Mikesch the cat

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Kater Mikesch (original title: Kocour Mikeš) is a children's book by the Czech author Josef Lada from the 1930s. Otfried Preußler received the German Youth Book Prize in 1963 for retelling the children's book in a new version.

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Říčany - směrovka na Hrusice - Mikeš - 1c.jpg

Shoemaker Pepik lives with his grandmother in the small village of Holleschitz. She has a hangover who goes by the name of Mikesch. A friendship develops between Pepik and Mikesch and Pepik successfully teaches the cat to speak. Many people in Holleschitz are amazed and surprised about the polite and loving tomcat and take him to their hearts. He gets a pair of boots from the shoemaker and a skirt from the tailor because he helps him. In addition to Mikesch, Schuster's grandmother also owns the dog Sultan and the pig Paschik, whom Mikesch teaches to speak. The stormy billy goat Bobesch lives with the community shepherd and he wants to sell him at the market. Pepik saves him by teaching Bobesch to speak. He now promises the pastor to behave in the future. Paschik, Bobesch and Mikesch become good friends. One day Mikesch accidentally smashes his grandmother's creamer. Because of his guilty conscience and the fear of their reaction, he runs away to look for work in the “big wide world”. He succeeds in doing this at the Klutzki Circus. He returns home with a lot of money in his pockets with a new creamer and presents for his friends. There he met the little white tomcat Maunzerle, who by now also belongs to Schuster's household and has learned to speak, albeit not as well as Mikesch.

filming

In 1964, the story of the cat who learned to speak was filmed by the Augsburger Puppenkiste and appeared in six black and white episodes. The script was written by Manfred Jenning and directed by Harald Schäfer . The main role was played by Max Boessl . The four-part color production, directed by Sepp Strubel , followed in 1985 and was released on DVD in 2004. Here Winfried Küppers lent his voice to Mikesch, who had previously gained fame throughout Germany in 1976 in the role of Jim Knopf .

Current book editions

  • Josef Lada: The cat Mikesch . Stories about the hangover who could speak (original title: Kocour Mikeš, translated and retold by Otfried Preußler). Bibliographical Institute, Mannheim / Sauerländer, Düsseldorf 2003, ISBN 3-7941-6001-0 .
as a paperback
  • Josef Lada: The cat Mikesch . Stories about the hangover who could speak (original title: Kocour Mikeš. Translated and retold by Otfried Preußler). Beltz, Weinheim / Basel 2011, ISBN 978-3-407-74257-5 (= Gulliver. Volume 1257).

As an audio book

  • Josef Lada, Otfried Preußler (speaker): Kater Mikesch. (Radio play, director: Karin Lorenz), audio CD. Sauerländer near Patmos, Düsseldorf 2000, ISBN 3-491-24053-0 .

As a video