the little witch

The Little Witch is a children's book by Otfried Preußler from 1957. It was first published by Thienemann Verlag and has since been translated into 47 languages. The book came on the shortlist for the German Youth Book Prize in 1958 . All editions contain the illustrations by Winnie Gebhardt-Gayler .

content

The little witch, whose dearest wish is to be allowed to fly around with the big witches on the Blocksberg , lives with her talking raven Abraxas in a little crooked house in the forest. When trying to join the other witches without permission on Walpurgis Night , she is discovered and her witch broom is burned as a punishment. However, it is promised to be able to participate in the next Walpurgis Night, if by then she has become a good witch. Now the little witch tries for a year to do enough good deeds, helps poor people, punishes bad guys, saves animals and makes new friends. When she reports back to the Witches Council, it turns out that, in the opinion of the Witches Council, a witch should be good at being evil . So she should be punished by collecting the wood for the pyre on Walpurgis Night. Instead, however, she takes revenge by "hexing the witches" and conjuring up their magic books and brooms. As a result, they can no longer teach themselves to witch. She then uses the brooms and books as a stake for her own Walpurgis Night.

characters

The little witch
The little witch is the main character of the story. She has the modest age for witches of one hundred and twenty-seven years and is considered to be particularly friendly and ambitious . She lives in the deep forest in a witch's house with a crooked roof , a crooked chimney and rickety shutters. She practices witchcraft for six hours a day, mostly sitting in front of the stove that is attached to her house.

Abraxas
Abraxas is a talking raven and the little witch's best friend. He is very smart and gives her advice when she struggles with problems, but he also criticizes the mistakes she makes while witchcraft.

The Weather Witch Rumpumpel
The aunt is Rumpumpel the antagonist of the little witch. As a weather witch, her talent lies particularly in the field of weather . She discovers the little witch on the first Walpurgis Night and brings her to the head witch. When the little witch is supposed to be a good witch, she is shadowed by Aunt Rumpumpel , who writes down her good deeds in order to present them to the witches' council.

Thomas and Vroni
Thomas and Vroni are the village landlord's children. When the two get lost looking for mushrooms in the forest, they make friends with the little witch and she helps them find their way back home. Then Thomas and Vroni invite the little witch to the shooting festival . There, however, the ox Korbinian, the children's best friend, is to be presented to the rifle king as a prize and slaughtered. The little witch therefore enchants the guns so that Thomas is the only one to hit. He becomes the shooter king and can keep the ox Korbinian.

The head witch
The head witch is the head of the witches. She sits on a throne made from oven forks . They can be described as vicious, but nonetheless cooperative .

Emergence

According to the author, the story of the little witch's deeds was based on his own bedtime stories , which he told his three daughters in the evening to counter their fear of evil witches . After he had told them at school to the great approval of his audience, he began to write them down.

In January 2013, a new edition of the work planned by Thienemann Verlag became the subject of media reports because individual words were supposed to be changed compared to the original version. According to the publisher, a modernization of the text is planned with regard to the current usage of terms that are no longer common. The words Neger , Wichsen and Gypsies were named as examples , which according to the publisher's statement are no longer used or understood in their original meaning. The changes were worked out in consultation with the author's family, who initially rejected any changes to the text. The new edition appeared in July 2013.

Adaptations

Theater Holzhausen (Salzburg) - The Little Witch (from left: Verena Ehrschwendtner, Nina Ferner, Johann Winkler)

Audio media

In 1970, 1971 and 1977 the Phonogram company released a radio play version of the book on records and cassettes on their Philips and Fontana labels . This production is available today from the successor label Karussell . The voice of the little witch speaks Brigitte Koesters, the narrator is Hans Baur . In 2008, Karussell produced a new radio play with Anna Thalbach as the little witch and Peter Striebeck as the narrator.

In 2005 Robert Metcalf published a radio play for children under the title Learning English with Otfried Preussler - The Little Witch at Audio Verlag . In 2007 the publisher brought out another radio play with the voices of Laura Maire , Jens Wawrczeck and Andreas Pietschmann in cooperation with WDR . In 2009 it was awarded the Hörkulino children's audience award by the Hörkules audio book award. In the same year the work was also published by Audio Verlag as an audio book with Heike Makatsch as speaker. In 2017 the publishing house published Die kleine Hexe again as an unabridged reading with Karoline Herfurth . The radio play for the real film followed in 2018.

Movies

In 1969, The Little Witch was first released for television as a puppet and puppet film, directed by Albrecht Roser . The Japanese television in Tokyo filmed 1975 written by Preußler theater version. In 1984 the Czechoslovakian-German production of a cartoon took place under the original title Malá čarodějnice , which appeared in 1986 in Germany as The Little Witch or How the Little Witch learned to do magic . In contrast to the literary model by Otfried Preußler, the little witch in this film is a little girl and the raven Abraxas is not only a clever advisor, but also becomes a life helper, without whom she could not win against the Witches' Council. In 1986, Soviet television released the real- life film Kleine Baba Jaga , directed by Anatoly Slyassky , the plot of which is based on Preussler's work. Another cartoon was released in 1991 in the Soviet Union under the title Little Witch .

In a German-Swiss co-production, Claussen & Putz Filmproduktion Munich launched a new real-life film on February 1, 2018: The Little Witch (Director: Michael Schaerer , Script: Matthias Pacht , Leading Role: Karoline Herfurth ).

theatre

Otfried Preußler wrote a stage version for Die kleine Hexe in 1973 . The first performance was in the Southeast Bavarian City Theater in Landshut . The book was also the template for other productions of many theaters and puppet theaters, such as Gerhards Marionetten , the Augsburger Puppenkiste , the Munich Marionette Theater , the Bökendorf open-air theater , the Sigmaringendorf forest stage , the Steintäle natural stage or the Bad Bentheim open-air theater .

literature

Otfried Preußler: The little witch , Thienemann Verlag, Stuttgart [u. a.] 2005, ISBN 978-3-522-10580-4 .
Otfried Preußler: The little witch school edition, Thienemann Verlag, Stuttgart [u. a.] 2007, ISBN 978-3-522-17920-1 .

Secondary literature

Thomas Post: Folk tales, fairy tales, fantastic. The fantastic fairy tale world by Otfried Preußler. epubli GmbH, Berlin 2015, ISBN 3-7375-4003-9

media

Audio CD

The little witch . WDR radio play. The Audio Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89813-661-7 .
The little witch. Reading. The Audio Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86231-981-7 .
The little witch . The original radio play for the film. The Audio Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7424-0063-5 .