The wild chickens

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Die Wilden Hühner is a book series for young people by Cornelia Funke . The first volume was published in 1993.

History of origin

On her homepage, the author Cornelia Funke describes that after the success of her first fantasy children's books, her editor gave her the impetus to write a children's book "in which there were neither fairies, ghosts, pirates or anything else". Although Funke suspected that such a book would be "terribly boring", she obeyed this invitation and invented "The Wild Chickens". She was inspired by her own experiences with chicken breeding, and shaped various figures based on people she had met in her own life. Stories about her own resolute grandmother formed the basis for Grandma Slättberg, Funke had met a character like Melanie herself and the pygmies were named after a gang of boys who had once bullied their husband ; the rest of the characters are fictitious.

In the extra part of the DVD for the film Die Wild Hühner und die Liebe , Funke continues to comment on the creation. She adds that she deliberately avoided stories in which the wild chickens hunted criminals or other action-heavy things happened; Funke only wanted to bring events that could happen to any girl. The authenticity achieved in this way is widely praised by critics.

Plot / summary

The friends Sprotte and Frieda together with their classmates Trude and Melanie found their own gang of girls. Sprotte thinks that you can do real gang things together like thinking up secret scripts, keep a gang book - and assert yourself against the boys' gang in the class, the “pygmies”. The only place where the girls can meet undisturbed is the chicken coop in Sprotte's grandma Slättberg's yard. This gives rise to the gang name “Die Wilde Hühner” and their common identifier, a chicken feather around their necks. The fifth gang member, Wilma, does not appear for the first time until the beginning of the second book and has to fight hard to be accepted into the gang.

While at the beginning it is mainly a matter of defending oneself against the pranks of the “pygmies” or concocting one's own against the boys, over time “chickens” and “pygmies” increasingly make common cause, so that the former rivals become friends become.

main characters

The wild chickens

  • Charlotte Slättberg (born December 9th), called Sprotte , is the leader and founder of the Wild Chickens . She has red curly hair and mostly wears her leopard pants. She has to help her grandma a lot, mostly with gardening. She doesn't have much influence over the rest of the members. Sprat has no siblings and lives alone with her mother. She doesn't think much of boys. But at some point sprat also learns what "palpitations" can mean.
  • Frieda Goldmann (born May 23) is Sprotte's best friend. She has black hair and brown eyes. She is also very sensitive and does volunteer work for the children's aid organization terre des hommes .
  • Trudhild Bogolowski (born October 22nd), better known as Trude , was the greatest admirer of the beautiful Melanie before the gang was founded. Trude has brown hair and gray eyes and is constantly struggling with being overweight. Her father, out of a guilty conscience, overwhelms Trude with new presents, one of which turns out to be very useful for the gang of chickens .
  • Melanie Klupsch (born April 3) is only called the 'beautiful Melanie' by everyone. She is very vain and spends huge amounts of money on expensive cosmetic products. With her blonde hair and blue eyes, Melanie has a lot of success with boys. She is the first to have a boyfriend - Willi, one of the pygmies .
  • Wilma Irrling (born June 18) only becomes a member of the Wild Chickens in the second adventure . She can stand the boys even less than Sprat, but she shares Frieda's fondness for acting. Wilma's mother constantly checks her daughter's school performance and sends her to tutoring because of a three. Wilma is a passionate and talented spy and loves using her water pistol. In the fifth volume, Wilma unveils a long-kept secret that threatens to break the chickens.

The pygmies

  • Friedrich Baldewein (born June 2), who is always called Fred , is the head of the pygmies . Fred has bright red hair and likes to be macho and casual, but in fact he's a very sensitive guy who has an intimate relationship with his grandpa. Fred likes to hang out in the tree house, the headquarters of the pygmies . He knows a lot about gardening.
  • Wilhelm Blödorn (born December 6th) is nicknamed Willi , but Wilma also likes to call him Fred's bodyguard. Willi is a slightly aggressive, often grumpy and silent boy; his behavior is a result of his father's strict upbringing. Willi has a good-hearted soul and puts a lot of time and energy into expanding the tree house. Willi has been with Melanie for a long time.
  • Stefan (Steve) Domaschke (born January 9th) is quite stout. He diligently practices magic tricks and works a lot with his tarot cards, with which he wants to predict the future. He is also a master in cooking. Steve likes to play theater, which Wilma impresses.
  • Torsten Stubbe (born August 9th), called cake , is the smallest of the pygmies. He likes to exaggerate his jokes and is in love with Frieda. He wants to be a cook one day.

