Pumuckl

Pumuckl is a Kobold from a German radio play series for children. He is a descendant of the Klabautermänner.He is invisible for people around him except for the master carpenter Eder with whom Pumuckl lives.

Pumuckl was invented by Ellis Kaut for a radio play series of the Bavarian Radio in 1961. Later on it was turned into a very successful TV series. Three movies and a musical also deal with the adventures of the little kobold.

Pumuckl is one of the most popular characters of children's entertainment in Germany and several generations have now grown up with the cheeky but funny little pest.

How Pumuckl and Master Eder met

Being a descendant of the Klabautermann people, who were sailors, Pumuckl loves sailboats. However he got lost in Bavaria, where no ships are to be found. He doesn't like neat and clean places, so he takes refuge in a woodworker's untidy workshop. The workshop belongs to Master Eder, an elderly loner. His profession is given as „Schreinermeister“ in the original German, which means that he mainly makes and repairs furniture, which is also shown on the show (and mentioned in the stories/ radio plays). However, the fact that the workshop is untidy seals Pumuckl's fate. He gets stuck to an overflowing pot of glue. And whenever someone of his kind gets stuck to something manmade, he or she becomes visible, and according to the rules of his ancestors, must stay with the human who is able to see him, in this case Master Eder. On the show and in the books, Pumuckl is always visible if nobody other than Master Eder is present. However, he turns invisible if other people come along.

Pumuckl's character

Pumuckl‘s character is usually childishly immature and mischievous. Since the Pumuckl stories are aimed at children, we may presume that he was written this way so that children can identify themselves with him. Note: Pumuckl‘s age is never mentioned. He had a life before he became visible, but it was much different. He didn‘t have to eat (not to mention defecation) and was immune to cold and heat. Maybe we are to presume that his „sticking to the glue pot“ was a kind of re-birth, and that he in fact is a child.

Master Eder sees Pumuckl as a child and usually appears as his guardian. He often tries to teach him some morals, not always with the desired result. For example he never really subdued Pumuckl‘s urge to steal things. But that, on the other hand, could be a hereditary trait of his kind.

Pumuckl is occasionally very selfish, and sometimes this leads him to actual wrong doing. But if Pumuckl notices he has done somebody wrong (usually a child or a lonely woman), then he feels genuine remorse and does everything he can to help that person.

In the audio plays and TV show, Pumuckl was voiced by actor Hans Clarin.

Master Eder

He appears to be the exact opposite of Pumuckl. The little kobold likes to get in trouble, but the elderly joiner prefers to stay out of trouble. Sometimes it seems that he prefers to stay out of society, too, as he spends lots of time with Pumuckl. But that is not always true: he has a couple of friends, elderly artisans like himself, which he regularly meets at his „Stammtisch“ to have a beer with them.Master Eder, whose Christian name is given as „Franz“ on the TV show, has a sister and a young nephew. There seems to be a little conflict between him and his sister (concerning his way of life) and the nephew appears as a rival to Pumuckl in one story. Other family members are not mentioned.Although his workshop is often in disorder, Master Eder likes a clean house and this is why he has a cleaning lady, who serves as a supporting character in several stories.Being Pumuckl‘s opposite, Master Eder is presented as a law-abiding citizen who is meticulous on the job and who is always polite. He also completely fails to have sympathy with Pumuckl when the latter steals things. When the little kobold plays a minor practical joke, his behavior is sometimes condoned by Eder, because it made him laugh or think.

In the TV show, Bavarian actor Gustl Bayrhammer played Master Eder.

Bavarian Culture

Something that may be hard for a non-German - or even non-Bavarian - to understand is that "Pumuckl" often features themes which may be deemed unsuitable for children outside of Bavaria or Germany. For example, the adults frequently engage in smoking and drinking and are shown drunk more than a few times. This is because "Wirtshäuser" (bavarian taverns) have always played a huge part of Bavarian culture and so beer and, indeed, smoking were often associated with coziness and friendship of a regular's table ("Stammtisch") until smoking was complete banned in Bavarian restaurants in 2008. So, Pumuckl's liking for drinking beer despite him essentially mirroring a small boy comes from the fact that adults often allow(ed) their (not too small) children a sip of beer from their glasses.

Furthermore, swearwords ranging from "goddamn" to "crap" (most of the time not used as an interjection but rather as an adjective, "Sein's so scheißfreundlich" (translates to something like "be that nice, crap"), used by a slightly sarcastic Meister Eder on a telephone speaking to a client) sometimes feature in the show. This is, again, due to Bavarian culture, which has always had included a somewhat bawdy language. Thus "crap" is often a regular part of speech used by adults and children alike and is not considered foul-mouthed.

A typical Pumuckl story

There are several ways for a Pumuckl story to begin. These include:

* Pumuckl feels bored in the workshop, so Master Eder tells him to go out to explore, but not get into trouble.
* Pumuckl is bored and sneaks out of the workshop. He meets the people in the neighborhood, eavesdrops on them and occasionally plays a practical joke on them.
* A client enters the workshop who has something Pumuckl fancies.
* A client enters the workshop and discovers a belonging of Pumuckls; he/she wants to purchase at all cost.
* A conflict between Master Eder and his sister or his cleaning woman is shown.
* Master Eder and Pumuckl go for a holiday trip.
* Master Eder is ridiculed by somebody and Pumuckl tries to help him.
* Master Eder presents Pumuckl with a gift (e.g. on the anniversary of the „glue pot sticking“)Note: Usually this ends with the gift being withdrawn.
* Pumuckl discovers something in Master Eder‘s household (e.g. matches) and plays with it.

At the end of each episode, Pumuckl and Master Eder usually reconcile. However, some episodes end with Pumuckl being punished. At the end of one episode, Eder confines Pumuckl to the balcony and eats the spoilt pudding alone. Other episodes end with Eder‘s withdrawal of something he gave to the little kobold. The two-part story „Der große Krach“ (aka „The Big Fight“) has the first part ending with Eder throwing Pumuckl and his bed out of the workshop. But by the end of the second part the two have reconciled.

Pumuckl Controversy

According to Reuters News, April 11, 2007, Ellis Kaut was going to court in a dispute over the impending marriage of Pumuckl. The illustrator, Barbara von Johnson, is supporting a local TV show's contest to design a girlfriend for Pumuckl. The winner will get to visit von Johnson's Munich villa and take part in a "wedding" staged for the popular fictional character.

According to the same Reuters article, Von Johnson said Pumuckl deserves a girlfriend but, Kaut said the character must stay true to his spirit nature.

According to Spiegel Online, Januar 10. 2008 the verdict was: Pumuckl may marry - at least he could now if he wanted to. [ [http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/leute/0,1518,527819,00.html Urteil: Pumuckl darf heiraten - Panorama - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten 10. Januar 2008] ]

External links

* [http://www.pumuckl.de http://www.pumuckl.de]
* [http://www.pumucklhomepage.de/int.html http://www.pumucklhomepage.de/int.html]
* [http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1146041420070411?feedType=RSS Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:48am EDT > Creators fight over cartoon imp's right to wed | Oddly Enough | Reuters]

References