Heinz Fülfe

Heinz Fülfe with Struppi in 1988

Heinz Fülfe (born January 5, 1920 in Freiberg ; † December 5, 1994 in Berlin ) was a German draftsman , puppeteer and ventriloquist . He became known as the doll father of Flax and Krümel and through his role as a rapid draftsman Taddeus Punkt , an identification figure of GDR children's television, with whom he appeared in the television series Our Sandman , broadcast by the German television network (DFF) .

Live and act

Fülfe was born the son of a military musician and a housewife. Fülfe spent his high school in Elsterwerda , where he also received his first artistic training from Hans Nadler . Heinz Fülfe passed his Abitur in Pirna. There he continued his artistic training with Horst Lorenz.

After attending school, he began an apprenticeship as a set designer at the Dresden State Theater . Fülfe later served as a soldier in World War II , where he was captured. After returning home, he turned back to the theater and has since worked as a freelance painter, graphic artist and puppeteer. In 1946 he had a joint exhibition with Ruth Klatte and Artur Henne .

At the beginning of the 1950s, Heinz Fülfe came to the puppet theater as a founding member of the Pirnaer Puppenspiele together with Wolfgang Hensel , where, according to his training, he was employed for the stage design and for the representation of female (!) Roles. As a puppeteer, he used figures by the woodcarver Theo Eggink and the wood sculptor Hellmuth Lange from Bärenfels . During this time he played the dog Struppi from the workshop of Elisabeth Grünwaldt and Friedel Kostors for the first time , a character who later became well known on GDR television .

Since the early 1950s, Fülfe appeared in a large number of children's programs on television in the GDR , especially in Our Sandman , and as a voter for characters like Ms. Elster . For these broadcasts he wrote about 900 manuscripts . Together with his wife Ingeburg, Fülfe moved to Königstein Fortress during these years , where he set up a small television studio and prepared his programs. Heinz Fülfe was also the doll father of the doll siblings Flax and Krümel , who had been on German television since 1955.

Fülfe became famous for the personification of the figure of Taddeus Punkt (also Tadeus Punkt), who appeared with the puppet of the dog Struppi in the program Our Sandman . Taddeus Punkt was a quick draftsman in a white smock, who mostly wore a beret. He drew pictures with black charcoal on white paper that was stretched out on an easel, telling educational and funny stories for children. He lent Struppi his voice as a ventriloquist .

With the words:

"Good evening - you little ones and also you big ones in front of the screen. I am the draftsman Tadeus Punkt and I want to tell you a story today. Actually, I want to draw them - or rather, I want to tell them ... "

he was seen for the first time on June 11, 1959 as Tadeus Punkt in the evening greeting from Our Sandman . With this figure, as a draftsman and storyteller in artist's garb, Heinz Fülfe was one of the identifying figures of GDR children's television. With the aforementioned dog Struppi, he told his stories about 400 times and took his little audience to various places in the GDR.

Fülfe also worked as a radio play writer and speaker. There are also some records with stories of his characters.

Heinz Fülfe was honored with the GDR National Prize in 1961 for his achievements . Fülfe is an honorary citizen of the small town of Elsterwerda in southern Brandenburg and, since 1965, of the town of Pirna in Saxony.

Private life

Heinz Fülfe was married, in his second marriage to the puppeteer Ingeburg Fülfe , and had three children. After the turnaround and the liquidation of the DFF , the couple appeared with the dolls in kindergartens and schools.

literature

• Heinz Fiedler: Struppi between Paris, Pirna and television. In: Saxon newspaper . Freital edition. February 23, 2011, p. 16
• Tom Pfefferkorn: Time without flax and crumbs ... On the 10th anniversary of Heinz Fülfe's death , in: Erlpeter - Kulturblatt für Pirna , issue 42, December 2004, online (PDF; 576 kB)

Web links

• Heinz Fülfe on GDR radio plays
• Literature by and about Heinz Fülfe in the catalog of the German National Library
• Konstanze Krüger: Heinz Fülfe (1920–1994) . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .