Our sandman

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Television series
Original title Our sandman
Country of production Germany
original language German , Sorbian
Year (s) since 1959
Production
company		 Broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB)
length 10 mins
Broadcasting
cycle		 Every day
genre Children's series
Theme music Sandman, dear Sandman
First broadcast November 22, 1959 on German television

Our Sandman (also briefly Sandmann ) is a German children's program , which has been produced since the 1959th From 1959 to 1989, in divided Germany, both Our Sandman was produced and broadcast by the SFB on German television (DFF) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and a broadcast of the same concept on ARD in the Federal Republic of Germany under the title Sandman . Since the German reunification , our sandman has continued to be produced by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg on behalf of ARD and broadcast in the early evening programs of RBB , MDR and KiKA . Watching this program was and is a ritual for toddlers in many households before going to bed.

history

background

The literary figure of the Sandman has been known for centuries from various stories, for example The Sandman by ETA Hoffmann or Hans Christian Andersen's Ole Lukøje . According to the literary model, the cartoon doll is a small man with a white beard. It appears in a framework before or after a child-friendly short film and at the end of each program it sprinkles its sleeping sand in order to give the children pleasant dreams.

Beginnings

Gerhard Behrendt with sandman doll, 1979
The sandman on a GDR postage stamp from 1964
Sandman's 25th birthday, picture from the Federal Archives
The Sandman as a mural in a kindergarten (GDR), 1986

Reading bedtime stories to children has a long tradition. Radio stations also picked them up in the post-war period. Abendlied was the name of a radio broadcast by Ilse Obrig on Berlin radio . In the broadcast of the GDR the Sandman went for the first time on 19 May 1956 on the air. On October 8, 1958, it became the evening greeting on German television broadcasting (DFF) in the GDR . Ilse Obrig had the idea for a television sandman in early 1958 after she switched from the DFF to the West Berlin SFB . Together with the doll designer and author Johanna Schüppel , Obrig developed a simple little hand puppet.

Our sandman in the DFF

When the TV makers of the German TV broadcaster in Berlin-Adlershof heard about the plans for the SFB under the then TV boss Walter Heynowski , the DFF developed its own concept at short notice. The stage and costume designer Gerhard Behrendt was commissioned to create the desired Sandmann figure in just two weeks with extensive stop-motion animation. Diethild Dräger designed the figures using movable metal skeletons in the DFF doll workshop.

The first episode ran on November 22, 1959 in the DFF. After the work was done, the Sandman fell asleep on a street corner in the first episode. The broadcast of this scene led to protests from parents. Many children are said to have offered their beds to the Sandman in letters.

In the summer of 1960 the Sandman figure got its final shape with a size of 24 cm, a pointed cap and the long, white goatee that is typical to this day. The sandman is the same size as the children playing along with it. The producing studio was in Berlin-Mahlsdorf until the fall of the Berlin Wall . The backdrops and the numerous vehicles were built by Harald Serowski , who over the years provided the little sandman with over 300 means of transport, from passenger cars to commercial and rail vehicles to a space rocket.

As a result, Sandman episodes were created with a wide range of content - everyday scenes, the Sandman's journeys to distant (mostly socialist) countries and also into space (including the Sandman with the Lunochod on the moon), fairytale scenes, but also scenes with strong political content , such as visits by the Sandman to the National People's Army , the border troops on the Oder and Neisse or the pioneer camp . The Sandman had an extensive fleet of vehicles, some with very conventional, some with very futuristic vehicles. During the Leipzig trade fair in 1970 it appeared with a new kind of high-flyer against the backdrop of the Leipzig university giant . The license plates of the vehicles always start with the initials "PU" for doll studio, followed by digits based on the production numbers. When the sandman arrived in one episode with a hot air balloon, there was trouble with party officials - two days earlier, two families had fled from Thuringia to Bavaria with a self-made hot air balloon.

In all of the stories there is an imaging device or something similar, which is zoomed in after the sandman is greeted, which starts the nightly bedtime story. Until a few years after German reunification , the word Abendgruß appeared on the screen at the beginning of the story in the original school font . As an introduction to each broadcast, the announcement was also published in the school original, our sandman is about to come . At the end of each episode, the Sandman sprinkles a handful of sleeping sand out of his little sack as a flickering cloud, whereupon the children rub their eyes, and then waves goodbye to the audience.

The evening greeting at the time of the DFF

In the short films (Abendgruß) , which were included in the framework story, numerous characters appeared: for example Pittiplatsch and Schnatterinchen (a goblin and a duck) as well as Moppi (a dog), Mr Fuchs and Mrs Elster , Flax and Krümel , Kasperle and Gretel , Annemarie and Brummel, Pünktchen and Felix, Rolf and Reni, Borstel (a hedgehog), or later Plumps (a water goblin) and the chick achieved cult status . Others were, for example, from November 23, 1955, Master Postage Stamp (Heino Winkler), Taddeus Punkt und Struppi, Master Nadelöhr ( Eckart Friedrichson ) or Frau Puppendoktor Pille (which led to parental complaints because of the rhyme "Frau Puppendoktor Pill with the big, smart glasses") which is why this was changed to "with the big round glasses"). Many of these characters also appeared in other children's programs on GDR television such as Visiting Fairy Tale Land .

The evening greeting stories followed a fixed weekly schedule. Some stories stayed on the same day of the week for decades (for example on Friday, Saturday and Sunday). In the 1980s, the weekly story schedule was something like this:

  • Mon: different (1980s: traffic compass (children's version) with boot & compass caliper )
  • Di: Stories tell of joy and hard work - professions are presented in a child-friendly manner
  • Wed: different (1980s: Frau Puppdoktor Pill , Pünktchen and Felix , Taddeus Punkt , Gertrud and Buddelflink )
  • Thu: Plumps (since 1986)
  • Fr: Liederspielplatz - children play and sing, from 1988 also Ulf and Zwulf
  • Sa: Pittiplatsch and Schnatterinchen in fairytale land with Moppi
  • So: Mr. Fuchs and Mrs. Elster

The usual evening greeting story was dispensed with on the television of the GDR if a high state and party functionary in the GDR or in allied countries had died. In their place, musicians were then shown playing funeral music.

Development after 1990

Immediately after the fall of the Wall in the GDR, a new program schedule had to be decided on for the former GDR television, because from December 1990 the DFF could only broadcast one instead of two programs. The DFF became a legal entity under Article 36 of the Unification Treaty and was to be dissolved by December 31, 1991 at the latest. The DFF 1 program was discontinued and the frequencies were used for Erste Deutsche Fernsehen . DFF 2 became the "DFF country chain". The viewing habits of the audience were taken into account and the broadcast date of the Sandman at 6:50 p.m. in the DFF country chain and a second date in the ARD regional program on the frequencies of the former DFF 1 were recorded.

There were rumors that they wanted to forego the continuation of the Sandman for cost reasons and were looking for a cheaper replacement. In addition, the sandman was canceled on Sunday, October 14, 1990, because there was extensive coverage of the first state elections in the five new federal states that took place on the same day . All of this together triggered a wave of protests directed primarily against the radio commissioner of the new federal states, Rudolf Mühlfenzl . He immediately denied these allegations and declared the continued existence of the Sandman beyond 1991 to be his personal concern. Thus, even when the DFF ceased broadcasting on December 31, 1991, the evening greeting was retained by viewers in the MDR and ORB .

As part of the division of tasks within the ARD , the ORB, and later the RBB, was entrusted with the production of Our Sandman . After the fall of the Wall, the Sandmann was produced by the newly founded Sandmann Studio Trickfilm GmbH , which first produced in the old studios in Mahlsdorf, then moved to Adlershof and finally to a glass studio in the Babelsberg Film Park.

Today the Sandmann runs in the MDR , in the RBB and especially since January 1st, 1997 in the KiKA . The well-known figures of the DFF sandman such as Pittiplatsch and Schnatterinchen or Mr Fuchs and Mrs Elster have been joined by new figures and series such as Kalli , Die Drei kleine Spürnasen , Die obercoole Südpolgang , Ebb and Flo , Rabe Socke , Miffy and Der kleine König . Figures of the West German Sandman, discontinued in 1989, such as Piggeldy and Frederick , have also been included in our Sandman's program . In addition to repetitions of politically neutral and newly set Sandman episodes of the DFF, new framework plots with the Sandman were also produced. Since 1999 these have not been produced as pure puppet cartoons, but also with the help of computer animation. The sandman no longer travels to peoples of the world, but mostly in fantasy or animal worlds.

