Gretel Escher

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Grete "Gretel" Emilie Escher , née Grete Emilie Kirchhoff (born June 24, 1915 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † March 2015 near Zurich ) was a German illustrator , journalist and author. She became known as a pioneer of the German comic scene with the Hörzu mascot Mecki , a hedgehog.

Life

The journalist Grete Emilie Kirchhoff married the illustrator Reinhold Escher in 1940 . During the course of their marriage, their participation in his work steadily increased and it shaped one of the most important German comic series of the post-war period. However, she shared the fate of many wives of publicly perceived personalities that her sometimes essential contribution to the creation of the works is little or only posthumously appreciated for a long time.

While still in Waldshut, the journalist gave birth to their daughter on November 2, 1946. A year later the family returned to the publishing city of Hamburg . After the war, Reinhold Escher illustrated children's books such as Die Wichtelhochzeit and Nick's Bride Trip and worked for Kristall magazine . Originals of the young artist couple were among others in 2010 as part of a Mecki - recognized exhibition.

Two years later, in 1948, her husband Reinhold Escher became a freelancer at the newly founded Hörzu . After initially designing the joke pages and the rebus , in 1949 he was commissioned by the editor-in-chief Eduard Rhein to design the mascot Mecki as a page filler . Here, too, his wife Gretel Escher has a considerable share in the success of the work. From 1952, full-page comic pages were created on this basis. The figure became so popular that the Escher family team developed the first Mecki book in 1952, Mecki in the land of plenty . For a good quarter of a century, until 1978, the Escher couple created the legendary hedgehog comics.

Working method

The stories of the hedgehog Mecki, which appear in weekly sequels over many months, were planned jointly by the couple. First, a location was determined. Grete Escher researched the topic, which was later used to guide the development of the characters and the story. She developed an exposé for submission to the editor-in-chief. After the action plan had been coordinated and approved, Gretel Escher wrote the complete scenario - back then - on the typewriter. So all texts that were later used on the comic pages for the illustrator, her husband, were written down.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Martin Jurgeit: A pioneer of the German comic scene. Tagesspiegel, March 19, 2015, accessed on May 26, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Sigrun Stock: Prickly Star. Tagesspiegel, January 15, 2010, accessed May 26, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Escher, Gretel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Escher, Grete Emilie; Escher, Gretel Emilie (nickname); Kirchhoff, Grete Emilie (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German illustrator, journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau
DATE OF DEATH March 2015
Place of death near Zurich