Minor characters

  • Alma Slättberg , known as Grandma Slättberg , is Sprotte's maternal grandmother. She is quite snappy, arrogant and patronizing, which is what Sprat and Melanie suffer from. Since Sprotte's mother works a lot as a taxi driver, Sprotte often has to spend the night at Grandma Slättberg's.
  • Sybille Slättberg is Sprotte's single mother and the daughter of Alma Slättberg. She and Sprotte have a good relationship, despite Sprotte's open criticism of her mother's love life. When Sybille falls in love with the “smart ass”, the relationship with her daughter deteriorates. In the part The Wild Chickens and Life , Sybille becomes pregnant from Sprotte's father.
  • Thorben Mossmann is the "smart ass" and a driving instructor by profession. In the fourth volume he enters the life of Sprotte and her mother. Sprat can't stand him.
  • Mrs. Sarah Rose is the class teacher for the wild chickens and pygmies. She owns an amazing number of lipsticks and is considered strict and squeamish.
  • Mr. Johannes Grünbaum is the biology teacher for the wild chickens and pygmies. He is in love with Mrs. Rose.
  • Mr. Staubmann is the German teacher for the wild chickens and pygmies. He appears in the second volume on the school trip.
  • Mona is a school friend of Sprotte's mother and the manager of the riding stables, which the Wild Chickens visit for a week in the fourth volume. She is divorced and has two children, Bess and Maik. She is black-haired and assertive.
  • Bess and Maik are Mona's children. In the fourth volume, the wild chickens get to know them. At the sight of Maik, sprat gets a strange feeling in the stomach area for the first time. But that goes away again when the pygmies appear at the riding stables. Frieda also falls in love with Maik. Something is actually developing between Maik and Frieda. In the end, they get together and have a weekend relationship.
  • The Wild Chicks appear in Volume 4. This holiday gang was formed after the horse farm found out that the wild chickens were a gang. The Wild Chicks consist of three girls who are a little younger than the Wild Chickens: Lilli , Bob and Verena .
  • Sprotte's father Christian left Sybille when Sprotte was six months old. He works as a photographer and travels all over the world. Its appearance after many years causes severe turbulence in Sprotte's life.
  • Sabrina first appears in "The Wild Chickens and Life". She is quite attractive and can sing and dance very well. Fred falls in love with her on the school trip and cheats on his girlfriend Sprat with her.

The series

So far there are six books and an additional volume on the Wild Chicken, all of which have been published by Cecilie Dressler Verlag .

  1. The wild chickens . Cecilie Dressler Verlag, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7915-0445-2
    • as an audio book: Die Wilden Hühner . Jumbo New Media, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-8337-1470-0 (1 CD)
    • This is where the chickens really get to know each other and form their gang in Grandma Slättberg's hen house. At first there are only four of them. Wilma Irrling only joins the gang in the second volume. The chickens become enemies with the pygmies and play pranks on each other. But it soon becomes clear to the chickens that they need other gang quarters, as Grandma Slättberg is repugnant to the constant visits and she repeatedly uses the girls to work in the fields.
  2. The wild chickens on a school trip . Cecilie Dressler Verlag, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-7915-0481-9 .
    • as an audio book: The wild chickens on a school trip . Jumbo Neue Medien, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-8337-1716-5 (2 CDs)
    • A school trip takes chickens and pygmies to a North Sea island, where a mysterious spirit - Jap Lornsen, the evil Strandvoigt - is supposed to be up to mischief. Each gang wants to first solve the riddle of the strange ghost phenomena for itself, and Wilma Irrling is also constantly spying on the chickens and pygmies . After a hard fight, Wilma is able to win the girls over and is now a wild chicken herself . But only when chickens and pygmies join forces do they discover the secret.
  3. The Wild Chickens - Fox Alert! Cecilie Dressler Verlag, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-7915-0470-3 .
    • as audio book: The Wild Chickens - Fox Alert! Jumbo Neue Medien, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-89592-890-9 (3 CDs)
    • Highest alert - the chickens are in danger! Sprottes grandma wants to slaughter the gang's flag animals and turn them into soup. The gang must prevent this at all costs! For this they even make peace with the pygmies . Trude gives the chickens permanent gang quarters and an enclosure for their feathered sisters. Finally they still have to help Willi, who got himself into trouble again because of his temper.
  4. The wild chickens and the happiness of the earth . Cecilie Dressler Verlag, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-7915-0483-5 .
    • as an audio book: The Wild Chickens and the Happiness of the Earth . Jumbo Neue Medien, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-89592-631-0 (3 CDs)
    • The five go to a riding stables during the holidays. Sprotte, Melanie and Trude ride for the first time and enjoy it. Wilma and Frieda can already ride and go out on rides. While three little guests of the holiday farm, who call themselves "The Wild Chicks" , cause a stir on the riding stables with their pranks, Frieda and Sprotte also have matters of the heart in the form of the pretty riding instructor Maik. It gets really turbulent when the pygmies show up at the riding stables.
  5. The wild chickens and love . Cecilie Dressler Verlag, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-7915-0472-8 .
    • as an audio book: The Wild Chickens and Love . Jumbo Neue Medien, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 3-89592-845-3 (3 CDs)
    • Sprotte's mother Sybille wants to get married. That would be a catastrophe for sprat - and then that smart ass too! A plan has to be found in a hurry to thwart the wedding plans of Sprotte's mother! Maik and Frieda also continue their weekend relationship and Trude finds a worshiper in Steve's cousin Ramon at a pygmy party . Melanie, on the other hand, is devastated because Willi left her for someone else. The chickens get into a crisis when they find out that Wilma has fallen in love with a girl. Since Melanie does not want to have anything to do with such “otherness”, the gang faces a tough ordeal.
  6. The wild chickens and life . Cecilie Dressler Verlag, Hamburg 2009 Book adaptation of the third cinema film of the same name about the gang of girls

The Wild Chickens: The gang book to participate . Cecilie Dressler Verlag, Hamburg The girl gang keeps a “gang book” in which they record their secret scripts and symbols, their adventures and everything else worth knowing. This book gives some background information about the two bands. In addition, there are puzzles, jokes and many pages to fill out yourself.

Film adaptations

Michelle von Treuberg at the film premiere of "The Wild Chickens and Love" in Munich (April 2007).

The book series was filmed in 2005 under the direction of Vivian Naefe . The theatrical release of Die Wilden Hühner was on February 9, 2006. Contrary to what the title suggests, the content of this film largely corresponds to the third book.

On April 5, 2007, the second film The Wild Chicken and Love came to the cinema. The same actors play again: Michelle von Treuberg as Sprotte, Paula Riemann as Melanie, and Veronica Ferres as Sybille. Thomas Kretschmann is new as Sprotte's father. As well as Wilma's ( Jette Hering ) girlfriend Leonie ( Svea Bein ) and Frieda's boyfriend Maik ( Jannis Niewöhner ). The content corresponds to the fifth book, but in some flashbacks it also refers to the holidays at the riding school from the fourth volume.

On January 29, 2009, a third film with the title Die Wilden Hühner and Life in German cinemas started. This film takes up the motif of a school trip from the second book, but sets it after the fifth volume in order to give the films a chronological series of stories. In addition, “The Wild Chicks” from the fourth volume are involved.

As a result, there will be an independent action that follows the book templates only in basics and individual elements, which essentially revolves around the problems of growing up. The book was written by the writer Thomas Schmid and is based on motifs by Cornelia Funke. This sequence was also realized with the team from the first two parts. Only the actress who played Melanie, Paula Riemann , has been replaced by Sonja Gerhardt .

Theater editing

In 2006, the band Die Wilden Hühner - Fuchsalarm was brought onto the stage as an adaptation by the director Jan Betge in a version authorized by the publisher for the open-air theater. The world premiere took place on June 4, 2007 on the Waldbühne Melle .

In 2007 a version authorized by Cornelia Funke and the publisher was premiered for the theater. Arrangement: Rainer Hertwig, world premiere of Stagecoach Theater Arts Erlangen, a theater school for children and young people. The play was conceived as a musical, the music was composed by David Rodríguez Garcés and Ariel Rodríguez Garcés . It is suitable for school theater groups.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Cornelia Funke on the wild chickens

Web links