With the merger of the ORB and SFB to form the RBB , Unser Sandmännchen became a co-production of the RBB, MDR and NDR, with the RBB taking over the lead. This has been broadcasting the Sandman since September 2007 in the 16: 9 format. MDR and KiKA followed suit.

In Babelsberg Film Park The Sandman, its history, its vehicles and the above figures from the fairy tale forest was twelve years dedicated a large exhibition. Since autumn 2009, on the occasion of the sandman's 50th birthday, the exhibition has been in the Filmmuseum Potsdam . In April 2010, a new exhibition opened in the Babelsberg Film Park , dealing with the Sandman film The Sandman - Adventure in Dreamland .

In 2006, the children's channel of the Arab news broadcaster Al Jazeera acquired 78 episodes of the Sandman from RBB. However, Al Jazeera ended the acceptance of the broadcast material in connection with the dispute over the Islam statements of Pope Benedict XVI.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the series, the RBB broadcast a 90-minute special on November 22, 2019 at 8:15 p.m. entitled 60 Years of Sweet Dreams - Through Time With the Sandman .

The Sandman Song

Beginning of the sandman song

In the great hurry in which the program was being prepared, the composer Wolfgang Richter allegedly had the text, which was written by Walter Krumbach , dictated over the phone and created the melody in just one evening in three hours. Experts considered the song to be too complicated for children and was therefore only intended as a stopgap solution.

At the time of GDR television, the song had two verses before the evening greeting and one verse after the evening greeting. In the shortened version (a stanza before the short film) it is still used today. With the German reunification, the second stanza of the Sandmann song was omitted, since television radio is mentioned there, which was disbanded a short time later.

Sandman variants from other broadcasters

The sandman of the SFB in the Museum for Communication Frankfurt

The Sandman the SFB was on December 1, 1959 nine days after the launch of its counterparts in the DFF for the first time in, in the Federal Republic of German television of ARD broadcast. The sandman came floating in with a cloud, or with an aircraft, the orange body of which was modeled on the Porsche 908/03 racing car , and said: “Well, dear children, take care, I brought you something.” The sandman- The doll was animated by Rosemarie Küssner . The broadcast was discontinued on March 31, 1989.

In the 1960s and 1970s, WDR also broadcast a sandman program in its third program. In the 1970s there was a program on WDR television called Sandmännchen international , in which the framework story was not filmed as a puppet trick, but with real actors.

In Austria there was the same figure as on ARD, but instead of the "Sandmännchen-Lied", the Wolkenwagerl-Männchen , known in the Alpine republic as Betthupferl , came to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata in A major, KV 331 , beginning of the 1st movement, Andante grazioso , traveled to the 1960s and 1970s living room. The children shouldn't pay attention to “fine” either, but “good”, and at the end it was said “Goodbye and good night”.

The Soviet variant “Good night, you little ones!” ( Russian Спокойной ночи, малыши! ) Started in 1964.

From 1968 until the late 1970s, Swiss television broadcast the program “ De Tag isch vergange ”.

Awards

Merchandising

Sandmann on the Rathausbrücke in Erfurt (seat of the KiKA )
Sculpture of the Sandman by Thomas Lindner in front of Masurenallee 16, in Berlin-Westend
Sandman toy doll, 1970s

There were (already in the GDR) and are numerous merchandising products for the Sandman, including dolls and a series of postcards with the title The Sandman on the Road .

The writer and playwright Rudi Strahl wrote the children's book Sandmännchen on the Leuchtturminsel in 1963 - shortly after the evening greeting began to be broadcast - which was illustrated by Eberhard Binder and is still published today by the children's book publisher Berlin . However, the book is not based directly on the television character of the sandman.

After the fall of the Wall, the Sandman, like the Ampelmännchen, became an important advertising medium for the Ostalgie wave and several East German companies advertised and advertised their products with the East Sandman. Thus, the produced Thuringian dairy company Osterland in the 1990s Abendgruß -Kinderjoghurt different on the lids Sandmann motifs were seen. In the mid-1990s, several CDs were released under the title Sandmanns Dummies , on which striking sayings by GDR characters were underlaid with techno . Among them were the CDs Oh you my nose with Pittiplatsch and Schnatterinchen as well as The fox goes through the forest with Mr. Fox and Mrs. Elster.

Many episodes of Our Sandman have now been released on DVD.

Sandman episodes and other material have also been offered free of charge via an app for smartphones and tablet computers since October 2012 . On November 11, 2015, an app for the iPhone and iPad was published under the title "Sandman's Dream Journey".

Our sandman in the cinema

literature

  • Wolfgang Hensel, Gerd J. Pohl (preface): Kasper's way from east to west . Memories of the Pirna puppeteers. Roehl, Dettelbach 2008, ISBN 978-3-89754-301-0 ( a reading excerpt PDF 26 pages 2.25 MB - memoirs of the real creator of the Sandman (West)).
  • Volker Petzold: The sandman . Everything about our TV star. Edel Edition, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-941378-06-3 .
  • Volker Petzold: The great east-west sandman lexicon . 1st edition. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg (vbb), Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86650-475-2 .
  • Christoph Classen (2009): The Sandman. In: Martin Sabrow (Ed.): Memories of the GDR. Munich: CH Beck, pp. 342-350.

Video

  • Gerhard Behrendt (director): Where does the Sandman live? With an adventure from Plumps, episode 3. In: Our sandman, episodes 1–3 . Karussell-Musik-und-Video-GmbH / Pocket-Money-Video, Hamburg 1995 ( VHS video cassette, 50 minutes).
  • Gerhard Behrendt (director): Our little sandman . Dream box. Sony Music Entertainment , Munich 2008 (174 minutes, 3 DVDs ). and numerous other DVD episodes

Real film productions

First shipment title series Director
20th July 1975 Rostock I City images Ernst Cantzler
August 6, 1975 Rostock II City images Ernst Cantzler
March 21, 1977 chimney sweeper Parent portrait Ernst Cantzler
April 3, 1984 Mirror cover jobs Ernst Cantzler
5th September 1990 Dog groomer jobs Ernst Cantzler

Web links

Commons : Sandman  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Petzold: The Sandman as a fable figure and media star. In: Digital cultural anthropology. Retrieved December 12, 2017 .
  2. ↑ East and West Sandman together in the museum . In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 3, 2008
  3. Jump up on November 12, 2019
  4. ^ Oberhof: Sandmann, dear Sandmann , insuedthueringen.de, accessed on November 22, 2019
  5. ↑ Heike Kunert: Sandman's campaign. Die Zeit, August 27, 2009.
  6. ↑ On the subject: automobiles. In: sandmann.de. Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg , accessed on November 18, 2017 .
  7. ↑ The Sandman turns 60: Cult among young and old , Berliner Morgenpost , November 21, 2019
  8. ↑ Our sandman. Historical calendar: Ulf and Zwulf. Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg , archived from the original on June 26, 2014 ; accessed on February 24, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Our very own sandman on kulturnation.de
  10. ↑ Pope stops the expansion of the sandman ( memento of December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) in the Netzeitung , September 26, 2006
  11. ↑ Special broadcast 60 years of sweet dreams - With the Sandman through time on November 22, 2019 in the RBB
  12. ↑ Two-stanza text of the sandman song ( Memento from December 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), on magistrix.de
  13. ↑ Sheet music of the Sandman song (East) as a PDF file
  14. ↑ welt-des-wissens.com 50 years of children's television on welt-des-wissens.com
  15. ↑ Mozart Piano Sonata in A major, KV 331 ( MID ; 61 kB) - Sandman music on ORF
  16. ↑ Gold / platinum database of the Federal Association of the Music Industry, accessed on November 8, 2015
  17. ↑ Sandman's Dream Travel Website