Wawuschels
The Wawuschels are mythical creatures from the children's book The Wawuschels with the Green Hair by Irina Korschunow . The book was published in 1967 and is about the mythical creatures who are very small, have bright green hair and live in a cave in a mountain in the forest.
Her favorite dish is pine cone jam; They also make jam from all kinds of other fruits. They cook these with the help of a three-headed dragon that serves as a stove. The dragon is brought in with the following saying:
- Fire, fire, feurio,
- heat the kettle so and so,
- burn warm and bright,
- Fire, fire, Feurio.
The Wawuschel family
Wischel , a girl. She is very clever and, as a result of a short stay with the otherwise very feared people, can read, which is why she is also responsible for using the magic book. Wischel is curious, friendly, and helpful, but a little timid.
Wuschel , her brother. Unlike his sister, he cannot read (girls prefer that) and is not that smart either. However, he is more curious and courageous than she is, even reckless, and since he also tends to brag, he likes to tease his sister about what a scaredy she is. This often leads to the fact that he and she maneuver themselves into a dangerous situation from which they can only get out by working together. In retrospect, he always realizes that his sister is actually right and is capable of repentance (which, however, never lasts very long).
The Wawuschelmother , mother of Wischel and Wuschel, apparently doesn't have a name of her own. Her most outstanding trait is that she always has to whine, even when everything is okay. (If they do not have compassion, something not . OK) Otherwise she is very caring and generally the good soul of the family. She makes the most delicious jams, otherwise takes care of supplies and generally keeps the family together.
The Wawuschelvater is her husband. Unlike his wife, he doesn't complain all the time, but tends to get angry in return. He is a very loving father, but still strict and does not hesitate to punish his children for their pranks and stupidities. His passion is collecting; he collects everything he finds on his walks in the forest, mainly things that people have left there. Although he tries hard to learn, he cannot read.
The Wawuschel uncle is by far the most unsympathetic family member. He is a pessimist and always in a bad mood, which is evident from the fact that his hair is falling out. The only activity that satisfies him in the long run is to smoke a pipe. For this purpose he cultivates a small tobacco field; but because he is very lazy and prefers to do nothing but sit in his corner and smoke, he sometimes has no tobacco, which of course only increases his bad mood.
The Wawuschel grandmother is the oldest member of the family and the mother of the Wawuschel mother. You own the spellbook. But since she is very old and very forgetful, she cannot read (although she was once able to) and has only one (the above mentioned) saying in her memory. She is very quirky and scared, her voice very squeaky, but basically she is just as friendly and helpful as all the other Wawuschels (with the exception of the uncle).
More characters
The dragon has served the Wawuschels as a living hearth ever since the real one broke down when a tunnel was blown. As mentioned, he has three heads and can speak. He is a friendly character who is very fond of the Wawuschels and protects them from the Mamoffel. Another important feature is that he does not eat anything, but only "consumes" the smell of food. His favorite scent is that of jam.
The Mamoffel , a kind of voracious fur monster who wants to eat away the jam from the Wawuschels. His peculiar way of speaking is characteristic of him, because he replaces almost every vowel with an "ä". (“Oh, I’ll do it all night”.) Although he makes a rather stupid impression, the Mamoffel is quite intelligent.
The corks , thick, rounded figures who, like the Wawuschels, live in a cave, but in contrast to them, have no hearth, which is therefore their greatest wish. (In the end they get one conjured up by Wischel.) Otherwise, the corks are characterized by the fact that they pronounce almost every vowel as "o": "Dos sond onsere Nochborn", by which they mean the Kirkse , which in contrast to the corks, with to whom they live in friendly contact are very thin, but otherwise resemble them. The Kirkse speak in the I dialect (“Dis are insere Nichbirn!”); their greatest desire is to have wings to fly. Like the corks, they take part in the fight against the Mamoffel.
The Zazischels resemble the Kirksen in terms of shape, but, unlike them, do not live in the forest, but in a cave on the Zazischelsee adjacent to the Wawuschels. They feed on the fish that live in them and have as their secret ally the greyhound , which can cause storms with its wagging tail. The Zazischels are passive opponents of the Wawuschels, who they want to throw the fish to eat so that they become fatter. However, they never attack. Their characteristic feature is the constant use of the consonant "z" (Zfette Zfische) in their language.
The human girl with the yellow braids is never mentioned by name. It is Wischel's friend and helps her to get by in the human world. Wischel learns to read from her - and gets to know a new kind of jam: apple jelly.
The Wawuschels and television
In the early 1970s Herbert K. Schulz produced several seasons of the Wawuschels for the Sandman (West) in his Berlin company ffp-cinetrick . Usually on Saturdays, the cheeky wuschel with Wischel, his fearful sister, would move across the screen or through Berlin's Grunewald . The filming location was mostly a small pond near the Brücke Museum . Some episodes were filmed in the Glienicker Volkspark (with a lot of public traffic) near the Glienicker Bridge . Oversized stones (boulders) made of expanded polystyrene formed the stage, background and entrance to the Wawuschel cave. They looked so real that the cameraman and director Mario Gerstenberg, in a situation where there was no car to transport them back to the studio, decided to hide the "boulders" overnight in thick bushes in an unobserved moment . The next day, the puppeteers Benita Steinmann and Ulrich Staps were unemployed: Despite the intensive search by the assistant director Senta Moira , the huge stones remained missing. Somebody "found them away" overnight and the Wawuschels were temporarily homeless.
The Wawuschels and the theater
Since March 2015 there has been a stage adaptation of Die Wawuschels with the green hair , which was created by Martin Chlupka.
The Wawuschel books
- Irina Korschunow: The Wawuschels with the green hair paperback, dtv junior, Munich. ISBN 978-3-423-07164-2
- Irina Korschunow: News from the Wawuschels with the green hair paperback, dtv junior, Munich. ISBN 978-3-423-70003-0
- Irina Korschunow: The great Wawuschel book hardcover, dtv junior, Munich. ISBN 978-3-423-71325-2
- Irina Korschunow: The television sandman tells: Wischel and Wuschel (The Wawuschel children and the mouse + The Wawuschel children and the racing car) Spectrum Verlag, Stuttgart 1971. ISBN 3797610726