Germany features many folk-stories of helpful elves or gnomes that aid hardworking craftsmen by night. The most famous of these tales is “The Elves and the Shoemaker,” where by night, helpful little folk would aid the efforts of a shoemaker, laboring in his workshop. This tale can be found repeated in Wisconsin folklore, having followed German immigrants into Wisconsin. While these German elves would help craftsmen by night, they also wanted to remain unseen. If someone schemed to see them, they would feel disrespected, and would never help the craftsman ever again.

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Within the context of Wisconsin folklore, it seems these elves began concentrating their efforts on aiding sausagemakers in specific. The man who can be most credited with keeping these legends alive in Wisconsin would appear to be Fred Usinger, who viewed the elf as an important feature of German folklore, and felt it was important to include these myths within his sausage company. He claimed that the elves helped to run his sausage factory by night, and in 1906 he commissioned a mural in their honor, depicting the elves hard at work. These elves appear as tiny, portly humans, with long white beards and pointed red hats. Eventually the “head elf” depicted in the mural, Fritzie, would be adopted as the mascot of Usinger’s sausage-making company. To this day, the owners of Usinger’s publicly insist that the elves are very much real, and are hard at work every night making “America’s finest sausage.”

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The elves have obvious similarities to the lutins, tomte nisser, and house trolls, which likewise help humans with various tasks. However, the elves are far more specialized, helping out with a specific craft or trade rather than simply aiding in chores. They are most similar to the kobolders, another type of tiny German craftsmen which did not like to be seen, albeit one that exclusively makes toys for Saint Nicholas’ day.