Hohnsteiner Kasper

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The Hohnsteiner Kasper is the name of a puppet theater with hand puppets from Saxon Switzerland . This is a style that is valued as educationally valuable and which was worked out by the founder Max Jacob .

Surname

The name is derived from Hohnstein Castle in Saxon Switzerland , where the playgroup and Max Jacob himself lived from 1928 and presented their performances. After the National Socialist seizure of power in 1933, the puppeteers had to leave the castle, which was now used as a concentration camp . Max Jacob, his wife Marie and the Kasper family , as the Hohnsteiner group of employees called themselves, later lived within sight of the castle in the so-called Kasperhaus and operated a theater there - the rebuilt puppet theater of the Paris World Exhibition, which was used to cinema after Jacobs left for western Germany and was empty until February 28, 2013. It was restored with the help of the Sparkassenkulturstiftung, EU funds (Objective 3) and many volunteers. Since March 1, 2013, regular cultural events have taken place there.

style

The Hohnsteiner Kasper (figure by Theo Eggink )

The focus is on the Hohnsteiner Kasper , who no longer solves his problems and difficulties with a frying pan or a beating, but with humor and ingenuity.

The Hohnsteiner Kasper is not a virtuoso who bores the children with moral sermons. “He does the moral in a purely exemplary manner, but he does not moralize. And the children take up this role model. ” (Max Jacob: Do you want to play Kasper? P. 21) Other style elements are play in the room (detachment from the play bar) and the reduction of the scenery and utensils to the essentials. Instead of painted backdrops, various types of curtains were often chosen, in front of which the expressive figures looked even better.

Another stylistic device that was new for the time was the use of music composed especially for the staging; The Hohnsteiners mainly used the accordion , played live by the puppeteers behind the stage, while the Punch played a miniature version of the instrument on the playing bar. To the later Hohnsteinern belonged u. a. Irmgard Wesemann , who has made a name for herself as the composer of the pieces of music typical of the Hohnsteiner style: Despite the simplest instrumentation and melody, these pieces of music had a profound effect on the audience in connection with the sensitive staging.

history

In 1921 Max Jacob performed the first puppet performance in Hartenstein in the Ore Mountains. Nine years later, a second stage was established under the direction of Hans Wickert and, also in 1930, radio broadcasts for the children's program of the Leipziger Rundfunk began. Finally in 1934 the group received a "Kasperhaus" for rent from the city of Hohnstein.

In 1937 Die Hohnsteiner played at the World Exhibition in Paris and were awarded a gold medal. A first feature film followed with the title “The Deceived Robber” . During the Second World War, the puppeteers were used to look after the troops on the Eastern Front. The Second World War demanded high tributes from the Hohnsteiners: of Max Jacob's play troupe, only Jacob himself, Jürgen Wetterer and his temporary ensemble member Rudolf Fischer survived the war.

In 1946, Harald Schwarz again opened a Hohnstein stage in Hohnstein, while its original founder, Max Jacob, was still based in Hamburg. The third stage was founded by Friedrich Arndt in collaboration with him in 1949 . Four years later, Max Jacob officially ended his stage work in 1953. From 1948 to 1954 he made seven short films with the puppets for the cinema. The first Kasper records were recorded in 1958 by Friedrich Arndt on the Philips label ( Phonogram ).

In 1962 Erich Kürschner also founded his own Hohnsteiner stage, while his wife Ottilie began running the Hohnsteiner workshop . Two years later, with the collaboration of Friedrich Arndt, many television programs were made at NDR and WDR . This is how the first well-known children's television series developed in the sixties. The main characters were Hohnsteiner Kasper and Peter René Körner . Initially, the programs were shot in studios. Later production was carried out in authentic places around the world. The mixed format of puppets together with people was the model for many later series, such as Caesar the rabbit , Plumpaquatsch and Sesame Street , with which the stage was later also successful. Also Hallo Spencer was invented here. In 1970 Friedrich Arndt stopped working on the stage.

With the death of Harald Schwarz, the last stage manager from Hohnstein, the activities of this legendary puppet stage ceased. Some of today's travel theater is adorned with the name "Hohnsteiner". In fact, however, these stages have nothing to do with the original.

The Hohnstein hand puppets are still made in Hohnstein today.

Since July 2006 the tradition of the Hohnsteiner Kaspers and the Hohnsteiner Hand Puppet Show has been continued by the traditional association Hohnsteiner Kasper eV .

See also

literature

  • Max Jacob: My Kasper and me. Rudolstadt 1964.
  • Ingrid Ramm-Bonwitt: The funny maker on the German puppet stage. (= The comical tragedy. Volume 3). Verlag W. Nold, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-922220-95-9 .

Web links