Reinhold the rhinoceros

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Reinhold das Nashorn is a comic strip about an anthropomorphic rhino with drawings by Loriot and verses by Wolf Uecker . It appeared from 1953 for a total of seventeen years, first in Sternchen , the children's supplement to the German magazine Stern , and later in Stern itself. In addition, several books with episodes of the comic were published.

Content and analysis

The consequences of the comic strip tell closed stories. They consist of four to six pictures, each with a double verse. These verses are not strictly necessary to understand the story. The art didactic specialist Dietrich Grünewald therefore suspects that they were used to increase the acceptance of the stories. The comic strips with the verses were reminiscent of Wilhelm Busch's picture sheets , which were familiar and culturally accepted by the public and which thus differed from the comics that had a negative image in the 1950s.

The content of the strip is the adventures of the rhinoceros Reinhold, who is portrayed in a human way. It walks on two legs, moves normally through a human environment and interacts with people. In the two-color print it is colored red and orange, the people, on the other hand, are drawn in black and white and appear as lump-nosed males typical of Loriot.

At the beginning of the series, absurdity and clowning are in the foreground; the rhinoceros seems to be still a child. An example of this is the second installment in the series. It shows Reinhold on his bike, which plays a central role in the first episodes. When a tram drives past him, he comes up with the idea of ​​using electricity to get around. He stands on the seat of the bicycle, holds his horn to the overhead line and thereby moves on with the bicycle.

In the course of the series there was a shift in the focus of the content. Reinhold appears older and more mature, the focus now is more on his shrewdness and cleverness. As a counterweight to the more mature Reinhold, his little nephew Paul appears in several of the later episodes and takes on the role of the naive and clownish. An example of the change in content is the episode that was published in the anthology from 1968 under the title Der Fensterputzer . Here Reinhold receives an order from a man to clean a dirty window. When he does not succeed, he angrily pushes his ladder through the window, which breaks in the process. He also removes the remaining glass and proudly presents his client with a clear view of the outside, who reacts with satisfaction.

The Germanist Stefan Neumann, who wrote his dissertation on the life and work of Loriot, sees two reasons for the shift in focus. On the one hand, Reinhold das Nashorn opened up a new adult audience around 1960 by switching from the Sternchen children's supplement to the Stern magazine. On the other hand, the change can also be explained by the changed image of children in the Federal Republic of Germany, which has changed from emphasizing "childish innocence" in the 1950s to more independence and social inclusion.

publication

Loriot drew for the star from 1950 . From June 1953, the magazine included the children's supplement Sternchen , in which Reinhold the rhino first appeared. The name of the rhinoceros was an idea of ​​Wolf Uecker, who also wrote the verse. According to Uecker, the ideas for most of the episodes came from Loriot, and a few were also his. In contrast to his other work at Stern , Loriot had signed a permanent contract for Reinhold das Nashorn . This remained in place when Loriot signed an exclusive contract with the Thomas Martens publishing house in 1954, which excluded publications in other than the publisher's own magazines Weltbild and Quick . A change from Reinhold das Rhino from the star to the star was only allowed after lengthy negotiations in 1959 by the Thomas Martens publishing house. The star was discontinued as a children's supplement in 1961 and appeared from then on as a double page in the star . Reinhold the rhino was part of the rubric until 1969 or 1970.

In 1954 the book Reinhold das Nashorn was published as Sternchen -Buch 1 by Blüchert Verlag . It contained episodes from the asterisk series and was Loriot's first book publication; In the same year, Diogenes Verlag published the book On the Dog with drawings from the Stern series of the same name . In addition to Loriot and Wolf Uecker, the Stern editor Günter Dahl was also involved in the book Reinhold das Nashorn , who wrote an introductory text and links between the cartoons. Another anthology followed in 1968 in Diogenes Verlag, in which the poet Wolf Uecker was now named under the pseudonym Basil. Licensed editions were published by Peter Niemann Verlag in 1971 and by Rowohlt Verlag in 1976 as part of the Rororo Rotfuchs series. In the 1950s, Reinhold also brought a cuddly toy onto the market.

In addition, Loriot published an episode that appeared in Sternchen in April 1956 in his autobiographical book Möpse & Menschen from 1983. It shows how filthy Reinhold goes to a dry cleaner and is heaved into a large washing kettle by an employee. After that it lost its red color, but the dirt stains are still there. The result led to an exchange of letters between the star and the main association for dyeing and chem. Cleaning in the Federal Republic of Germany , which was printed in Möpse & Menschen and seems very strange despite or because of the seriousness of the complaint of the association. The association saw a “degradation and contempt for the chemical-cleaning trade”, which is particularly serious, since “such representations easily stick to the youthful memory”.

Book editions

  • Loriot, Wolf Uecker, Günther Dahl: Reinhold the rhinoceros . Blüchert, Stuttgart 1954.
  • Loriot, Basil: Reinhold the rhinoceros . Diogenes, Zurich 1968.
  • Loriot, Basil: I paint Reinhold the rhino . Peter Niemann, Munich 1971.
  • Loriot, Basil: Reinhold the rhinoceros . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1976.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Dietrich Grünewald: Loriot and the art of drawing irony. 2019, p. 144.
  2. ^ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 104-105.
  3. ^ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 104-106.
  4. ^ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 105-106.
  5. a b Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 32.
  6. ^ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 35.
  7. Vicco von Bülow . In: Der Spiegel . No. 22 , May 27, 1969, pp. 79 ( spiegel.de ).
  8. Klaus Schikowski: The comic. History, styles, artists . Reclam, Ditzingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-15-020544-0 , p. 140–141 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. Stefan Neumann writes in 1969 ( Loriot und die Hochkomik. 2011, p. 103 and catalog raisonné p. 364). Other sources mention 1970 and presumably refer to a statement by Loriot, who writes of a term of 17 years ( Möpse & Menschen. Eine Art Biographie. 1983, p. 64).
  10. a b Peter Paul Kubitz, Gerlinde Waz (Ed.): Loriot. What! Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7757-2367-1 , p. 35 .
  11. ^ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 33, 105 (footnote 411).
  12. Loriot: Pugs & People. Kind of a biography . Diogenes, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-257-01653-0 , p. 64-66 . Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the comedy. 2011, pp. 106-107.