Mainzel males
| Television broadcast | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Mainzel males |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Year (s) | since 1963 |
| Production company |
NFP (NFP animation film GmbH) |
| length | 3 seconds ≈ 0.05 minutes |
| Episodes | 50,000+ |
| genre | Commercial separator , cartoon |
| idea | Wolf Gerlach |
| music | Kristen & Schmidt music production |
| German-language first broadcast |
April 2, 1963 on ZDF |
The Mainzelmännchen are six cartoon characters named Anton, Berti, Conni, Det, Edi and Fritzchen, who mainly serve as advertising separators on ZDF . They can also be seen occasionally on the satirical program heute-show (since 2009). Its name goes back to the city of Mainz , the seat of the Second German Television , and to the Heinzelmännchen . Its creator was Wolf Gerlach .
The Mainzelmännchen were very popular with the audience right from the start and have not only served the broadcaster as an advertising separator for a long time, but have also become the mascots and an important part of the ZDF's corporate identity . Their great success also led to appearances in other media such as radio plays , children's books and children's songs as well as numerous merchandise products.
Appearance and appearance
The Mainzelmännchen are dwarf or imp- like beings who have similarities with the Heinzelmännchen , which is expressed in their name (a play on words from Heinzelmännchen and Mainz ). According to garden gnomes, they wear a Phrygian hat , but unlike garden gnomes, they have no beards. Their appearances, usually only about three seconds long, usually consist of a single, short gag. They usually only speak a few words, if at all, in a characteristic grumbling tone and represent a large part of the gags visually and pantomimed . Their most famous saying is the traditional audience greeting "Gud'n Aamd".
history
The origins
The Mainzelmännchen were first seen on ZDF on April 2, 1963. They were developed in order to meet the international contractual obligation to separate advertising and programming and are at home in the broadcaster's own ZDF-Werbefernsehen -GmbH. The short spots, which act as a loosening divider between the television advertising, last about three seconds; in earlier years they were longer.
The idea and the original design come from the graphic artist and stage builder Wolf Gerlach. Initially, the commercial separators were broadcast in black and white, and have been in color since 1967. Around 1968 Wolf Gerlach drew a Mainz woman who was not part of the cartoons . In 1980 and 1990 there were minor visual changes and modernizations, for example no more children's aprons.
From the beginning, the animated films of the Mainzelmännchen were not made in Mainz, but in Wiesbaden by Neue Film Produktion . The team around chief draftsman Jürgen Titus König continues to create the animations image by image with a pencil. Only the coloring of the figures is now done by the computer.
In 1975 there were already over 10,000 episodes of the Mainzelmännchen, and around 500 were added annually. There are now around 50,000 spots, and around 1,000 more are created every year.
At the end of the 1960s the capers , longer films, were brought onto television. This was followed by mini-thrillers, for example Sender Nordlicht (1977), Fairy Tales and Rescuers in Need .
At the beginning of the 1970s there were collecting pictures of the Mainzelmännchen, who, pasted into an album, formed comics without speech bubbles.
Innovations
On December 1, 2003, the Mainzelmännchen were reissued based on the style of Japanese manga . There were spectator protests against the redesign of the previous Mainzelmännchen. Their everyday objects were also modernized. There are cell phones and a notebook became a notebook .
From September 14, 2003 to 2004 there was a special cartoon series in the children's program under the title Die Mainzels (authors: Mario Giordano , Christian Matzerath , Thomas Brinx , Anja Kömmerling and others). In five-minute stories, the “Mainzels” experience little adventures around their house, which they live in with two Mainzel girls (Zara and Lea) and their shaggy dog Guudnberg . The Mainzelmännchen, who otherwise only have a minimal vocabulary, can speak as "Mainzels" in this series. In contrast to the current Mainzelmännchen in advertising , the aesthetics of the "Mainzels" are significantly similar to the original Mainzelmännchen.
As part of the measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany , the Mainzelmännchen appeared in spring 2020 with the demands #to stay at home or "keep your distance".
Honors
Mainz: Honorary Mainz male honor
On August 21, 2013, Mayor Michael Ebling awarded Anton, Berti, Conni, Det, Edi and Fritzchen with the “Mainzelmännchen Honorary Dignity” . According to the city administration, this is a title specially created for the Mainzelmännchen, because formally the honorary citizenship may only be awarded to living people.
Document text: Anton, Berti, Conni, Det, Edi and Fritzchen, as media ambassadors for the state capital Mainz, have made an outstanding and particularly personable contribution to the city's reputation. On the occasion of their 50th birthday they are awarded the unique Mainzelmännchen honorary degree .
