NEW ULM, Minn. – The tourism chief in New Ulm admitted Monday that his office faked a story of finding a mysterious concrete cast footprint that the southern Minnesota city promoted as that of Hermann the German, the statue of a Germanic warrior that stands guard over New Ulm.

Terry Sveine, manager of the New Ulm Convention and Visitors Bureau, had told the Free Press of Mankato and insisted later to the Associated Press that officials found a 4-foot-long, 425-pound cast of a footprint crated up in the office basement, along with a mysterious note suggesting it might have been made in Germany.

But Sveine called the AP back to admit he had lied and to apologize. "I felt I was playing the role I was asked to play, and we're not going to do that anymore," he said.

The bureau had commissioned local artist Jason Jaspersen to make the mold and a local decorative concrete company to cast it as part of a marketing campaign that began last year, he said.

The "cast" was recently hung outside the bureau's office in downtown New Ulm. Inscribed near the heel are the words "Deutsche haben mehr Spass," which means, "Germans have more fun." A plaque posted next to it says touching it will lead people "to have more fun" in New Ulm.

"You know, I was an altar boy for six years," Sveine said. "I feel very un-altar-boyish."

The 102-foot statue is a landmark that draws 12,000 visitors annually to New Ulm, which celebrates its German heritage.

Associated Press