Fabric pigs, iron pigs, glass pigs and pictures and books with pigs: Rudolf Lausberg, 85, a pensioner from Cologne, is full of it. His wife Hannelore once collected around 4,000 copies; she died a year ago. Now Lausberg wants to sell the animals for a good cause – and has made it into the media nationwide.
SZ: Mr. Lausberg, I’m probably not the first to call today?
Rudolf Lausberg: Yes, the phone is running in huge numbers.
You are known now.
Yes Yes sure.
After all, not everyone has that many pigs. Can you tell us how your wife got this passion?
It started as a child because her family owned a pig that she raised herself. When we got married in 1963, the passion came back. We saw a porcelain pig in the shop window, which we bought. The pig cost 100 marks, that was a lot of money.
In the meantime there have been a few more.
Around 4,000 around, I haven’t counted them yet, but the whole apartment is full, everywhere, the former children’s room, then there are pigs in the drawers, and in the basement there are boxes with even more pigs.
Rudolf Lausberg did not count the pigs, but he estimates them to be around 4,000.
(Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa)
Have you not gone mad – the pigs everywhere?
Once it was renovated here and the excavators digged hard, it felt like an earthquake to me. I was lying in bed and suddenly a board with pigs flew past my head. That was an experience. My wife was walking around the apartment, not knowing where the noise was coming from.
Are you also a collector yourself?
I started out with model cars. But then I said, come on, Hannelörchen, I’ll stop, otherwise we won’t know where to put the pigs. The pigs trumped me.
After all, you always knew with which gift you can make your wife happy.
I always gave my wife a pig, but I had to be careful that they weren’t duplicated. It happened before, then she scolded. And the children, friends and relatives, when they were on vacation, wherever there were pigs, bought the pigs.
What is your favorite animal?
Miss Piggy, that’s such a coffee pot, my wife loved it. I’ll keep that too.
Do you also drink from the?
It is in the cabinet in the living room.
Have interested parties already registered for the pigs?
Yes, someone called from Nuremberg.
And how many pigs would he take?
He specifically wanted the telephone pig. And on Tuesday a woman comes to see the pigs in the apartment.