The sparrow from Wallrafplatz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Television series
Original title The sparrow from Wallrafplatz
Country of production Federal Republic of Germany
original language German
Year (s) 1969-1976
Production
company		 Close Up , FLASH film production
length 28 minutes
Episodes 36
genre Puppet show
idea Armin Maiwald
Rudolf Fischer
production Armin Maiwald
music Manfred Schoof
First broadcast September 9, 1969 on German television

Der Spatz vom Wallrafplatz is the title of a German television series that was broadcast by WDR in 36 episodes of 28 minutes each in the late 1960s and early 1970s .

Concept and design of the series

The idea for the series was conceived by Armin Maiwald , the maker of “ Die Sendung mit der Maus ”, and the puppeteer Rudolf Fischer . A sparrow with a Berlin past nests on a plane tree on Wallrafplatz in Cologne , within sight of the WDR broadcasting house , and from there undertakes excursions to all kinds of people, professional groups and places in order to explore all of these on behalf of the target group of children. In this way, the child-friendly, naive “Spatz vom Wallrafplatz” became one of the most popular characters to identify with on German children's television in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The first episode aired on September 9, 1969.

The figure of the sparrow was played and spoken by the well-known puppeteer Rudolf Fischer. Fischer began his career at the Hohnsteiner Puppet Theater under Max Jacob and later found a distinctive style of play with his own puppet theater, the calm and quiet humor of which also characterized the portrayal of the "Spatz vom Wallrafplatz" . The sparrow appeared eight times - seven times as a puppet and once as a partially remote-controlled stick figure .

What was new about this representation was the detachment of the puppet from the stage and studio situation . The film was shot exclusively on the original locations, mainly in the inner city of Cologne. This type of shooting was the sparrow's recipe for success and its downfall at the same time: after 36 episodes the marionette was so famous that its appearance immediately led to a large crowd of onlookers who hindered the shooting until it was impossible. So the sparrow ultimately died from its own popularity.

In the mid-1980s, the "Spatz vom Wallrafplatz" returned to the screen and served as an (this time silent) extra in a music film produced by the WDR by Bläck Fööss : To the song "Die Mösch" (kölsch for "Der Spatz") by Willi Ostermann buzzed the marionette around the historically disguised musicians of the dialect band.

The figure of the two computer-animated sparrows, who comment on the events of the month at the beginning of the WDR satire broadcast, Mitternachtsspitzen , is also based on their conspecifics from Wallrafplatz.

Contributors

publication

Since May 24, 2013, 32 of the original 36 episodes have been released on DVD by ARD-Video .

swell

  • One of the marionettes is now in the puppet theater collection of the Piccolo Puppet Games , another in the exhibition in the Bensberg Puppet Pavilion , the last place where the sparrow player Rudolf Fischer worked. There are also other records of the creation of the television series.

literature

  • Rudolf Fischer: Sparrow from Wallrafplatz. Our little friend is back. , Schneider, Munich and Vienna 1971.
  • The sparrow in the beer garden. In: "Bergische Landeszeitung", Bergisch Gladbach from July 28, 2007.

exhibition

  • Exhibition of television characters - a. a. the sparrow puppet - since January 13, 2010 in the Bensberg Puppet Pavilion, Bergisch Gladbach

Web links