Herrenleben puppet stage
The Herrnleben Puppet Stage in Bamberg was founded in 1945 by the popular actor Hans Herrnleben and his wife Ottilie Herrnleben. In the meantime managed by the fourth generation, the Bamberg puppet theater is one of the most traditional puppet theaters in Germany. Bamberger Kasperl , the main character of the puppet stage, has been a registered trademark since 2009.
The Herrnleben puppet stage: family tradition
Emergence
After the war ended in 1945 founded Hans Herr life, a well-known Bamberger folk actor and humorist , and his wife Ottilie the puppet stage Herrnleben with the Bamberger Punch , first as a puppet theater . As early as 1948 he and his wife decided on a hand puppet stage .
Initially, the passionate actor, who was later given the name of the father of the Bamberg puppet show , primarily appeared in the Bamberg area at Christmas parties, company anniversaries and club events, but he soon became known beyond the borders of Bamberg due to his child-friendly and interactive style of play.
The then head of the municipal adult education center in Bamberg became aware of the family and commissioned Hans Herrnleben in 1952 to take on an adult education course in hand puppetry.
Since 1972
In 1972 Hans Herrnleben handed over the organizational management of the stage to his grandson Wolfgang Herrnleben, who had been on and behind the stage with his grandfather several times since childhood. Since 1974, the Bamberg Kasperl has lived on through Wolfgang Herrnleben, who took over the adult education course in 1979 and took over the artistic direction from Hans Herrnleben in 1980. The stage founder died in 1983.
The heyday of the Bamberg Punch and Judy and the Herrenleben puppet stage began in the mid-1980s. Wolfgang Herrnleben was able to set decisive accents with his brother Dietmar Herrnleben and an ensemble of around 20 puppeteers: The Bamberg regional radio Radio Regnitzwelle hired the tutors for puppet theater to write and record a total of 753 different bedtime stories that lasted up to the beginning of the 1990s were broadcast in large parts of Upper Franconia .
In 1988 Florian Herrnleben caused a sensation in the press: when he was just five years old, Hans Herrnleben's great-grandson stood as the sun in the middle of the puppet's play area. Where the audience and the press suspected the most complicated mechanics, it was a clever doll construction behind which Florian Herrnleben gave the figure of the sun natural arms. At that time he was probably the youngest puppeteer in Germany whose career began directly in the puppet world. A short time later, both Florian and his younger brother Martin Herrnleben appeared several times in roles in various productions in a similar figure.
Shortly afterwards, Antenne Bayern and the Bayerischer Rundfunk became aware of the Bamberg puppeteers, so that the Bamberg puppet was soon touring all of Bavaria, appearing at the well-known media days and for the Bavarian television in the first two programs of a puppet show on Schlawinerplatz (Bavarian television) occurred.
Commitments throughout Germany followed, including for the Italian plush toy manufacturer Trudi , who hired the stage with Florian Herrnleben in the lead role of the rabbit Virgilio for the Nuremberg Toy Fair .
Since 2000
From 2000 to 2006 the management of the Bamberg Puppenbühne consisted of Wolfgang and Elisabeth Herrnleben and their sons Florian and Martin Herrnleben. Florian Herrnleben, the oldest great-grandson of the stage founder Hans Herrnleben, has been in charge of the stage in Bamberg since 2006. Since then, Wolfgang Herrnleben has run another stage in Garmisch-Partenkirchen .
Florian Herrnleben also takes on the role of Bamberger Kasperl for most of the appearances. Since then, he has been setting new trends, especially in the field of radio play productions. Since the end of 2007, after a five-year break, the Herrnleben have been releasing new radio plays, crowned by the production of Kindergeschichten Spezial , in which not only family members can be heard for the first time. Supported by prominent voices, Florian Herrnleben is involved in the role of Bamberger Kasperl with his team for the German Childhood Cancer Foundation .
Since 2011
After the sudden death of Elisabeth Herrnleben, Florian Herrnleben took over the organizational and artistic management of the Bamberg Puppenbühne and has been the sole owner of the family business ever since.
education
Course at the municipal adult education center in Bamberg
Since 1952, the “ Puppet Theater ” (formerly: “Puppet Play”) course has been taught and led by a family member of the Herrnleben puppeteer family at Bamberg's municipal adult education center , in which some 100 interested friends of puppet theater have now been trained to be puppeteers. A prominent course participant was, for example, the Franconian cabaret artist Mäc Härder . For this reason, the stage also appeared in the past as the “VHS Puppenbühne Herrnleben Bamberg”.
Pieces, productions, figures, backdrops
Plays and productions
Since the Puppenbühne was founded, the plays have been written by themselves. In the past 60 years, Hans as well as Elisabeth and Wolfgang Herrnleben wrote a total of over 100 different plays, some of which are presented in several productions .
Environmental authorities and health insurances engaged the Bamberg puppeteers with their plays on topics of healthy nutrition or environmental protection. There are also pieces on drug abuse and xenophobia in the repertoire, but without neglecting children's entertainment.
As in any good puppet theater, the fact that children are often allowed to intervene in the game is one of the most important elements of the Herrnleben stage: witch brooms and wands in the auditorium, which the children are supposed to watch out for, are just as rare as children reading letters in a bottle or the puppet pull over a wall with the help of a rope.
They also staged Grimm's fairy tales on special occasions , but not without giving up the Bamberg Punch, who always had to appear at least as a supporting role.
A special feature of the Bamberg Puppenbühne is its ability to write and perform its plays in English. In the past few years there have often been performances in elementary schools.
