Every morning, Nicolas Turon pays tribute to his department with a funny, tender and knowing text, in the form of a declaration of love for the Moselle. He chooses an emblem belonging to history or current events and treats it in an offbeat way.
We are already at 14th place in our ranking of the most common surnames in our department. And this morning we are going to enjoy ourselves, to rejoice – literally – since the surname in question pronounced with a closed “é”, that of the infinitive of the first group, goes in the direction of pleasure: we are going to enjoy it with the Kieffers!
Once again, the name is inherited from a profession which has evolved into an identity over time; we are talking here about a profession linked to pleasure, since it gives thanks to the blood of the earth, allows us to get drunk, to make the most convoluted nectars; a profession that is capable of both composing verses for Jacques Brel (“and then Moselle wine!”) and quantifying the volume of a boat (“18 knots, 400 tons”): Kieffer is none other as the cooper, descendant of Küfer, the barrel maker.
Another clue invokes a nickname inherited from Middle German: kiffen would mean to scold, and Kieffer would then designate a grumpy, grumpy man… Follow my gaze, it leers in the direction of Amnéville. If there is indeed a Kieffer from Moselle who has distinguished himself in the field of grumbling, it is Doctor Kiffer, to whom I have already devoted an entry in this dictionary, and whose lyrical outbursts and Homeric diatribes , often delivered during his wishes for the new year, have marked the history of our region, just like its leisure area: he has left a mark as indelible as that of an artificial ski slope on a slag heap.
Related News :