In addition, the idea of a Mainzel traffic light has been sought since the award of honor . The first traffic light with the Mainzelmännchen Det as the traffic light man was inaugurated on November 23, 2016 at Neubrunnenplatz in Mainz's old town by Mayor Ebling and ZDF director Thomas Bellut . In May 2017, the city of Mainz announced that it wanted to set up more Mainzelmännchen traffic lights. In the meantime, for example, they have been installed on the corner of Rheinstrasse and Quintinstrasse in front of the town hall, on Fischtorplatz and on Lerchenberg .
Bad Zwischenahn: Mainzel men by the sea
In Bad Zwischenahn , the last place where Mainzelmännchen inventor Wolf Gerlach lived, the “Mainzelmännchen am Meer” monument was inaugurated on October 18, 2013.
Naming
According to Wolf Gerlach, the name "Mainzelmännchen" originally came about at the end of 1962 as a nickname for the ZDF staff who worked hard in the studios in Berlin to start broadcasting in April 1963 (based on the Heinzelmännchen and the station's headquarters in Mainz).
The characters themselves are the lazy Anton, the hardworking Berti, the artistic Conni, the clever Det, the mischievous Edi and the sporty Fritzchen, with Wolf Gerlach spontaneously inventing names according to the alphabet. The character traits were only gradually developed over the years, with Det having the first character traits, which was not difficult by wearing the glasses. It was not until 1993 that each Mainzel male had its own complete character. So far there have been four "stages of development":
- 1963–1969: black and white
- 1969–1993: Mainzel males are colored by color television
- 1993–2003: All Mainzel males have corresponding characters, two Mainzel males (Edi and Fritzchen) no longer have hats.
- since 2003: Mainzel males have been significantly modernized and drawn more anime- like.
The twin sisters Lea and Zara and the dog Guudnberg, whose name is a play on the traditional Mainzel male exclamation “Gud'n Aamd” and Johannes Gutenberg , also from Mainz, were introduced into the cartoon series .
Characters
| Surname | Appearance from 1993 | Character from 1993 | Appearance from 2003 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anton |
|
He is portrayed as the lazy and clumsy one of the group. |
|
| Berti |
|
He is the joker and the supplier of ideas, represents the hobbyist and tinkerer of the group. |
|
| Conni |
|
He has the most childlike demeanor in the group and is particularly cared for by Det, which implies that he is the youngest of the group. |
|
| Det |
|
He is the smartest and the leader of the group, which is reflected in his appearance - he is the only one wearing glasses and a gray doublet , which makes him seem older and more authoritative than the others. |
|
| Edi |
|
He is the rogue and the rascal of the group and has most of the nonsense on his mind, which is also reflected in the fact that he does not wear a hat and is the only one in the group to wear red hair - red hair is a common symbol for rascals and is perhaps an allusion to Pumuckl . |
|
| Fritzchen |
|
He is portrayed as the sportiest and smartest of the group, which is also evident from the fact that (from 1993) he is the only one in the group to wear a headband instead of a cap. |
|
Music concepts
- Hella Heizmann and her rascals : The Mainzelmännchen: Sing along! TV hits. Dino Music , 1985
- The Mainzelmännchen: Mainzelmännchen's hit parade. 1981
- The Mainzelmännchen: hat alarm. Hansa, 2004
- The Mainzelmännchen: Guudnn Aaaabnd. Mainzel males go Tekkno. Dan (Sony BMG), 1995
Parodies
- The Mainzelmännchen were parodied by Loriot in the television series of the same name between 1976 and 1978 .
- The Heinzelmannen during the commercial breaks of the RTL show “ Alles nothing or ?! "(1988-1992). In contrast to the model, the Heinzelmannen were not drawn, but the mini- skits were performed by real actors . From the year 1993 were Heinzel men in the commercial breaks of television - Comedy series RTL Saturday night to see.
- In the heute show , which has also been running on ZDF since 2009, Mainzel men regularly appear on the screen in order to ironically portray or satirize a topic . This ensures that they sometimes appear as communists, police officers or terrorists or do indecent things, such as urinating, which the otherwise good, childlike demeanor of the Mainzel males ironically caricatures.
- Since 2012, Martin Reinl has parodied the Mainzel men in the Wiwaldi show on WDR television by having Anton and Det appear as hand puppets in short scenes.
- Since 2016 Gustav has been the relatively unknown and long-lost seventh Mainzel male on the Mombacher Bohnebeitel carnival stage .
