Thanks to the mysterious Neil Desperandum on Twitter for this.
Der Schimmelreiter was translated by Denis Jackson as The Dykemaster. See New Books in German. See also an earlier post. Denis Jackson died at the age of 84 in February 2020. Obituary in the Guardian.
Der Schimmel can mean mould or a grey horse.
O lala – wie kommt sich weißes Pferd auf Marmelade?
(Alter Witz, gut erzählt, wirkt wie neu …)
I had to move out of my old apartment. It had grey horses on the walls. Hardy, har, har.
This reminds me of the hostel-type building I lived in for my first year in Erlangen. Slightly greenish mould gradually covered the whole of one wall in the washing machine room. The owners’ manager came once and asked happily, “Hat jemand hier tapeziert?”