The Herrleben lived out their very humorous streak in their cabaret programs. Characterized by Rolf Trexler's figure cabaret “Der Lustigmacher” in Rothenburg ob der Tauber , where both Wolfgang and Elisabeth Herrnleben completed internships, a colorful and cheeky entertainment program with hand, stick and stick puppets was created here, matching the occasion of the performance.
characters
The man’s repertoire of figures now includes around 150 figures, of which the oldest hand puppets are now over 60 years old. There are also many special shapes in addition to the numerous hand, stick and stick figures. Therefore the stage was renamed from hand puppet stage to puppet stage at the beginning of the 1990s.
Backdrops
The scenery of the Herrenleben puppet stage is very elaborate. Not infrequently come next faithfully painted canvases and sculptural scenes used. The aim has always been to involve the children as closely and realistically as possible in the game.
Film, radio and television
- Bamberger Kasperl shows Bamberg (DVD production)
Bamberg Kasperl in Schlawinerplatz
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) decided to broadcast a series on puppet theater and puppet stages in the children's program Schlawinerplatz . The Herrenleben puppet stage with the Bamberg Punch was chosen as the puppet theater for the opening programs of this series.
The Herrnleben puppet theater was the only puppet theater that was ready to perform live in front of children in the studio. The two episodes were shown in mid-September 1996 on Bavarian television. During the shooting, the Herrnleben puppet stage was engaged for the well-known media days, which took place shortly afterwards in the BR studios.
Come with me to Franconia - 1000 and 1 mile
Radio Bremen TV team shoots for ARD in Bamberg
The TV dinosaur Lissy with the TV team from Radio Bremen visited the Herrnleben puppet stage and the Bamberg Kasperl in the historic building of the Old Town Hall in Bamberg on October 17, 1979, where the Herrenleben adult education center was then located. There , some scenes were filmed for the ARD children's series 1000 and 1 Meile , the episode of which Come with me to Franconia was filmed in Bamberg and the surrounding area at that time.
741 bedtime stories on Regnitzwelle radio
One of the most successful children's programs in the evening program of a private radio station
The cooperation between the puppeteer couple and Radio Regnitzwelle began shortly after the private radio station started broadcasting in autumn 1987. Elisabeth and Wolfgang Herrnleben thus developed numerous ideas for the station. Even during the Christmas holidays in 1987/88 cooked puppet with his grandmother in the morning program his favorite foods .
A list of listeners was quickly gained, so that the then studio manager Jürgen Zirbik decided to include Bamberg's Kasperl in the evening program. And so, from January 13, 1988, between 6 and 8 p.m., the Bamberg Kasperl's bedtime stories by and with Elisabeth and Wolfgang Herrnleben were broadcast. A total of 741 bedtime stories with Bamberg Punch were sent in the following years.
Bamberg Kasperl as a radio play
In the past few years, many of the bedtime stories with Bamberg's Kasperl came onto the market as radio plays on CD and MC. A total of 30 bedtime stories, 20 Christmas stories and 30 puppet stories have now been reproduced. Initially, the Puppenbühne published its radio plays in cooperation with radio stations and the environmental agency of the city of Bamberg. In the meantime, the puppet stage is represented nationwide by Bob Media GmbH & Co KG.
The following radio plays were published:
- 1989: Bedtime stories with Bamberg's Kasperl, episode 1
- Speaker: Wolfgang and Elisabeth Herrnleben
- Production: Robert Rausch
- Distribution: Publishing house of productions with the Bamberg Kasperl
- 1990: Environmental stories with the Bamberg Punch
- Speaker: Wolfgang and Elisabeth Herrnleben
- Production: Jochen Baumüller
- Distribution: Publishing house of productions with the Bamberg Kasperl
- 1991: Bedtime stories with Bamberg Punch, Part 2
- Speaker: Wolfgang and Elisabeth Herrnleben
- Production: Jochen Baumüller
- Distribution: Publishing house of productions with the Bamberg Kasperl
- 2000: Bedtime stories with Bamberg Punch, Part 3
- Speaker: Wolfgang and Elisabeth Herrnleben
- Production: Robert Rausch
- Distribution: Publishing house of productions with the Bamberg Kasperl
- 2007: Christmas stories with Bamberg's Kasperl, part 1
- Speaker: Florian and Elisabeth Herrnleben
- Production: Hannes Speckamp
- Distribution: Bob Media GmbH & Co KG / Zyx / Puppenbühne Herrnleben Bamberg
- 2008: Children's stories with the Bamberg Punch, Part 1
- Speaker: Florian and Elisabeth Herrnleben
- Production: Hannes Speckamp
- Distribution: Bob Media GmbH & Co KG / Puppenbühne Herrnleben Bamberg
- 2008: Children's stories with the Bamberg Kasperl, SPECIAL - in favor of the German Childhood Cancer Foundation
- Speakers: Florian, Elisabeth, Martin Herrnleben, Dirk Bach, Bastian Pastewka, Maddin Schneider, Ralf Richter, Katy Karrenbauer, Bodo Bach, Lisa Feller, Norbert Heisterkamp, Princess Felicitas von Anhalt
- Production: Hannes Speckamp
- Distribution: Bob Media GmbH & Co KG / edel records / Puppenbühne Herrnleben Bamberg
- 2009: Hey, Kasperl! - New hits for children of all ages with the Bamberg Punch
- Texts and puppet: Florian Herrnleben, music and arrangements: Johannes Speckamp, guitars: Johan Daansen
- Distribution: Bob Media GmbH & Co KG / edel records Puppenbühne Herrnleben Bamberg
- 2011: Environmental stories with the Bamberg Punch
- In cooperation with the Bavarian State Ministry for Environment and Health
- Speaker: Florian and Elisabeth Herrnleben: Texts: Wolfgang and Elisabeth Herrnleben, music and arrangements: Johannes Speckamp
- Distribution: Bob Media GmbH & Co / Puppenbühne Herrnleben Bamberg