"Mainzelmännchen effect"
In research on advertising effectiveness , the thesis emerged that attractive advertising separators could damage the memory effect of the advertising films framed by them by distracting the viewer's attention. The phenomenon exemplified by the ZDF mascot was discussed as the “Mainzelmännchen effect” and examined in several empirical studies with different results. The fact that the Mainzelmännchen had a positive effect on the audience's acceptance and attention for the commercials was confirmed by ZDF-Werbefernsehen in 2012 in a specially commissioned study.
literature
- Bruno Krammer: 30 years on ZDF. The colorful world of adventure of the Mainzel males. A very human story. ZDF press special, Mainz 1993.
Web links
- The Mainzelmännchen on zdf.de
- The Mainzelmännchen on ZDF advertising television
- Mainz males are Mainz “honorary citizens” on the website of the production company NFP
- Mainzelmännchen become honorary citizens swr.de; Retrieved August 21, 2013
- Honorary title for cartoon characters / City of Mainz awarded Mainzelmännchen from t-online.de with material from dpa from August 21, 2013
- Uwe Mantel: Outstanding importance as an ambassador / Mainz awards the Mainzelmännchen the honor . dwdl.de, August 16, 2013
- Mainz awards "Mainzelmännchen Honorary Dignity" to Anton & Co. August 16, 2013
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Wolf Gerlach: Father of the Mainzelmännchen is dead . In: Spiegel Online , November 12, 2012
- ↑ "50 Years of the Mainzelmännchen - The Birthday Exhibition!" From March 2 to 30, 2013 in the gallery: Mainzer Kunst!
- ↑ Mainzelmännchen-Kapriolen 1975–1985, (80 × 2 min.) And 1996-2002 (96 × 1 min.) On nfp.de.
- ↑ Mainzelmännchen mini-crime thriller on dra- mentrickserien.de
- ↑ Jeans instead of dungarees. After 40 years, the ZDF has given its Mainzelmännchen a makeover: The new "Mainzels" are "slimmer, more modern and cheekier," they say from Mainz. on stern.de, December 2, 2003
- ↑ Andreas Platthaus: The anarchists were his brood. Counter-program as a principle: On the death of the inventor of the Mainzelmännchen, Wolf Gerlach . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. November 14, 2012
- ↑ DIE MAINZELS 2002/2003, a TV series commissioned by ZDF (24 × 5 min.) On the website of the production company NFP
- ↑ keep your distance! - ZDF Mediathek. Retrieved May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Mainzelmännchen are "honorary citizens" of the city of Mainz . focus.de with material from dpa from August 21, 2013
- ↑ Mainzel males are "honorary citizens" . RP Online, August 21, 2013
- ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Mainzelmännchen are now honorary citizens of Mainz . ) Ffh.de, August 21, 2013
- ↑ Maike Hessedenz: Green light for Det: First traffic light with Mainzelmännchen in Mainz in operation. Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz, November 23, 2016, accessed on November 24, 2016 .
- ↑ Positive balance after the experiment at Neubrunnenplatz: Mainz is planning more Mainzelmännchen traffic lights. swr.de, May 27, 2017, accessed on August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ Mainzelmännchen sculpture revealed . rlp.de, October 18, 2013
- ↑ Memorial for Mainzelmännchen - Bad Zwischenahn commemorates creator Wolf Gerlach with a bronze sculpture . In: Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz , as well as Allgemeine-zeitung.de, October 19, 2013
- ↑ Mainzelmännchen inventor receives memorial ( memento from October 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on ndr.de from October 18, 2013
- ↑ Good evening: Mainzelmännchen greets you from the Zwischenahner Meer . nwzonline.de of October 18, 2013
- ↑ Mainzelmännchen by the sea . weser-kurier.de from October 19, 2013
- ↑ Bruno Krammer: 30 years on ZDF. The colorful world of adventure of the Mainzel males. A very human story. ZDF press special accompanying an exhibition in the broadcasting center on the Lerchenberg, Mainz 1993, p. 6
- ↑ Bruno Krammer: 30 years on ZDF. The colorful world of adventure of the Mainzel males. A very human story. ZDF press special to accompany an exhibition in the broadcasting center on the Lerchenberg, Mainz 1993, p. 4.
- ^ Website of actor Jürgen Leber , accessed on May 3, 2019
- ↑ Wilfried Urbe: Secret thing Mainzelmännchen. In: Die Welt from July 29, 2003, accessed on June 13, 2017
- ^ Acquittal for the Mainzel males. In: Der Spiegel of May 13, 1991, accessed on June 13, 2017
- ↑ Rupert Sommer: ZDF pats Anton, Det, Fritzchen & Co on the shoulders: Mainzelmännchen increase the advertising effect. In: Kress news from November 20, 2011, accessed June 13, 2017