Fritze Blitz and Dunnerkiel

Fritze Blitz und Dunnerkiel is the name given to the adaptation of the Asterix series designed by Rolf Kauka from 1967 onwards .

Siggi and Babarras

Kauka received the rights for the German translation of the Asterix volumes from 1965 to 1966 and made Germanic tribes of the Gauls. Asterix and Obelix became Siggi and Babarras at Kauka. As in the original, the stories took place at the time of Julius Caesar , but the translations contained many political allusions to the FRG in the 1960s, as well as to the GDR. The Roman occupiers, speaking with an American influence, corresponded to the Allied occupiers of the post-war period.

With regard to the Germanization of the Caucasus, the author Thomas Bleicher spoke of “a rather dark chapter in German comic history”. Andreas C. Knigge found Kauza's Asterix version to be German and right-wing conservative, but ultimately came to the conclusion: “Siggi and Babarras have no fixed political concept, there is much more saying after saying, nonsense after nonsense, which leads to political confusion and apathy leads. It is enough for a party like the CDU / CSU if you have your enemy in the East. ” René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo revoked Kauka's license after publishing a total of four adventures in Lupo magazine and since then have all translations checked.

Fritze Blitz and Dunnerkiel

After Kauka had lost the Asterix rights, from 1967 he had his own comic adventures based on Asterix with the Teutons Fritze Blitz and Dunnerkiel , whose appearance was reminiscent of the two Gauls. The blond-braided Fritze Blitz was rather thin, his dark-haired, mustache-bearded friend Dunnerkiel was a bit smaller and thick. Both of them, very strong (without being equipped with a magic potion), acted in Bonhalla under Duke Heinerich Hattenstich (an unflattering allusion to the then Federal President Heinrich Lübke ). The time reference was not clear, once the year 69 was mentioned, another time the rivalry between Caesar and Pompey, about 120 years older, made up part of the plot.

In the spring of 1967, Kauka published the beginning of the first Fritze Blitz story in the expiring comic magazine TIP TOP . In the booklet series Fix and Foxi Super TIP TOP , each of which was largely dedicated to a single comic series, the adventure appeared under the title When the Romans got naughty in October 1967. In the second story, The Ox War (1968), the names of the two main characters were changed to Siggi and Babarras - the same names that Kauka had previously used for his Asterix translations. These first two album-length adventures were drawn by Branimir “Branko” Karabajić , who is best known for his work on Cauca's mole Pauli .

A plagiarism case between Dargaud and Kauka in the matter of Asterix and Fritze Blitz was decided in favor of Kaucasus, and so the latter produced further material with the Germanic peoples. After a production dispute with Karabajić, the title heroes have now been drawn by Riccardo Rinaldi , known from Kazier Pichelsteiner . Within only 12 months four more volumes were produced, which consisted of thematically disconnected stories.

In addition to the original duo, the Teutonic Hermann Teutonus , serving as a centurion in the Roman army , a figure by Leone Cimpellin and Carlo Triberti, whose Italian original by Studio Dami Tribunzio is called. Peter Wiechmann rewrote the Tribunzio comics for the volumes In the Pan and That Knocks Out the Strongest Warrior , and Riccardo Rinaldi added sequences with the Kauka Germanic duo.

In the story The Dear God of Gaul , the only Siggi-und-Babarras adventure that comes entirely from Rinaldi's pen, Kauka let his Germans operate in Gaul. Similar to the Asterix adventure Astérix chez les Bretons ( Asterix among the British ) published in 1966, the Gauls and Teutons played soccer against each other in this story, published in 1969.

Hermann Teutonus as well as Siggi and Babarras ended up in Rome in Das skin the strongest warrior (1969), comparable to the story of the fourth Asterix adventure, Astérix gladiateur (1962/1963, Ger./Ehapa: Asterix als Gladiator ), the Kauka 1965 had also published in Lupo modern .

The stories When the Romans got naughty and Der Ochsenkrieg were published in the early 80s in abbreviated form and in a child-friendly text version with much less political relevance in a new edition in paperback format. In this version, the two heroes were given their original names Fritze Blitz and Dunnerkiel back.

Primary literature

Lupo 6-7 / 1965 and Lupo modern 8-15 / 1965: Siggi and the golden sickle (La Serpe d'or, The golden sickle)

Lupo modern 16-26 / 1965: (Siggi) fight for Rome ( Astérix gladiateur, Asterix as gladiator )

Lupo modern 27-37 / 1965: Siggi and the Ostrogoths ( Astérix chez les Goths, Asterix and the Goths )

Lupo modern 3-14 / 1966: Siggi the Indestructible ( Astérix le Gaulois, Asterix the Gauls )

Fix and Foxi Super TIP TOP 4: When the Romans got naughty (1967) (Title after the famous song )

Fix and Foxi Super TIP TOP 12: The Ox War (1968)

Fix and Foxi Super TIP TOP 20: Carved into the pan (1969, mainly Hermann Teutonus )
Fix and Foxi Super TIP TOP 21: Bloody Mary (1969, only Hermann Teutonus )
Fix and Foxi Super 25: God of Gaul (1969)
Fix and Foxi Super 28: That knocks out the strongest warrior (1969, mainly Hermann Teutonus )
Rolf Kauka Gold Comic 6: Tamtam about Talents (1982, When the Romans got naughty with a new text)
Rolf Kauka Gold Comic 7: Hickhack ums dear cattle (1982, The ox war with new text)

Secondary literature and networking

Thomas Bleicher: Right-sided or right-hand . In: Krägerermanns Comic Katalog 97/98 , Krägerermann Verlag 1997
Andreas C. Knigge: To be continued - comic culture in Germany . Ullstein 1986, pages 237–244: "The politicization of a bestseller comic"

Web links

Commentary on Siggi and Barbarras

Individual evidence

↑ The Kauka Effect by Matthias Heine on Welt online, March 22, 2005, accessed November 22, 2010: “ After almost a year, the French rights holders were fed up with such brutal propaganda. At the instigation of René Goscinny, the Dargaud publishing house terminated the license agreement with Kauka in 1966. Since then, all translations have been checked by a French German specialist before publication. "

[1] The Kauka Effect by Matthias Heine on Welt online, March 22, 2005, accessed November 22, 2010: “ After almost a year, the French rights holders were fed up with such brutal propaganda. At the instigation of René Goscinny, the Dargaud publishing house terminated the license agreement with Kauka in 1966. Since then, all translations have been checked by a French German specialist before publication. "