Rudolf Fischer (puppeteer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rudolf Fischer (born April 27, 1920 in Frankfurt am Main , Hesse ; † December 12, 1998 in Bergisch Gladbach , North Rhine-Westphalia ) was a German theater and television puppeteer .

life and work

House in Bensberg
Memorial plaque on the residential building in Bensberg

Although Rudolf Fischer was one of the most productive German puppeteers after the Second World War, surprisingly little is published about him in written form. Although he had the habit of meticulously recording even small, improvised acting scenes, such as those he performed on the occasion of private celebrations, none of these mostly delicate puppetry works of art were published. That makes a close look at his extensive oeuvre somewhat difficult.

Fischer began his puppetry career in 1933 initially with the Hohnsteiner Kasper of the famous hand puppeteer Max Jacob , but soon felt the urge for his own playing style and the desire to set up his own stage. So in September 1947 - after being deployed in the war, as a prisoner of war and a further short time as a Hohnsteiner player - he founded his own travel theater, the Königsteiner and later (from 1953) Darmstadt puppet shows, with which he traveled all over Germany. At first he worked with classic hand puppets by Theo Eggink in the Hohnsteiner carving style, which Max Jacob had given him as "travel provisions" on the way to self-employment, but soon looked for his own puppet designer, such as Lore Lafin, who later became very famous in the world of puppet theater .

Classic Puppet games were just as much a part of his toys as well-known fairy tales , such as The Emperor's New Clothes . An unusually large part of his staging activities took up hand puppet shows for an adult audience; So he brought The Shirt of a Happy Man on stage and - as the first German theater maker and even before the German translation was published - the Little Prince after Antoine de Saint-Exupéry .

Fischer worked with his wife Erika for many years.

In the mid-1960s, Rudolf Fischer turned to television work and began an extremely fruitful collaboration with WDR and NDR . As a puppeteer, he has worked on a variety of television series for children, of which Der Spatz vom Wallrafplatz , Robbi, Tobbi and the Fliewatüüt , Stoffel and Wolfgang and Maxifant and Minifant are the best known. Other television series and films followed.

He also published The Sparrow from Wallrafplatz as a very successful children's book.

Together with Friedrich Arndt and Wolfgang Buresch , who were also involved in the television productions, and Irmgard Waßmann , he was also one of the speakers for the ten editions of the long-playing record series Der Hohnsteiner Kasper ( reissued today by Deutsche Grammophon ).

In the 1980s he shot several more Punch and Judy films for the Steueragel television production in Offenbach am Main , which were sold on video but which did not in the least meet his expectations; cinematically, the pieces, which were shot under performance conditions but without an audience, did not come close to the atmosphere of Fischer's real stage appearances. Fischer distanced himself from these productions. These films are still interesting today and are considered to be a "lesson for younger puppeteers" ( Gerd J. Pohl ) , primarily due to the flawless puppet guidance and the disciplined, child-friendly language .

After that, the puppeteer became quieter. Between 1988 and 1993 he played regularly in the Bensberg Puppet Pavilion in Bergisch Gladbach , the stationary puppet theater run by Heide Hamann , who had already worked as Heide Wlazik in earlier television productions and now - after the death of Rudolf Fischer's wife Erika - also privately at his side was standing. Behind the scenes he remained connected to puppetry and was a much sought-after advisor in the circles of puppeteers' offspring.

Until the mid-1990s he was still involved in his now legendary production of The Little Prince , which was now part of the standard repertoire of the Bensberg Puppenpavillon; the puppeteers Heide Hamann and Gundula Mehlfeld played all roles, while Fischer spoke some of the male roles off-stage. In 1996 he was unable to perform these roles himself for health reasons and handed this task over to his colleague Gerd J. Pohl.

On December 12, 1998, Rudolf Fischer died in his sleep after a long illness. Heide Hamann had devotedly cared for and looked after the artist at home until the end. Around thirty friends and colleagues said goodbye at the coffin and saw a peacefully resting puppeteer with his puppet in his arms. Rudolf Fischer was buried in Bergisch Gladbach.

A cast iron plaque commemorates the artist on Fischer's last house where he lived and where he died in Bensberg , which was ceremoniously unveiled on May 16, 2010 by Mayor Lutz Urbach in the presence of former companions Fischer - among them Rudolf Debiel and Frieder Wagner .

Productions (only on Fischer's own stage, selection)

Filmography (selection)

This section needs to be revised: Bringing filmography to standard, see Help: Filmography .
Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

watch TV

  • Justice ( NDR , 1974, feature film based on an episode of Maxifant and Minifant, team: Erika Fischer, Heide Wlazik, Rudolf Fischer)
  • Callidus (NDR, 1976, multi-part series directed by Wolfgang Buresch )
  • Yellow is ugly (NDR, 1976, team as in Justice )
  • The silver flute (NDR, 1976, team see above)
  • The railway witch (NDR, 1976, team see above)
  • Suspicion (NDR, 1977, team see above)
  • You don't do that with grandfather (NDR, 1980, team see above)
  • Bedside stories ( ZDF , from 1982, team see above)
  • Felix and Felizitas (NDR, 1982–1987; first broadcast: 1983, Team see above, 60 episodes as part of the Sandmännchen series)

Video productions:

  • Kasper and the runaway lion
  • Kasper and the magician Witzi Wotzi
  • Kasper and his dog Schnauzi

TV documentary series:

  • Puppet theater in Germany (NDR; Editor: Wolfgang Buresch )
    • Weilheim puppet shows
    • Darmstadt puppet shows
    • the stage, PK Steinmann, Berlin
    • Rhubarb Puppet Theater, Hamburg-Altona
    • Mülheim puppet theater, Stocker & Lohmann
    • Puppet theater Gerhard Mensching, Bochum
    • Soldiner puppet stage, Fritz Leese
    • Liz Pilgram Marionette Theater

Records (selection)

  • Maxifant and Minifant (as speaker together with Wolfgang Buresch ; Production: Konrad Halver and Michael Weckler ; Label: Peggy, three episodes in total)
  • The Hohnsteiner Kasper (as speaker, together with the ensemble of the Hohnsteiner Puppenbühne, a total of ten episodes)
  • Stoffel and Wolfgang (as speakers together with Wolfgang Buresch)
  • The Wolf and the Woman (as speaker together with Wolfgang Buresch as well as author and director)

Publications

  • Personal memories of the puppet carver Theo Eggink. In: Theo Eggink. Annual gift of the Friends of the Hohnstein Puppet Games, Hamburg 1965
  • The sparrow from Wallrafplatz. F. Schneider, Munich / Vienna 1971, ISBN 3-505-03691-9

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DBA III 244, p. 264.
personal data
SURNAME Fischer, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theater and television puppeteer
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main , Hesse , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1998
Place of death Bergisch Gladbach , North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany