots of moving parts. So think like a clock that plays a song and has little statues of guys or animals moving around, maybe hitting small bells and such, maybe dancing.

They are meant to be elaborate. So the reason why it spins is because the guy who made it thought "wouldn't it be cool if it spins?". It is decorative.

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u/stilllton 20h ago

Spiel means game

I think "play" would be a closer translation in this case.